Horse breaking in Pre-roman Iberian Peninsula. On the discovery of a “taming scene” on rock 80 of Vale de José Esteves (Côa Valley, Portugal)

Abstract

Following tracing and recording works of the Côa Valley rock art, we present a new motif identified on rock 80 of Vale de José Esteves (Vila Nova de Foz Côa). The scene is interpreted as portraying the act of training a horse on the lunge, in the context of horse breaking. This type of representation is generally identified as a “taming scene”, present in several examples of pre-roman Iberian iconography. By integrating all these scenes with others presente at the Côa Valley rock art, we try to define a sequence of the process of horse training in pre-roman societies, framing it in their ideological context.