A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO ROCK ART SHELTER OF PALA PINTA
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Lima, Paulo ; Pires, Hugo ; Pereira, Luís Bravo Pessoa, Tiago ; Fernandes, João ; Ramos, Normando
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Centro de Estudos em Arqueologia, Artes e Ciências do Património Faculdade Letras U. Porto
Centro de Investigação em Ciências Geo-Espaciais da Faculdade de Ciências U. Porto e Superfície, L.da
Escola das Artes, U. Católica Portuguesa
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da U. de Coimbra.
Departamento de Matemática, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da U. de Coimbra
Administrador da Metais Jaime Dias, SA
This communication presents the results obtained in the framework of a multidisciplinary approach taken
to the set of schematic paintings from prehistoric shelter of Pala Pinta, Alijó, in the Portuguese region of
Trás -os- Montes in the northwest of the Iberian peninsula.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance and applicability in specific contexts involving the
rock art of non-intrusive digital methodologies for the detection, chemical analysis, survey, registration
and graphic documentation of this art.
The use of digital / multi-spectral photography has allowed us to achieve results that substantially
improved the accuracy with which we can observe the paintings and has led not only to the detection of a
novel motif as to reset the contours of other depiction of the composition. Chemical analysis of paintings
by the method of X-ray fluorescence allowed the identification of Fe with its colouring element.
Furthermore, the 3D scanning has made possible the integration of depictions and rock support in a single
three-dimensional interactive platform, allowing us to examine systematically and from multiple
perspectives the figurative scheme, improving the possibility of establishing the correct spatial
relationship between motives and how to analyze any unintended associations to certain geological
features displayed by the support.
The results achieved with the combined application of these methodologies have opened them so the
possibility to better understand and support our proposed interpretation for the composition of the shelter.
The presence of several steliforms in the composition has lead to a broad consensus interpretation, around
the archaeological community, as probable evocations of our star. However, its iconic resemblance to the
various aspects that a comet can develop during a sighting, led us to conclude that the differences in
configuration, size and arrangement can be related to various stages of development of such an event.
Furthermore, some geological features of the shelter seam to establish a relation between the paintings
and the landscape, alerting us to the possibility of the society that decided to make these depictions have
intentionally attempted to establish a direct correlation between his astronomical conjectures and the
territory of their experiences. Although aware of the low probability of success in finding a comet among
those of which we have the orbital parameters, it did not dissuade us from trying to find among them
those that, once we reversed their orbits, one could establish a coherent link between their path under the
sky shelter and its possible evocation in paintings. This demand, allowed us to find four comets in the
period between 5500 BC and the year 0, in which the development of the various stages of their eventual
sighting occurred within the field of the sky that can be seen from the shelter.