Estelas cántabras

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Cantabrian stele by Barros made of sandstone (3rd century BC) It shows concentric circles in flat relief and is associated with a sun cult. Their diameter is 166 cm.

As Estelas cántabras or Cantabrian steles is called a treasure group only in the northern Spanish Cantabria occurs and should come the oldest copies from before the Roman conquest. The youngest specimens were therefore made in the 3rd century AD. When it comes to dating, however, the group of those who favor an indigenous and thus pre-Roman interpretation is opposed to those who date the objects to the Middle Ages .

The coat of arms of Cantabria with the round stele of Barros

The steles are round, stone discs with a diameter of up to two meters. They are often worked in the form of bas-reliefs and offer symbols such as Svastiken (estela discoidea de Caravia in Asturias, perhaps originated between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD), crosses, triangles, "propellers", vortex wheels or lances, but also mounted warriors. The steles are often associated with a sun cult. The Barros stele first became known to the public in 1915 and 1920 through the work of Henri Breuil (1877–1961) and Eugeniusz Frankowski (1884–1962).

Some scientists consider them to be a late representative of a form that was widespread in the Burgos , Soria , Álava , Vizcaya and eastern Asturian regions. Their function is unclear, it has been assumed that they delimited tribal territories, marked grave sites or highlighted places of worship. The latter could indicate that some of them were built into later religious structures, including churches and hermitages, but also the fact that there are no temple-like structures in Cantabria from pre-Roman times.

Similar to the ceramics of Cantabria, the steles still predominantly show elements of indigenous culture with references to stars and sun, as well as the dominance of a warlike, perhaps Iron Age, culture. On the other hand, the medievalistas point to local legends and the proximity to Christian places of worship, some of them Mozarabic elements.

The largest stelae of this kind come from Barros ( Estela de Barros 1 and 2 , the latter discovered in 1999 in fragments in a hermitage ), the two larger of the three stelae from Lombera and the stele from Zurita are similar in size . The third stele of Lombera, also fragmented, was discovered in a wall of a finca . Most of the large steles were found in the valley of the Río Buelna, but the Zurita stele in the Valle de Piélagos.

The stele of Luriezo, which was discovered in a church portal and is 136 cm in diameter, is not much smaller.

In 2001, a separate Parque de Las Estelas was set up at Carretera Nacional 611. There are around 20 smaller steles in the Museo de Prehistoria y Arqueología de Cantabria in Santander , plus the three large steles from Lombera, Zurita and Los Corrales de Buelna, which are described as “gigantic”.

  • Museum of Prehistory and Archeology of Cantabria

  • Stele San Vicente de Toranzo

  • Stele zurita; Diameter 2.0 m; Transitional phase to the Roman era

  • Lombera stele

  • Lombera stele

  • Lombera stele

The Cantabrian coat of arms has had a Cantabrian stele since 1984, namely that of Barros, which has been considered a Bien de Interés Cultural since 1985 , i.e. an important cultural monument. The five-armed swastika itself became a symbol of a socialist group - in connection with a raised fist and the five-pointed star.

literature

  • Jesús García Sánchez: El uso político de objetos arqueológicos: las estelas gigantes de Cantabria. In: Saldivie , Volume 9 (2009), pp. 249–263 ( online , PDF).
  • Carlos Sanz Mínguez, Francisco Marco Simón, Francisco Beltrán Lloris, Javier Velasco Vázquez: Nuevos datos para la contextualización de las estelas funerarias discoides en Pintia (Padilla de Duero, Valladolid). In: VIII Congresso Internacional de Estelas Funerarias: Actas. Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Lisbon 2006, pp. 63–91.
  • Ramón Bohigas Roldán, Miguel Unzueta Portilla, Carlos Cancelo Mielgo, Juan Tomás Molinero Arroyabe: La "Fusayola" pétrea del "oppidum (s) amanorum" y su decoraciónun. Esquema común a las estelas cántabras. In: VIII Congreso Internacional de Estelas Funerarias, Santander 2002, 2 vols., Vol. I, Santander 2004, pp. 369-382.
  • Eduardo Peralta Labrador: Los cántabros antes de Roma. Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid 2003, pp. 79-80.
  • Maria Lourdes Albertos: A propósito de unas estelas de cántabros vadinienses de Remolina (León). In: Alberto Balil: Topografia de Barcino. Volume 2, 1974, pp. 79-88.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Henry Breuil: La rueda de Santa Catalina de Barros (Santander) . In: Bulletin Hispanique , Volume 17 (1915), p. 291.
  2. ^ Eugeniusz Frankowski: Estelas discoideas de la Península Ibérica. Istmo, Madrid 1920.
  3. ^ Eduardo Peralta Labrador: Los cántabros antes de Roma . Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid 2003, p. 79.
  4. ↑ Jesús Francisco Torres-Martínez: El Cantábrico en la Edad del Hierro. Medioambiente, economía, territorio y sociedad. Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid 2011, p. 406.
  5. ↑ Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño: Historia y guía de los Museos de España. Espasa-Calpe, Madrid 1968, p. 691.
  6. ↑ Instituto Salazar y Castro (ed.): Heráldica de las Comunidades Autónomas y de las Capitales de Provincia. Ediciones Hidalguia, Madrid 1985, p. 22 f.
  7. ↑ Jesús García Sánchez: El uso político de objetos arqueológicos: las estelas gigantes de Cantabria. In: Saldivie , Volume 9 (2009), pp. 249–263, here p. 255.