ABSTRACT
Iron Age Rock Art in Portugal is made by pecking and by incision, the first technique appearing on granite and on schist and the second on schist and on karstic caves. Typology is very diverse, with naturalistic and schematic examples of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, weapons, geometric motifs, and some symbols. It raises chronological problems since some figures “survive” since the Early Bronze Age (or even before) until the end of the Iron Age. Besides these “old” figures there are “new” cases regarding the consolidation of complex societies, where warriors had an important role, manifested in the engravings from the end of the 1st millennium BCE.
The examples presented in this text come from five main areas: 1. Northwest; 2. Northeast; 3. Central Portugal; 4. Tagus Valley; and 5. Guadiana Valley, all with engravings from different archaeological contexts and belonging to different cultures.
Since the last 20 years have produced a large amount of data regarding Iron Age Rock Art in Portugal, which is difficult to summarise in only a chapter, only some of the most interesting cases of rock art sites from these areas are mentioned. The author selects mainly the information that can be taken from their engravings, which may be considered as a true source of History, contributing for a better understanding of the symbolic ways of thought during that period.
