ESCOURAL CAVE

The Escoural cave is located in the municipality of Montemor-o-Novo and is the only known cave in the current Portuguese territory with cave paintings and engravings made in the Upper Palaeolithic.

Its discovery, in 1963, was due to the exploration of a quarry, and a Neolithic necropolis was found inside it. The first paintings were later discovered. It was classified as a National Monument in 1963.

Archaeological work revealed occupations from the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic to the Late Neolithic. The rock art is rich and varied with a wide range of painted and engraved symbolic motifs as well as representations of fauna, especially horses and bovids.

Escoural also stands out for being a key site for learning about the rock art of the hunter-gatherer groups of the Early Holocene.

Outside, on the elevation above the cave, there is a group of cave engravings and a small walled Chalcolithic settlement. Nearby is a Tholos (megalithic false-domed tomb).

It should be noted that there are important megalithic monuments in this area, such as the Dolmen Grande da Comenda da Igreja and, in the municipality of Évora, the Cromlech dos Almendres and the Anta Grande do Zambujeiro.