rupestre

In a country as Catholic, carnivorous, and festival-happy as Spain, it's little surprise that Carnival, the four-day lead-up to the Lent, is something of an occasion here. They did what they are wont to do; lights when up on the streets in the town center, a stage was erected in the plaza and an MC hired. Then in they came, from Zafra and from all the quiet little villages, dressed as pirates and hippies and princesses, to shake it to those persistent Mediterranean beats until the cleaning crews moved in at 7am.

It's fun, but the repetition wears me down. When Friday dawned warm and blue, I decided to blow it off and spend my five-day weekend in pursuit of the history of the Castellar. A book I've mentioned before promised cave paintings, and really, you can only listen to so much Shakira.

So Levi and I spent every day walking the paths and scaling the rocks of the ridges, and what we found totally validates my decision to be anti-social.

I know sadly little about this stuff, but I'm looking into it. All of this stuff was found along the mile-long ridge, scattered among 6 or 8 different sites. I'll go back and map it soon. For now, here's some photos.

A pendant and a spearhead, found on the highest ridge of the Castellar. These we (obviously) took home with us.

Series of dots in a pattern I can't make out. Ideas?

Sun on the cliff face

Another sun a few yards from the first, this one with a dot in the center. Below it to the left is a stick figure animal.

Inside a cave on the ridge.The leaf is my personal favorite painting.

In cave 2.

Levi investigating. Above his head is a bull's eye shape and some animals; to the right a leaf?

On the cliff face

In the first cave we found