Bulls of Guisando
Also known asGuisando Bulls · Los toros de guisando creando por inaki Ojer landarech
DatedEst. 4300–1200 BCE
Photo Asqueladd · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Bulls of Guisando (Spanish: Toros de Guisando) are a set of four ancient granite sculptures on the hill of Guisando in the municipality of El Tiemblo, Ávila, Spain. They represent quadrupeds identified as bulls or pigs, and the balance of opinion favours bulls, since there are holes that have been interpreted as sockets for horns.
They are examples of a type of sculpture called verracos, of which hundreds are known, and are associated with the territory of the pre-Roman peoples known as the Vettones. They may have been made during the 2nd century BCE.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Bulls of Guisando
There are some Latin graffiti on them, which may mean that they were repositioned in Roman times.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
The four sculptures are made of granite. Whether they stand in their original position is debatable. There are some Latin graffiti on them, which may mean that they were repositioned in Roman times.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
The field around the Bulls was the place where the Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando was signed on September 18, 1468 between Henry IV of Castile and his half-sister Isabella of Castile. The treaty granted her the title of Princess of Asturias and thus ended a civil war in Castile.
Later historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
The Bulls are a recurrent feature in Spanish literature. Miguel de Cervantes refers to them several times in his novel Don Quixote, and Federico García Lorca uses their symbolic value in his Llanto por la muerte de Ignacio Sánchez Mejías.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
The Bulls are protected in Spain's heritage listings as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Property of Cultural Interest), classified as a Sitio histórico (historic site).
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Megalithic monuments of the Basque highlands
Most of the Atlas's Spanish "megalith" records lie in the Basque country and Navarre, in upland pasture where prehistoric graves are found in great numbers. The Basque Country has a multitude of megaliths, described as dolmens or as mounds, sometimes confusingly. They are burials of a collective nature, placed in spots of great visibility, often on the tops of mountain ridges, and are built of local materials. Around 800 dolmens and about 500 mounds are known, though some of the mounds could be dolmens awaiting excavation. Dolmens have a chamber of flat stones under a roof stone, covered with stones and earth; the chambers are either simple or with a corridor, and the corridor type is limited to the Ebro valley. The largest dolmens are in lowland areas and the smaller ones in the mountains.
Few Basque dolmens have clear stratigraphy, because older remains were swept aside to make room for new burials. Even so it is known that megalithic burial arrived in the late Neolithic, was in frequent use in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, and in some mounds continued as late as the Iron Age.
The standing stones and stone circles are later. Menhirs and cromlechs seem to belong to the Iron Age, when cremation became dominant. The individual burial in a cromlech is the most abundant, but limited to the Pyrenean region, where 851 of them are documented. They are 3 to 7 metres across, with the burial at the centre; the body was not burned inside the circle but at a nearby spot, and only a handful of ashes was carried to the monument.
When visiting, expect to walk: the monuments are on upland ridges, and a circle or mound is often hard to see until you are close.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Basque prehistory, Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: Cromlech, Wikipedia: Menhir · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1468
The field around the Bulls was the place where the Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando was signed between Henry IV of Castile and his half-sister Isabella of Castile on September 18, 1468, which granted her the title of Princess of Asturias thus ending a civil war in Castile.
Source
Photographs
7 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4300–1200 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megaliths in Spain; this site has not been dated itself. Megalithic construction in southern Spain c. 4300 BC and in Malaga and Guadiana c. 3500 BC; the Mediterranean megalithic tradition ends by c. 1200 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Spain
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 40°21′38″ N, 4°26′30″ WFor a GPS or map app: 40.36069, -4.44161
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
3 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q2454775wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
- 03Wikipedia: Bulls of Guisandoen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Toros de Guisando (El Tiemblo).JPGAsqueladdCC BY-SA 3.0
- Toros de Guisando, Ávila, España, 2020 01.jpgBenjamín Núñez GonzálezCC BY-SA 4.0
- Toros de Guisando, Ávila, España, 2020 02.jpgBenjamín Núñez GonzálezCC BY-SA 4.0
- Toro de Guisando, El Tiemblo (Ávila).jpgJosé Luis Filpo CabanaCC BY 4.0
- Toro de Guisando, El Tiemblo. Trazos.jpgJosé Luis Filpo CabanaCC BY 4.0
- Morro de un Toro de Guisando, El Tiemblo.jpgJl FilpoCCC BY-SA 4.0
- Toros de Guisando (El Tiemblo) - 001 (30611072391).jpgLuis Rogelio HMCC BY-SA 2.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Dolmen del Prado de las Cruces37 km N
- Túmulo de Los Tiesos38 km N
- Stele of Magacela64 km E
- Estatua-menhir del dolmen de Navalcán67 km SW
- crómlech de Totanés76 km S
- Crómlech de Cantos Blancos85 km N
- Dolmen de Azután88 km SW
- Dolmen of Guadalperal101 km SW
- Dolmen El Teriñuelo102 km W
- Dolmen de La Ermita103 km NW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bulls of Guisando" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): Bulls of GuisandoCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q2454775CC0
