With a full day in Santiago de Compostela and most of my friends out shopping, I decided to check out something I saw on the map. Along the route I entered the city yesterday, there is what is labeled on the map as Petroglifo do Castriño de Conxo. After doing some cursory research, this is a Neolithic petroglyph site. As I have spent a lot of time chasing ancient rock art in the American West, this seemed like something right up my alley.
Walking about 3/4 of a mile along the streets of the city, I finally saw a small sign indicating the site with an arrow pointing down a gravel street. From there, I had to follow a feint trail along a fence and through tall weeds to enter a wooded area and climb up a steep hill to the site.
Once there though, the petroglyph panel was obvious. A large rock, mostly buried in the hillside, but who's upward facing surface contains a number of images - which appear to be weapons or possibly bird wings. It's difficult to say for sure, but they were obviously made by the hand of man. Apparently, there is more to this site, including an ancient hilltop fortress, but much of it is now on the land of a private residence and fenced off from this rock. From what I can find online, the petroglyphs are thought to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old. Though, I'm unable to get a very good picture, even using some color filters, it's still an amazing thing to find here in the middle of a large city in Spain.
No comments:
Post a Comment