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Campo Lameiro Petroglyphs

Spain · Europe
Prehistoric cave art at Campo Lameiro Petroglyphs© Elisardojm · CC BY-SA 3.0
Notable

Nearly a hundred carved rocks crowd a single Galician hillside, crowned by the great spear-pierced stag of Laxe dos Carballos — an emblem of Europe's Atlantic rock art.

Age
~4,000 yrs
Period
Bronze Age
Setting
Open-air
Art form
Petroglyphs
Discovered
1935
Status
Open (Archaeological Park)
⧗ See it on the timeline

In the granite hills above the Lérez valley in Pontevedra, Galicia, around a hundred carved rocks lie scattered among oaks and gorse — one of Europe's densest concentrations of Atlantic rock art. Bronze Age communities pecked deer, horses, labyrinths and cup-and-ring circles into the stone roughly 4,000 years ago; the great stag of Laxe dos Carballos, bristling with spears, has become the emblem of the whole tradition. Recorded in Ramón Sobrino Buhigas's 1935 Corpus Petroglyphorum Gallaeciae, the area opened in 2011 as Galicia's first archaeological park, with a 3 km trail, an interpretation centre and a reconstructed Bronze Age village.

Notable Features

  • Laxe dos Carballos: a great stag pierced by spears
  • Around 100 carved rocks in a 22-hectare park
  • Interpretation centre and reconstructed Bronze Age village

Depicted Subjects

DeerLabyrinthsHunting ScenesSpiralsCup-and-Ring Marks

Plan a Visit

AccessThis cave can be visited.
Sources & Further Reading
◈ Official site≡ Wikipedia➤ Directions
Hours & prices change — always confirm on the official site before travelling.
Photographs via Wikimedia Commons — image credits. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.