Guadiana diary

Robert G. Bednarik auranet@optusnet.com.au

Guadiana petroglyphs

These petroglyphs are among the thousands that have now already been flooded, and will be covered by billions of tonnes of sediment eventually

1952: The plan of damming the Guadiana is first mooted, together with the proposal of building a major industrial city in the region.

1985: The environmental impact studies for the Alqueva dam in the Guadiana valley are begun.

1995: After international opposition organised by IFRAO, construction of the dam in the Côa valley is discontinued and the government loses the election.

1996: The Archaeological Institute of Portugal (IPA) is founded and Dr Joao Zilhao is installed as its director.

1997: Construction of the Alqueva dam on the Guadiana commences. The massive archaeological salvage operation reports that there is no rock art to be submerged. These claims are supported by IPA and CNART (National Centre for Rock Art, attached to IPA). The dam for the largest man-made lake of Europe is to be completed by 2001.

April 2001: Spanish researchers report substantial rock art occurrences on the Spanish side of the reservoir. An environmental NGO announces a massive rock art corpus also in the Portuguese sector, after it received an anonymous tip-off.

May 2001: The IPA admits that it has misled government and the public, and undertakes to record the rock art. IFRAO demands that the recording work be of the highest standard, setting appropriate technical requirements, and commences an international campaign to defer filling the reservoir.

June 2001: The responsible minister, A. Carrillho, Minister for Culture, is sacked. The Director of IPA defends his inaction by claiming the rock art is not of adequate importance.

September 2002: The International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences passes a motion to send a committee to Portugal to investigate the IPA role and the reasons why the Guadiana rock art is set to be destroyed. Joao Zilhao immediately condemns the Union and calls its committee incompetent.

Late 2001: The dam is completed on schedule.

January 2002: The Director of IPA places several defamatory comments on the IPA Webpage, which leads to a flurry of protests to the government, and to legal action by some of those defamed.

8 February 2002: The dam is officially opened and the water commences to rise. The day is declared a 'black day for world rock art'.

March 2002: The director of the archaeological salvage operation, Antonio Carlos Silva, resigns under protest, writing a 6-page open letter accusing numerous parties.

April 2002: The government is defeated and replaced.

6 May 2002: The new government downgrades the IPA and Joao Zilhao, its director, resigns immediately.

7 June 2002: The water has risen so far in the Guadiana valley that the major rock art concentration, located at Cheles, has become submerged. The water continues to rise steadily.
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Report by the Expresso, major national newspaper in Portugal, 11-6-2002
http://semanal.expresso.pt/primeira/ultimas/
Portugal afunda gravuras espanholas

O RESPONSAVEL pelos trabalhos arqueologicos na margem espanhola do rio Guadiana, Hipolito Collado, afirma que 'estao perdidas para sempre as primeiras gravuras do conjunto de arte rupestre de Cheles (Molino Manzanez). O compromisso de realizar os moldes por parte da equipa portuguesa de Antonio Martinho Baptista nao foi cumprido'. Mas o director do Centro Nacional de Arte Rupestre (CNART), Antonio Martinho Baptista, afirma que se trata de 'uma enorme injustica'. E sustenta que o arqueologo espanhol tera dito que 'viria gente do Instituto de Restauro de Madrid e do Museu de Altamira realizar as necessarias moldagens'.

Portugal sinks Spanish engravings

The researcher responsible for the archaeological works in the Spanish margin of the river Guadiana, Hipolito Collado, affirms that 'we have lost forever the first engravings of the group of rock art of Cheles (Molino Manzanez). The commitment of accomplishing the moulds on the part of the Portuguese by Antonio Martinho Baptista was not accomplished'. But the director of the National Centre of Rock Art (CNART), Antonio Martinho Baptista, claims that it is treated with 'an enormous injustice', and he maintains that the Spanish archaeologist will have statement that 'people would come from the Institute of Restoration of Madrid and of the Museum of Altamira to accomplish the necessary mouldings'.
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18 June 2002, letter by the government Chief of Cabinet to Professor Luiz Oosterbeek
(Translation from Portuguese via French)

Dear Sir,

While thanking you for your interest in the protection of the archaeological heritage in Portugal, it seems that your letter has been sent following erroneous information. Indeed, the Portuguese government proposed, and the assembly of the Republic, the parliament of Portugal, decided, to merge the two organisms that, until now, had expertise concerning survey, safeguarding, inventorying, enhancement and disclosure of the archaeological heritage. These expertises were not only granted to the Portugues Instituto of Arqueologia (IPA), but also to the Portugues Instituto do Patrimonio Arquitectonico (IPPAR), with superimpositions of activities and sometimes of conflicts.

As to recognising the development and the very important innovations in the domain of Portuguese archaeology, during the last decade several aspects of the management of the archaeological heritage underwent some known difficulties: the slowness in answers to demands of municipal offices (because of the superposition of activities and the excessive centralisation of structures, whereas archaeology requires greatly decentralised management); the instability of its human resources (with politics that did not take in consideration this need); the very reduced co-operation with archaeology that continues out of the setting of the Ministry of the Culture, notably in the superior teaching and in the municipal offices of archaeology; the absence of an integrated inventory of the archaeological heritage (that is divided now between the two Institutes). Without forgetting some past cases, for example: the absence of collaboration between the archaeological park of Foz Coa and projects of scientific research developed in the region, for years, by the local researchers of universities (see the case of Castelo Velho of Freixo of Numao, oriented by Prof. Susana Oliveira Jorge); the difficulty to put in place projects of valorization (see the case of the decorated underground cave of Escoural); conflicts with the national and international organisations (U.I.S.P.P., among others), etc.

The decision that has just been taken will counter these difficulties, considering that they are the result of an inadequate structure, and while assuring the continuity of projects.

The government does not want to proceed with an "extinction" [of archaeology, as claimed by J. Zilhao], on the contrary, it estimates that the Portuguese archaeology reached a very important development level that asks for a better connected structures and organisations that is also contributed to at this level out of the Ministry. The international dimension of Portuguese archaeology, understood by this government as integral part of the memory of humanity, will also be pursued and reinforced. The welcome to conventions of 'Computing Applications for Archaeology' (2004), to the 'Peninsular Archeology Convention' (2005) and to the world convention of the 'Science Union Prehistoric and Protohistoriques' (2006) is an expression of this.

Wishing that the foreign researcher collaboration can be deepened in the future,
Sincerely Yours
The Chief of Cabinet
Rosario Calvao

Issues directly related to the destruction of the Guadiana rock art

Zilhao's statements

Statements by the former director of IPA

IFRAO position

Statement of the position of IFRAO on the Guadiana petroglyphs

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