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Stone art
Our prehistory
Dolmen Pedra Moura (Carballo)
Slab of Sináis de Carvalhas (Barcelos)
Did you know?
It is not always an easy task to interpret these stone works. The war or
hunt scenes, sometimes with figures that look like idols or divinities, can be
propitiatory, representing triumph scenes to remember good campaigns
or to make the ones coming more productive. About the meaning of the
abstract forms, some defend that the labyrinths are actually maps of
the territory where the community that designed it inhabited. For other
shapes, like the petroglyph of Amoeiro, there are very attractive theories
that link it to astronomy. An interesting matter, still open nowadays.
The time of the menhir-statues
In a later period, in the Bronze Age, another kind of stone art appears, in
this case in the shape of a menhir-statue or stela. These representations of
warriors are not frequent in the peninsular south-west (Andalucía, Extremadura
and Alentejo), but back in 2012 the most northern one in the Peninsula was
found in Castrelo do Val, 6 kilometres far from Verín. It is the menhir-statue A
Pedra Alta, currently displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Ourense. This
large stone block (175x70x30 cm) with a very rough shape, but still tending to
represent a human silhouette, shows a warrior with all his weapon panoply: a
sword tight with a belt, a shield with a handle, a lance at the feet and, more
singular, a cart representation.
Although with more simple ornaments, there are two other good examples in this
same setting. About 30 kilometres to the east one can find the menhir-statue
of O Tameirón in A Gudiña, which can be visited in the town centre, and, in
Chaves, the one of Faiões. Both have a decoration that equally consists on a
military weaponry, although they lack some elements present in A Pedra Alta,
such as the cart.
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