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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Jul 24, 2003, 20:18
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Hi, a quick message to report on my painstaking but immensely satisfying sweep from the SW megaliths of Iberia up to the mists of the NW. After more than 2 years busy mainly with the Alentejo stones I have recently expanded to the North of Portugal and Galicia. Sadly, I am moving to Berlin very soon in an attempt to discover German megalithia, as another Unsung country in terms of ancient remains awaits. What’s then left behind is an initial framework for a possible future Annexus Quam’s Megalithic Iberia, which will attempt to cover the best sites for the XXIst Century Mystic in search of inspiration far from the madding crowds and spreading bungalows that infest so many of the stones in various other parts of Europe. But to get back to the main point, I was recently amazed by the huge amounts of petroglyphs (rock art like spirals, labyrinths, concentric circles, cupmarks and others) which were EXACTLY THE SAME as the ones in Northumberland and Scotland. The area I have just come from is the (Third) Finisterre in Galicia, the ‘Gallic fringe’ of Iberia (the first being Land’s End, the second the Finistere of Brittany). Whereas the temperature in other parts of Iberia and Europe has been reaching boiling levels, here it is never higher than 24º and the rain falls more often than on English soil (excluding the Land’s End). Although there are serious reports of some stone circles in parts of Galicia (and I am NOT considering the beautiful Mesolithic Cromlechs of the Alentejo as ‘proper’ stone circles, though they may look like them), I have not found any, and, in various cases, they are already gone. BUT the Atlantic connection goes back for sure to the Iron Age (due to the 2000 or more Celtic Hillforts all over Galicia and Northern Portugal – as well as, curiously, a much higher presence of distinct physical features, like pale people with blue eyes and fair or red hair, not so common in the inhabitants of other parts of Iberia). These innumerable Bronze Age petroglyphs (as they are called here), are, surely too, part of a common heritage told in the legends of the ‘lost tribes of Maelloc’ that left Britain at various stages from the Bronze Age until the coming of the Saxons. Or perhaps, as I believe, the movement was not unidirectional and is not so important in such a vast stretch of time, in my opinion, whether ideas and people originated in Celtic Britain, Brittany or Galicia (or all three at the same time). Finally, the topography is surprisingly conspicuous – the River Brea, Eira Vedra, Eiros, Cuntis… to name a few, are common names in the Galician landscape, there’s even a Bretona. Going even further back in time, the photogenic beauty of the thousands of dolmens and cairns that dot the Galician and Northern Portuguese landscape is such, that they could fill up books. For a taster, I have added pictures to my space at Guilfin, as well as some other dolmens from another ‘fringe’ area I raved about last year, the Basque Country (or Euskadi). Reclaim the stones! (and respect them) http://www.guilfin.net/database/?subcat=scINET5&pix=1#pix
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FourWinds 10943 posts |
Jul 24, 2003, 20:50
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I love the zigzags! Ireland's best are at Fourknocks and Newgrange (Knowth and Dowth don't have them). It is thought that a lot of the Irish ones were probably similarly painted, but the climate doesn't allow for preservation. Imagine Newgrange, lit up gold by the solstice sun! It's an amazing site even today. Imagine it with the walls black except for the zigzags and spirals left natural, these motifs glowing and radiating beautifully on the walls like a kids bedroom with glow in the dark stickers on the walls and ceiling. I think until they are experienced in this format again we will never truly *know*. Love on ya babe! Off to look at more of yer photies!
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FourWinds 10943 posts |
Jul 24, 2003, 21:02
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http://www.guilfin.net/gallery/?id=pxINET2446
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Jane 3024 posts |
Jul 24, 2003, 21:12
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Unbelievable and breathtaking! I am inspired and awestuck. What a great set of photos, AQ. I'm very envious that you've seen this lot. Jx
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fitzcoraldo 2709 posts |
Jul 24, 2003, 21:19
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AQ Out-fuckin-standing!
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ocifant 1758 posts |
Jul 25, 2003, 07:31
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Unbelievably wonderful photos! And to think, my ex is Galician, and in all the visits I made there, I never knew about any ancient sites!
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Spaceship mark 1686 posts |
Jul 26, 2003, 15:45
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The zig zags at Afife are almost identical to those found at the base of a menhir that marks the Tetre Tumulaire de Manio and the eastern end of the Alignements de Kermario at Carnac. The menhir predates the alignements which now cross over the mound and the mound itself. This kind of rock art is very common round Carnac and it's cool to see it elsewhere...
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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Jul 28, 2003, 06:49
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That’s great! I’m not surprised - the crook, the possible symbol of early pastoralism (post-Mesolithic), has been found in both Breton and Alentejan menhirs and cromlechs, which have got a strong likelihood to pre-date any other monuments according to the surprising archaeological evidence of the last few years. You also touched a sensitive chord there. You know how Table des Marchands and Gavrinis also contain two pieces of the same Ur-menhir used as capstones of the former temple-graves (with animal rock art). That particular Ur-Menhir may have been originally 14 m long, in the huge Early tradition of the Menhir Brise!! The Brittany Temples are scary in the way they mushroomed up in such a pharaonic scale, so early and so suddenly some time in the Vth Millenium BC. It is often that I think about the extent to which recycling of previous Ur-stones was practised. It must have been heavy and frantic. At the famous Dolmen of Dombate in Galicia, for instance, a previous smaller dolmen has been found where the one we know is standing now, in the way that christian churches were built on top of previous ones. I am sure that a few of the decorated uprights that make up the dolmens of Europe belonged to previous isolated complexes in the (quite possibly) Mesolithic landscape. Another example is the Almendres stone circles made of double concentric rows of stone. The tiny one is the earlier one to which a later much bigger one was stuck. Both pre-date, in their cosmic Egg-shapes, all of the other surrounding Portuguese megalithic dolmens and sites, which are still Early Neolithic, and whose people re-used them perhaps totally losing the original meaning of the cromlechs. Continuity – YES! But there was much change and fussing about in the roughly 3,000 years before the Bronze Age which makes things extremely complex. And even then there’s Megalithic Art and Rock Art being two sides of the same coin, used in different contexts, sometimes contemporary. The petroglyphs were Early Bronze Age manifestations of an art which had existed on stones for quite a long time in the form of zigzags and paintings. But the biggest cultural upheaval must have come with the Celtic migrations (and I must stress Celtic with C- in this case). Some petroglyphs in NW Iberia were used as the base for the walls of their settlements. They cared for them as much as we do nowadays, not knowing what the hell they were about. Perhaps the ‘primitive’ tribes that used them in their divinatory or shamanic endeavours were completely absorbed by a new 'more civilised' Iron tool-related religion. Oh and this is cracking - there is even evidence of Beaker vandalism in some megalithic monuments!!!! If we consider the early Beakers to have started their thumping about in places around 2,500 BC we can see the point of complexity. I think contacts between Brittany, W.Iberia and Eire did definitely happen though perhaps not to the extent of vast human migrations. Although cynics may argue that motives like lozenges and zigzags, or even spirals and concentric circles are universal in all cultures, the similarity between the Irish, Scottish, Northumbrian and Galician famous petroglyphs with circles and radial lines is amazingly exact. http://www.pangalaica.com/megalitismo/eng/pintura.htm
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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Jul 28, 2003, 06:59
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Thanks, it's funny how many things we didn't know about other people once we've parted from them! Jane, I'm sure you will get to see those sites one day. This page has got great Galaican / N.Portugeezer pix: http://www.lessing4.de/megaliths/galicia.htm Fitz, nice to see you. Fourwinds, the Fourknocks zigzags you mention are amazingly more complex than any other Iberian ones, which are very common. Do you know of any other?
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Annexus Quam 926 posts |
Jul 28, 2003, 07:11
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I forgot to add that the original name of the Cairn of Afife is Cairn of Eireira, a cryptic name if you ask me. Another piece of weirdness in this cairn (or mamoa, as it is called in Portuguese) is how all the uprights that make up the passage are the same height as the chamber's, which is quite unbelievable in megalithic monuments, known as they are for dramatizing the entrance inside via a sloping corridor and other effects of perspective. This one had no need, though I couldn't say with conviction whether it has anything to do with the position of the horizon and the sunrise in this case, high over that of the sea. Very often in megalithic chambers I have seen it covers half of the entrance when seen from the inside of the chamber, perfect for the illumination of the chamber at a certain sunrise of the year.
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