CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PREHISTORIC CAVE ART OF THE CAVE OF ESCOURAL(PORTUGAL) - SYNTHESIS AND PROBLEMS

The only decorated cave known in Portugal is the cave of Escoural. Thi s cave has about one hundred figures and puts in light different probl ems. First, the deterioration of the figures with the concretions and with the diffusion of the colours don't make the lecture easy. Then, w ithout mobile context and radiocarbon dates, we must use stylistic, th ematical and technical comparisons with the prehistoric cave art or wi th rock art of other Spanish, French and Portuguese caves or sites: La Griega, La Pasiega, Le Parpallo, Domingo Garcia... in Spain, Ebbou... in France and Coa Valley in Portugal. These comparisons allow us to n ote local particularities like the two encased horses heads and to att ribute the figurative themes and some of the geometric signs to a Midd le-Late Solutrean, even if some other non figurative themes can be als o found in the Magdalenian and if a post-Palaeolithic stage cannot be excluded. A relative chronology, based upon the study of several overl appings, has been built up.