Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Early Peoples
One of Europe's earliest settlements, the Iberian Peninsula was first inhabited many millen-
nia ago, when hominids wandered across the landscape some time before 200,000 BC.
During the Palaeolithic period, early Portuguese ancestors left traces of their time on earth
in the fascinating stone carvings in the open air near Vila Nova de Foz Côa in the Alto
Douro. These date back some 30,000 years and were only discovered by accident, during a
proposed dam building project in 1992. Other signs of early human artistry lie hidden in the
Alentejo, in the Gruta do Escoural, where cave drawings of animals and humans date back
to around 15,000 BC.
Homo sapiens weren't the only bipeds on the scene. Neanderthals coexisted alongside
modern humans in a few rare places like Portugal for as long as 10,000 years. In fact, some
of the last traces of their existence were found in Iberia.
Neanderthals were only the first of a long line of inhabitants to appear (and later disap-
pear) from the Iberian stage. In the 1st millennium BC Celtic people started trickling into
the Iberian Peninsula, settling northern and western Portugal around 700 BC. Dozens of
citânias (fortified villages) popped up, such as the formidable Citânia de Briteiros. Further
south, Phoenician traders, followed by Greeks and Carthaginians, founded coastal stations
and mined metals further inland .
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