Portugal Halts Work on Dam
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LISBON — Portugal’s new Socialist Party government stopped work Tuesday on a controversial dam whose waters threatened rock carvings that archeologists say are among Europe’s oldest.
Prime Minister Antonio Guterres told the Assembly of the Republic that work on the Coa River dam project would be halted while experts are given time to confirm the date of the artwork.
Archeologists say the scratched images of birds, horses and other animals on the rocky sides of the Coa River are one of the world’s largest open-air exhibitions of Paleolithic art. But experts brought in by Electricidade de Portugal, the national power company that is building the dam, dispute their age.
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