Menhir von El Gustal
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Menhir of El Gustal, also called the Valderejo Menhir, stands on a mountain slope at Lahoz, near Vitoria in the Basque Country, province of Álava, Spain. It is 3.65 metres high, made of limestone, and broken in two pieces.
It was discovered in 1982 by Felix Murga.
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
Menhir von El Gustal
Broken in two, it is set up so that it is visible above the crest of the Sierra de Anderejo.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir is made of limestone. It is 3.65 metres high and 28 centimetres thick, and weighs about 1.3 tonnes. Broken in two, it is set up so that it is visible above the crest of the Sierra de Anderejo.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
The stone is described as having been raised about 3000 BC. A typological estimate in the catalogue gives a wider range, between 2800 and 1800 BCE.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir was discovered in 1982 by Felix Murga, after whom a street in Álava, the Felix Murga Kalea, is named.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
In Álava, dolmens stand at the foot of the mountains, whereas menhirs are found on high points but never on the summits. Many of them have an anthropomorphic tendency, as at the anthropomorphic menhir of Olano, which shows that these menhirs are forerunners of statue menhirs.
The menhirs of the region are divided by shape into four types with eight kinds of upper end, and by size into three main groups. Their height varies between 1.4 and 5.4 metres (Mugarriaundi), and about 50 % are between 2.15 and 3.2 metres high. In northern Spain at least 500 menhirs have been reported, usually standing alone or in small groups in elevated places.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Iberian menhirs
In Spain menhirs of the western European megalithic type are relatively unusual compared with dolmens, but are common sights in the northern half of the country, where at least 500 have been reported. They are particularly common in the Basque Country, Navarre, northern Burgos and Palencia, Cantabria and the Pyrenees, usually standing alone or in small groups (cromlechs) in elevated places. Most appear to date back to the Stone Age. They are not usually associated with burials, though at the Menhir of Cuesta del Molino in Burgos burials were made at least 2,000 years after the menhir was raised. The Arlobi menhir is one of the most recent examples.
Portugal's highest concentration is in the Alentejo, where the Menhir of Meada is the largest on the Iberian Peninsula. The Menhir of Outeiro, near Reguengos de Monsaraz in the district of Évora, is the second largest in Portugal: a granite monolith 5.6 metres high, about a metre across and an estimated eight tonnes. It was found lying on its side in 1969 by Henrique Leonor Pina and José Pires Gonçalves and re-erected about 1970, and was classified as a national monument in 1971. A hollow in its top has been read as a urethra, so that the stone is taken as phallic; that is an interpretation, not a fact.
The Almendres Cromlech near Évora is the largest group of structured menhirs on the Iberian Peninsula, and one of the largest in Europe. It belongs to the "megalithic universe of Évora", with parallels in the Portela de Mogos cromlech. Its beginnings have been put as far back as the sixth millennium BCE, which would make it extremely early, and it was rediscovered in 1966 by Henrique Leonor Pina.
When visiting, look for stones on high ground and note which way they face.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Menhir of Outeiro, Wikipedia: Almendres Cromlech, Wikipedia: List of menhirs · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in Spain; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Spain
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 42°54′14″ N, 3°14′34″ WFor a GPS or map app: 42.90400, -3.24275
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.
- DolmenLas Campas de La Choza4000–3000 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Barrakaran4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Berrekorta4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Uslarra4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Cueva de Los Santos4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Unza Ii4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Unza4300–1200 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Alto de Las Carboneras E4300–1200 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q20170814wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Menhir von El Gustal" (German), 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 (German): Menhir von El GustalCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q20170814CC0