Hundreds of visigothic slate stones (whiteboards) in Western Castilla (Spain

[Ingemar Nordgren]

I know quite well that I have missed the places you mention. It depends on that my first trip was specialised on identifying possible connections between visigothic stelae in Spain and picture stones on Gotland. I instead found out that the  Gotlandic stones were more related to the Celto-Roman stelae you show in the last link. The Visigothic seems more close to the roman ones and often  with a sunray or shell-similar symbol. I.e. influenced in  part by the Celto-Roman stelae who I judge to be up to the 2nd c. only. Maybe I am wrong - Ijust had a week to go. The stelae you point out  are also well treated by Franz Cumont in Recherches sur le symbolisme funérarire des romains.
I have however seen a lot of pictures from  the places you mention and I have been working as well with the art from e.g. San Pedro de la Nave, Zamora, Quintanilla de la Viñas, Burgos and Oviedo but would love to come there in person. It is a question of affording it. If you  can get hold of the magazine Pyrenae 40-2 2009 from Barcelona university I have written an article entitled A New Interpretation of the Depictions on the Sparlösa Rune Stone in Sweden. In that one I have some nice examples of Visigothic art.

Concerning the Vadenienses it deals with a Ibero-Celtic tribe  in Asturia who were very belligerent and rumoured warriors. When a warrior fell he was buried and his horse as well waS buried in a grave beside him and somtetimes a stele was erected over the horse. In the lapidarium in Astorga you can see a stele , Lamina CCXIII, picturing a horse with two cornears, one on each side, and they are flanked by a leaf of ivy, which is here the living power of the mother Earth striving to rech her mate, the sun. This for a horse! They are treated e.g. by Santos,J/Gonzales,M, La epigrafia del conventus cluniense 1, Las estelas Vadinienses, and by Pierre Weilleumier, Une societé cavalière dans le Nord-Oest de l'Espagne romaine. Le dossier des Vadenienses and also by  Marcelo Vigil in Los vadinienses. They are all a result of a cooperation between the university of Léon and some South French universities treating the Iberian peninsula.

I will have a closer look on all your links and thank you very much my friend.

Best greetings
Ingemar




--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "ertydfh110" <ertydfh110 at ...> wrote:
>
>  Thank you for your welcome Ingemar!
> 
> It is interesting to know that someone from Scandinavia is interested in what their gothic ancestors (visigoths are supposed to come from southern Sweden) did in Spain. 
> 
> In your past travels in Spain I think you forgot to visit the main center for visigoths in Spain!: Salamanca, Palencia, Burgos. 
> 
> I´m going to give you some links for new ideas for next travel to Spain. If you translate it with google translator (http://translate.google.es/?hl=es&tab=wT#) it will be very understable:
> 
> For example you forgot to visit the small city of Wamba (in Valladolid). It was named in honour of Wamba (visigothic king of Spain) in 672:
> http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wamba_(Valladolid)
> 
> 3 months ago it was discovered the biggest visigothic necropolis in Spain. It has 900 visigothic tombs. The necropolis is in Vicalvaro (close to Madrid):
> http://www.elpais.com/articulo/madrid/Hallada/Vicalvaro/necropolis/visigoda/900/enterramientos/elpepiespmad/20110707elpmad_14/Tes
> 
> You probably already know most of it but I give you some links about visigothic art in Spain:
> http://www.google.es/search?tbm=isch&hl=es&source=hp&biw=991&bih=635&q=arte+visigodo&gbv=2&oq=arte+visigodo&aq=f&aqi=g2g-S5&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2718l4937l0l5187l13l10l0l3l3l0l219l1218l0.5.2l7l0
> 
> At the bottom of this webpage you can see another wikipedia links to 12-13 visigothic churches:
> http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte_visigodo
> 
> And also the most important visigothic treasury in Spain:
> http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesoro_de_Guarrazar
> 
> So, may be in your next travel to Spain you can also come to Salamanca and take a look at any of the remains that are here. I can personally show you where this celtic/visigothic old village is located. I can send you pictures of it at your personal email if you wish, but the only thing you can see are some groups of stones. 
> 
> 
> BTW, what are "Vadenensian celtic stelae". I searched in google and I couln´t find any reference. In a Salamanca village (Villavieja de Yeltes) there have been found some stelae. Some of the people that studied it think are celtic, and other people say they are visigothic. What is your opinion?. 
> Here they are:
> http://imageshack.us/f/822/estelas.jpg/
> 
> Regards.
>


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