sorry for cross-posting

Mila Simoes de Abreu schrieb:
> Thursday, 3 May 2001
>
> Rock-Art Discovery in the Alqueva Dam Zone of the River Guadiana in
> Spain and Portugal
>
> The International Federation of Rock Art Organizations applauds the
> important discovery of rock-engravings by the river Guadiana in Spain
> and Portugal, in a zone that will be flooded by the Alqueva dam.
>
> A Spanish archaeologist disclosed the rock engravings in Spain early
> last April at a course on European prehistoric art, held at the
> Polytechnic of Tomar (IPT) in Portugal. His talk was on fieldwork
> carried out at Cheles during January and February this year.
>
> IFRAO rock-art researchers  promptly went to Cheles and confirmed the
> importance of the discovery. The Spanish archaeologist sent them a
> report, which they forwarded to the president of the Federation.
>
> An absence of similar engravings further downstream in Portugal
> puzzled the researchers. There was not any presentation about
> engravings like these at last February's archaeology colloquium of
> the Alqueva Development and Infrastructure Enterprise (EDIA), the
> agency building the dam that also handles the archaeology and other
> impact studies.
>
> Then the Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (LPN), a nature protection
> league founded in 1948, received an anonymous tip-off about
> engravings just like those of Cheles, except they were spread along
> ten kilometres by the Guadiana river in Portugal.
>
> In response, members of Movimento Cota 139, a movement aiming to
> limit the level of the Alqueva dam reservoir level to 139 metres,
> went to see the engravings on Wednesday 25 April (Portugal's Liberty
> Day) and called in Manuel Calado, an archaeologist from the
> University of Lisbon.
>
> An environmental Web site called Ambiente Online broke the news of
> the engravings on Thursday evening, 26 April. Next morning, the rest
> of the Portuguese mass media pounced on the scoop.
>
>   Position of IFRAO
>
> Although people from the international scientific community are
> delighted by the discovery, they are also very concerned because the
> dam is nearly finished and it will be difficult to avoid the
> destruction of this important rock-art area.
>
> IFRAO, with thousands of amateurs and specialists on five continents
> that belong to the Federation's organisations, now calls for the
> prompt nomination of a genuinely independent international commission
> to follow the situation and ensure international participation in the
> exploration and documentation of the rock-art area.
>
> The Federation considers the plight of the Guadiana rock-art area to
> be far worse than that of the Côa rock-art area, in Portugal, in
> 1994-5 for the following reasons: -
>   Work on the dam is nearing completion.
>   It seems that the lesson of Côa dam was completely forgotten,
> resulting in an appalling threat to or loss of the rock-art and a
> massive burden on citizens and taxpayers that pay the colossal cost
> of such mistaken projects.
>   Today there are bodies that did not exist in 1994: IPA (Instituto
> Português de Arqueologia), the Portuguese Institute of Archaeology;
> and CNART (Centro Nacional de Arte Rupestre), the National Centre of
> Rock-Art. These bodies are responsible for keeping an inventory and
> register of all rock-art in the country and advancing the
> conservation and public awareness of it (law no. 117/97, 14 May 1997).
>   IPA and CNART should have been constantly inspecting what EDIA was
> doing. As the current president of IPA, Prof. Dr. João Zilhão, was
> severely critical of a similar situation during the fight to save the
> Côa rock-art area, IFRAO fails to understand why he does not
> resign-so showing his total opposition to the destruction of the
> Guadiana rock-art area.
>   IFRAO upholds the protection, study, and public awareness of
> rock-art on all continents, irrespective of its age or connected
> traditions. We are therefore once again deeply concerned that an
> attributed age is once again being used as criteria in determining
> the importance of rock-art and whether or not it is worth protecting.
>
> Rock-art areas like the Guadiana, stretching two kilometres in Spain
> and ten in Portugal, are always of great value and importance. If
> claims that most of the engravings are Neolithic (New Stone Age)
> prove to be true, this corpus would be quite rare because there is
> very little rock-art in Europe attributed as Neolithic-Chalcolithic
> (Copper and Stone Age). Corresponding epochs only exist in
> Valcamónica, Italy (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Mont Bego, France.
>
>   Position of IFRAO (ctd)
>
> IFRAO asks the Prime Minister and Minister of the Culture in Portugal
> to consider the following points: -
>   A need for timely action to do everything possible to investigate
> the engravings with the most appropriate and up-to-date methodology
> and with adequate time to do so, even if this means delaying or
> suspending the filling of the dam reservoir.
>   The merit of creating a genuinely independent international
> commission to assess the importance and value of the rock-art. Aside
> from questions over the competence of IPA, CNART and EDIA, the
> commission should not fall under these or other state bodies-thus
> helping to ensure the integrity of the commission is not compromised.
>    State bodies cannot be both players and referees. This was one of
> the most heavily criticised aspects of the Côa syndrome.
>   IFRAO has formed an emergency delegation with specialists from four
> continents to follow the situation. It would be extremely beneficial
> if this delegation were part of an enlarged commission with
> representatives of Portuguese universities, archaeology associations
> and other groups.
>   IFRAO can promptly indicate suitable specialists to organise
> training courses for all the archaeologists and students who will be
> needed for the tremendous effort a time sensitive investigation
> requires.
>   We remember the political courage shown by the Prime Minister,
> António Guterres, in saving the Côa rock-art area. To enable
> constructive dialogue, IFRAO requests an audience with the Prime
> Minister and his Excellency, the President of Portugal.
>
> Finally, IFRAO wants to tell people in Portugal they can and should
> be proud of this discovery.
>
> When people respect the past, there is hope for the future.
>
>
> Mila Simões of Abreu
> Representative in Portugal of IFRAO
>
> Archaeology Unit
> Department of Geology
> University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD)
> Portugal
>
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> ICQ:    8134563
> Phone:    254 92 09 21
> Phone:    259 35 01 79 (weekdays only)
> Cell Phone: 96 295 56 08 (weekdays only)
>
>   Links
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4177255,00.html -
> Stone Age find will not halt dam - by Eduardo Gonçalves in Outeiro,
> Portugal and Giles Tremlett in Madrid - The Guardian, Saturday 28
> April 2001
> http://www.ambienteonline.pt/AANoticias/portal-noticia.asp?id=330&dia=
> &mes= - Há gravuras neolíticas no Alqueva - News scoop by João Rabaçã
> - Ambiente Online, Thursday 26 April 2001
> http://ultimahora.publico.pt/shownews.asp?idCanal=36&id=20647 -
> Descobertas gravuras rupestres na área do Alqueva - PÚBLICO Online,
> Friday April 27 2001
> http://jornal.publico.pt/publico/2001/04/28/Terra/THCAPA01.html -
> Figuras Rupestres Descobertas no Vale do Guadiana - by Carlos Dias -
> PÚBLICO, Saturday 28 April 2001
> http://ultimahora.publico.pt/shownews.asp?id=20913&idCanal=14
> "Instituto Português de Arqueologia e Centro Nacional de Arte
> Rupestre acusados de negligenciar Alqueva" PÚBLICO Online, Saturday
> 28 April, 2001
> http://www.ipa.min-cultura.pt/news/noticias/DecGuad - Descobertas de
> Arte Rupestre no Guadiana - Instituto Português de Arqueologia (N.B.,
> large picture files slows page loading)
> http://www.lpn.pt - Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (LPN), a nature
> protection league founded in 1948
>
> >
>


geoff carver
http://home.t-online.de/home/gcarver/
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