The Conxo castrum and the petroglyphs

The castriño de Conxo (Conxo's small castrum) is located between A Rocha and the city of Santiago, at the parish of Santa María de Conxo next to the N-550 road (coming from Santiago towards Pontevedra), near the street by the name of Volta do Castro.

It is a castro culture settlement typical of the Iron Age in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Although its existence is little known, the area is named after it. Currently all it can be made out is what might have been an oval-shaped enclosure, where handmills and pottery were unearthed. They have been dated between the 7th and the 1st century BCE, although we cannot determine when exactly within this wide range of time.

What really made the Castriño famous was the presence of a peculiar granitic slab with prehistoric engravings or petroglyphs.

By Patricia Mañana (INCIPIT, CSIC)

They were discovered by Ramón Sobrino Buhigas in 1935. They show an assortment of weapons and symbols from the early Bronze Age, perhaps from early 2nd millennium BCE.

These representations were unique in Galicia for many years in the wide repertoire of Galician petroglyphs and date back to much earlier time than the castro enclosure. We can still see today, when the vegetation does not cover it, daggers and halberds next to some representations hard to make out but which, judging by their shape and their association to weapons, many authors define as shields. It seems, therefore, an image of the weapons of warriors from the earlier times of the use of metal, whether copper or already bronze, represented with allegedly religious purposes.

This petroglyph was traced being the first time reverse moulding was used in Galicia. It is kept at Estudios Galegos Padre Sarmiento.

The Conxo castrum and the petroglyphs

Symbols, daggers and halberds by the road.

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