Do you know what this symbol is?

[Anemone del Camino]

Found on the Camino near Portomarin.

It has the French FB Forum wondering ....

 

[HedaP]

Was wondering the same. Only saw this symbol the once on a granite bolder beside the path just past Portomarin. It wasn't there in 2015. Took a fairly bad pic in April this year.

 

[nycwalking]

A lion?

 

[simply B]

@Anemone del Camino -

It does not match any identified/catalogued image in my library from W. Europe. My best guesses:

- are a stylized griffon/gryphon/gryffin... but it seems to be an image from an age earlier and region different than which I am familiar.

a. The upper two appendages in the image could be the wings in different aspects of presentation. Either that or one of them is raised in a weaponized foreleg and the wings to the right are both overlapped. (If a dragon, the shortened tail suggests a female representation.)

b. The two back legs and tail are pretty standard representation for the various spellings of griffon.

c. The front legs (two appendages below the wings) . One is occluding the image of the other, kinda like the Buffalo nickel in the States in the past. It is not typical for such a symbol as this representation reduces the intended "masculine" power of the image.

Perhaps there is someone here who has knowledge of such a symbol from Eastern Europe through Mesopotamia?

- Then, of course, it could be a bored artist coming up with a personal symbol?

B

 

[Anemone del Camino]

@JillGat suggested the Templar Rooster.

 

[Bradypus]

I think it may be the new name for "the author formerly known as Brierley"

 

[Kieran Kenneally]

The guy who normally paints the yellow arrows perhaps went on the sauce and was expressing his artistic side.

 

[Hiawatha]

I came across it as well , it seemed to have been recently treated to some gold gilt work .

 

[barb77]

I think it may be the new name for "the author formerly known as Brierley"

after struggling with his guide, I agree

 

[rappahannock_rev]

I think it may be the new name for "the author formerly known as Brierley"

Can't stop smiling at this. Thank you, Bradypus - you nailed it!

 

[Sixwheeler]

Isn't that what Prince became when he was "...the artist formerly known as Prince"?

 

[Pei2spain]

Looks like something you'd see in Game of Thrones!

LOL....I thought the same thing......House Lannister, I'd guess!!

 

[Deleted member 12253]

Found on the Camino near Portomarin.

It has the French FB Forum wondering ....

Direc

Found on the Camino near Portomarin.

It has the French FB Forum wondering ....

No idea

 

[HedaP]

Found on the Camino near Portomarin.

It has the French FB Forum wondering ....

Going through my photos today and found another symbol. Clearly by the same person. Somewhere between Estella and Navarette. Pretty sure around the 18 km mark before Logrono. Many hundreds of kilometres from Portomarin. Up market grafitti? The design is etched into the stone so someone has out a lot of work into them.
This time happily a better photo than my last one.

 

[HedaP]

Intriguing. I can't tell from the photo how large and heavy the stone is but wondered: if the symbol is ancient/valuable it would haven been nicked by now .... I did not notice it but then I miss a lot of stuff along the way.

Perhaps Dan Brown is planning a new mega bestseller and this already in preparation of a later marketing plan?

I'd describe both stones as boulders. Not even the most penetant would attempt to carry either to Cruz de Ferro. Symbol is definitely not ancient. I wonder if the stones were put in place after the symbols had been added elsewhere? I wished I'd paid more attention to their surroudings. I'm guessing the aim of the sculptor(?) is to generate just this sort of speculation but whoever did them has put a lot of time and effort into them.
Was thinking more along the lines of Paulo Coelho than Dan Brown?

 

[Kieran Kenneally]

I came across it as well , it seemed to have been recently treated to some gold gilt work .

Maybe the artist had misgivings and is now on a 'Gilt' trip

 

[Kieran Kenneally]

Intriguing. I can't tell from the photo how large and heavy the stone is but wondered: if the symbol were ancient/valuable it would have been nicked by now .... I did not notice it but then I miss a lot of stuff along the way.

Perhaps Dan Brown is planning a new mega bestseller and this already in preparation of a later marketing plan?

You might not be far from the truth there Katharina During captivity, Israelites would have become familiar with the griffin image. Both Persians and Assyrians decorated with images of this magical beast. Images of two griffins drinking from a flaming cup were common in the Persian religion, Zorastrianism. Later, the Crusaders, coming across this image, would be reminded of the Eucharist and the cup of fire became associated with the Holy Grail.Next best seller waiting to happen???????

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

Angels or birds? Many questions I know cannot be answered here. Need carbon dating and 3D imaging......

 

[alaskadiver]

Going through my photos today and found another symbol. Clearly by the same person. Somewhere between Estella and Navarette. Pretty sure around the 18 km mark before Logrono. Many hundreds of kilometres from Portomarin. Up market grafitti? The design is etched into the stone so someone has out a lot of work into them.
This time happily a better photo than my last one.
View attachment 35759

Not the same design but clearly the same style. They remind me of certain types of runes.

 

[julia-t]

There are similarities with the 3 legged crow, the Japanese symbol of the Kumano Kodo, another Unesco pilgrimage trail, and linked with the Camino.

 

[cher99840]

It looks like an ancient weapon to me.

 

[Kathar1na]

I don't really like Facebook but it can be such a treasure trove. And what a pity (again) that Anemone del Camino who started this thread is no longer a member of this forum. So, thanks to a FB group I follow: The creator of this modern rock art is a Dutch artist, E. Pietersen of ZEPWORKS.

Here's a blog entry (in Dutch) where it is mentioned that he had just returned from Spain to have a look at his work and to check whether anything needs restoration. Pietersen is a sculptor, a painter and also a stonemason. I don't know where exactly these rocks are on the Camino Frances and how many there are. I didn't notice a single one of them.

Below two images from Spain and another one of a sample of his work with similar symbols. They are just symbols created by an artist. What we see in them is up to us.

 

[henrythedog]

Good effort Kather1na. Most people would have forgotten this in the two years since the last post.

Interesting pictures - but when does graffiti become art? On another thread only a day or two ago there was a queue of posters lining up to flog someone for their less-artistic painting.

 

[Darby67]

I've seen these a few times in early 2018 near Paradela. In 2019 I noticed one leaving Torres del Rio. Evocative and interesting but there is plenty of that type of graffiti. Not sure how chiseling into a stone and painting in it and taking a permanent marker to it are any different. I 'value' one over but...

 

[Kathar1na]

I've seen these a few times in early 2018 near Paradela. In 2019 I noticed one leaving Torres del Rio. Evocative and interesting but there is plenty of that type of graffiti. Not sure how chiseling into a stone and painting in it and taking a permanent marker to it are any different. I 'value' one over but...

The blog entry that I quoted earlier dates from October 2016 so I guess these stones with these chiseled and gilded images must have been there since 2016 and most likely earlier. Very few people seem to notice them or seem to be bothered by them. Judging by the photos, they don't seem to be attention seeking.

 

[RJM]

Painting a symbol on a rock and drawing/painting/writing graffiti onto public property, and or private property without permission are two completely different things. Those rocks were not built/constructed/placed etc with public/private monies. It does not cost anybody anything in damages, at least in the cases of those rocks. No doubt there are large, ancient rock formations in parks etc that are maintained by a government and any graffiti damage/vandalism to them would have a cost to taxpayer's. If those rocks bothered me too much I would always have the option of simply pitching them off the route. Down into a deep ditch or whatever. Out of sight, out of mind. Do not have that option when the graffiti damage occurs to Camino path markers or information/traffic signs.

 

[Darby67]

The blog entry that I quoted earlier dates from October 2016 so I guess these stones with these chiseled and gilded images must have been there since 2016 and most likely earlier. Very few people seem to notice them or seem to be bothered by them.

I've seen these as a topic with other pilgrims in the winter and also on FB and here several times over the last couple of years. One gentlemen was sure they were ancient Templar carvings. I think they are noticed but with all of the other eye catching things they just become part of the noise. I've photographed each one that I have seen as I do find them interesting. The ones that I remember from Galicia were carved not in rocks but in large slabs of bedrock.

I do believe it is human nature, embedded in our DNA, to use this early form of social media and I suppose we will always be judge and jury in how we define it: art vs. graffiti.

 

[Kathar1na]

Interesting pictures - but when does graffiti become art?

Perhaps when it is not immediately recognisable as graffiti? I think there is another forum thread about what we now know is contemporary rock art but I couldn't find it. People who noticed these gilded stone carvings are wondering what they are, who made them, how old they are ...

Nobody wonders about the stuff - "Love wins" or whatever - that's currently discussed in the other thread. We immediately know what it is, many of us know it from our cities, we don't want to see more of it, especially when it's repetitive and just out of place, and when it's hard to detect even a trace of creativity and originality or uniqueness in it.