<< Our Photo Pages >> Gruta do Escoural - Cave or Rock Shelter in Portugal in Évora
Submitted by Magalhaes on Friday, 14 April 2006 Page Views: 19868
Natural PlacesSite Name: Gruta do Escoural Alternative Name: Santuário Exterior do Escoural, Povoado do Escoural, Estação arqueológica do EscouralCountry: Portugal Distrito: Évora Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Montemor-O-Novo Nearest Village: Santiago do Escoural
Latitude: 38.543600N Longitude: 8.13761W
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
TheCaptain saw from a distance on 13th Oct 2019 Next I go for a quick look at the Escoural caves, which are all fenced off and locked up, with a sign telling how to book a visit with at least 24 hours notice. Hey Ho.
Bak_teria visited on 28th Nov 2018 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5
rrmoser visited on 9th Jun 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 This is a very rare paleolithic cave with paintings and engravings. The evidence is fragmentary but still very much worth it. Excellent tour in english by reservation.
Catrinm visited on 13th Sep 2017 - their rating: Cond: 3 Access: 5 You can book a tour in advance for 3e from the escoural info office - well worth it. Needs a guide to show the images.. they're 20000 years old so bound to be faint !
Kuba visited - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 5
Magalhaes have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.75 Ambience: 4.33 Access: 4.75
Information by Bak_teria:
The archaeological site of Escoural includes an outdoor rock art sanctuary dating from the late Neolithic, a fortified settlement from the Copper Age, a tholos or megalithic tomb and a natural cave. Although the classification process was developed with the designation of an archaeological station, the cave and the tholos are in fact the focal point and the only classified elements of the whole. See also Tholos do Escoural.
Atention: The only way to visit this site is with a guided tour since it's closed to the public. You can book a guided tour at the Escoural Cave interpretation center (Centro Interpretativo da Gruta do Escoural).
About the Cave
The Escoural Cave is a natural cavity formed in a granite outcrop implanted in a wide range of limestone, in a zone of true crossroads located between the river basins of the Tejo and Sado rivers and the Alentejo peneplain. Found partially sealed by a thick stalagmitic mantle, it is made up of several rooms and galleries that testify, roughly, about 50,000 years of history, illustrated by the graphic representations realized in its interior.
Other valuable information
CNS: 160
The first human occupation phase
The first occupation dates back to the Middle Paleolithic when groups of Neanderthal hunter-gatherers used the Cave as a temporary shelter during hunting, whose main target would be aurochus, deer and horses, judging by the osteological traces found.
The second human occupation phase
During the Upper Paleolithic (35 000-8 000 BC), the space of the Cave was reused and a rock sanctuary was conceived by anatomically modern groups. It dates precisely from this time the use of the walls of its interior as a support for the realization of various artistic motifs, inserted in the vast universe of the so-called Prehistoric Art.
At the epicenter of these representations is always the faunistic element with special emphasis on the equidae and the bovidae, usually painted in black. Another set of incarnated components is still present with a symbolic charge that we can hardly interpret, because they are most likely connected to a very specific imagery and spirituality from which records have long been lost.
The third human occupation phase
It was only with the emergence of the Neolithic period (5,000 BC-3,000 BC) that this Cave was transformed into a graveyard for communities of farmers and pastoralists located in its vicinity. The funerary ritual consists of deposition on the surface of the dead inside, accompanied by a collection consisting of various artifacts such as ceramic vases, axes and polished stone adzes, flints and flakes in flint as well as different types of embellishments in bone and shell.
About the Castro
The fortified settlement of Escoural is located at the top of a prominent hill in the landscape at an altitude of 371 m at the top of the Escoural cave. The exploration and excavation works developed by Mário Varela Gomes and Rosa Varela Gomes in the 80s and 90s of the 20th century allowed the identification of levels of occupation and fortification structures (walls and a large circular turret) of Chalcolithic chronology (3rd millennium BC), which overlapped and took advantage of many of the decorated rocks. The collected archaeological materials are diversified corresponding mostly to fragments of ceramic containers (with emphasis on thickened and almond maple traces, vestiges of bell-shaped decoration), some loom-type loom components and fragments of spoons and cheese containers, arrows, fragments of cylindrical idols, traces of metallurgical activity (crucibles, castings, ore nodules), fragments of pounded clay and traces of mammalian fauna. The Chalcolithic structures and materials of the Escoural seem to refer to domestic contexts, but the location and the previous occupation characteristics (necropolis and artistic manifestations of the Neolithic final) could give it an important symbolic role in structuring the settlement of this territory. From the summer of 2017 new archaeological works have been developed in this archaeological site directed by Rui Mataloto and Ana Vale seeking its valorization and a greater patrimonial use for tourism.
Other valuable information
CNS: 2128
About the Outdoor Rock Art Sanctuary
At the top of this elevation and the middle slope the exploration and excavation works developed by Mário Varela Gomes and Rosa Varela Gomes, in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century allowed the identification of several blocks of limestone engraved with geometric motifs (circles, semicircles, lines , rectangles, zigzags or serpent like), zoomorphic representations as well as the representation of a car and a podomorph. The settlement chronologically framed in the 3rd millennium BC was built over these decorated rocks. The stylistic and stratigraphic analyzes of these engravings have allowed their chronological integration in the late Neolithic / Chalcolithic initial also with some motifs from the Bronze Age (such as the podomorph). The decoration of several of these panels is contemporaneous with the occupation of the Escoural cave as a necropolis (at the Neolithic final), evidencing the long attendance of this space and its symbolic importance for the several communities that inhabited this area of the Central Alentejo during Prehistory.
Other valuable information
CNS: 16049
Links and information sources (all texts written in Portuguese):
- Escoural Cave (Portal do Arqueólogo)
- Castro (Portal do Arqueólogo)
- Outdoor Rock Art Sanctuary (Portal do Arqueólogo)
- DGPC
Information by Magalhaes:
The seasoned traveller will find it not as interesting as Lascaux or Aracena but will not find that he lost his time either.
In town (Escoural) there's a very small museum you can visit or just skip, as the interesting pieces are said to be in Lisbon. Some engravings in rock (slate stone) and contemporary variations upon them are worth a look.
TIP:
You might include it if you are to visit the Almendres cromlech and menhir, the Zambujeiro mega-dolmen and the nearby S. Brissos dolmen-chapel. If you came from Guadalupe to S. Brissos, go back to Évora or Arraiolos by S. Sebastião da Giesteira on this same N370 and take a glimpse at the Anta do Pinheiro 2, on the roadside, on the right.
Note: You can book a guided tour by phone (266857000 / 266769800 / 266898103) or email (grutadoescoural@cultura-alentejo.pt).
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
524m ESE 115° Tholos do Escoural* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
1.3km SW 224° Anta da Carvoeira* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
2.2km SSE 161° Anta-Capela de Nossa Senhora do Livramento* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
3.6km ESE 123° Marco Miliário de São Brissos* Marker Stone
3.8km ESE 113° Anta Da Rocha 1 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
4.4km ESE 111° Anta Da Rocha 2 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
4.9km NE 41° Menir da Giesteira Standing Stone (Menhir)
5.8km SW 234° Anta do Olival 2 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
5.9km WSW 239° Anta do Olival 3* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
6.2km SW 230° Anta Do Olival 1* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
6.3km W 273° Anta da Malhada 1 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
6.8km W 280° Anta da Malhada 2 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
6.8km ENE 77° Cromeleque dos Almendres* Stone Circle
7.0km W 268° Anta da Nogueira* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
7.1km E 85° Menir no Vale dos Cardos Standing Stone (Menhir)
7.1km ESE 123° Vale de Rodrigo 1* Round Barrow(s)
7.2km SE 125° Conjunto Megalítico de Vale de Rodrigo* Barrow Cemetery
7.7km NE 39° Anta do Pinheiro 2* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
7.9km WSW 248° Anta Do Carapetal 2 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
7.9km SE 125° Vale de Rodrigo 3* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
8.1km NE 34° Pinheiro Do Campo 1* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
8.1km ENE 74° Menir dos Almendres* Standing Stone (Menhir)
8.2km WSW 258° Sepultura Do Escoural 3 Passage Grave
8.2km WSW 247° Anta Do Carapetal 1 Burial Chamber or Dolmen
8.4km WSW 256° Sepultura Do Escoural 2 Passage Grave
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