Two old bats go Visigoth hunting

Rock tombs in the Sierra Martilla

Saturday 8 April 2017

After a couple of days travel recovery time we got itchy feet and planned to explore the Sierra Martilla where we had heard there are dolmens. An interesting drive up the camino rural (there are rumours the potholes are going to be mended) at the back of the house took us up the Priego road to Ventorros de San Jose and the turning towards the sierra. 

This is one of the important archaeological sites of Granada province (see http://www.turgranada.es/fichas/dolmenes-de-sierra-martilla-46823/# ) , but don't expect Stonehenge! There's parking for a car or two at the bottom of the track up the hill, by the information board and, if you want to chance your tyres etc you could drive further up the track.

Information board at the bottom of the track (blue dots)

It's quite awkward to look at the board, especially the map, in detail as it is at the top of a steep bank! We thought we would follow the markers and hopefully end up at the right place. The first bit was easy, uphill, on a wide track and with some very pretty spring flowers - loads of asphodels and cistus, as well as catkins on the oak trees.

The concrete track began to peter out ,but we found a marker post, and kept on in the same direction a bit further before we found a rather weathered "Tumbas rupestres" sign.

THE marker post. We didn't find any others :(

"Rock tombs". At least the signage blends in with the surroundings...

Wandering around through the monte we did indeed find an awful lot of tombs (there are said to be over 40), which formed a Visigoth (6th/7th century) necropolis. These are carved out of the bedrock and really aren't very deep. Either it was too much work or perhaps they were originally covered with loose stones etc?

A bit about the Visigoths - in the 7th C this part of Spain - the Vega de Granada - was on the boundary of the Visigoth kingdom and the Byzantine lands.

Bathtub tombs, above the escarpment on the west side of the Sierra Martilla

Capacious rectangular tombs

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Narrower rectangular tombs

 The tombs didn't seem to be in a particular orientation though we didn't actually measure them. There were various shapes - trapezoidal, rectangular and "bathtub" but they were all quite shallow. 

The country rock is a bioclastic, calcareous sandstone and cross-stratification can be seen on vertical surfaces such as the inside walls of some tombs 

We'd heard there were dolmens here too, so walked north-west along the crest of the crags to see what we could find.  We enjoyed the walk - there were views westwards to Iznajar and its reservoir, a steep craggy drop on the left, and a more gentle slope down through olive groves on the right. 

Walking along the top of the crags

Iznajar reservoir

Sadly we found no dolmens along the way, They are apparently 3rd millennium BCE - Copper Age - so if you count the present day farmhouses, this site has been occupied for 5,000 years!

Reaching a marker post (El Trig Punto?) we had a final look around, finding a gatepost (or was it a menhir?) and an odd, deep hole!

The end of the ridge

Well, it's a stone, and it's standing... nice view of the lake!

A strange hole?

We wondered if we should check further down slope, so walked back through the oliveros to the rock tombs and had another look around in that area. There were heaps of stones, rather too many to be from merely field clearance, but with no particular pattern to them.

Back through the monte and olive groves

Abundant stone heaps near the necropolis

 

Tried hard to turn these into hut circles (literature refers to cabanas here) but couldn't convincingly manage more than roughly circular heaps of stones

Orchids

A pity we drew a blank on the dolmens in particular. Apparently after those there was Romano-Iberian occupation, and following that a Visigoth settlement and the necropolis we found. Checking online later, it looks as though the dolmens are just NW of the necropolis area, so we must have walked within metres of them. Good excuse for another trip!

A bonus

We stopped off in Ventorros de San Jose for a beer and tapa afterwards and were delighted to see the millstones and quernstones decorating the restaurant terrace!

Quernstones with a hole to one side for the handle

Millstones - this one was granite - make tables

This one was a very porous tufa type limestone

The tapas were good too - pork stew and chips!!!! So, we know where to refuel when we pay the return visit!