THE ANCIENT PREHISTORY OF MINHO: THE COAST
The first vestiges of human presence in the coastal region of the Minho date from around 250,000 years ago (Pleistocene Medium Final), at a time when the European continent witnessed the appearance of the first forms of Neanderthal Man.

THE ANCIENT PREHISTORY OF MINHO: THE INTERIOR
The archaeological investigations carried out in the mountainous regions of medium height in the interior of Minho, especially in the Serra da Cabreira, led to the recognition of areas of human occupation during the Mesolithic and Ancient Neolithic periods.

THE EARLY FARMERS AND SHEPHERDS OF NORTH-WEST PORTUGAL
While the actual neolithic habitation sites are not well known we do know that communities tended to settle in open and naturally protected areas.
From the 5th millennium on and throughout a good part of the 4th Neolithic people built the first funerary and ritual monumental architecture: dolmens and menhirs supposedly connected with astral cosmology or fertility worship.

From the Calcolithic period on (end of the 4th to the 3th quarter of the 3th millennia), alterations in the relationship between man and his environment took place. Human occupation in open and sheltered places became rather frequent. These habitations were built with perishable materials such as wood, branches, clay and gravel.

The regions of Galicia in Spain and Northern Portugal are very rich in examples of rupestral art especially carvings in stone in open spaces. Specialists categorize these artistic manifestations into two large groups known as “Galician-Portuguese petroglifos”.

The Bronze Age in North-west Portugal developed between the end of the 3rd and middle of the 2nd millennium BC.