Casasa Viejas and standing stones continued

 19th Jan 2011

It always seemed unfeasable that the story of the monoliths with the archelogical park in El Mollar. There is a fair bit to catchg up on.

            The other evening, I found an opportunity to chat to Lucho our host and Estela’s husband. He had come across us strolling down to the lake to see the sunset on his way to his herd Astride a horse and with the usual gaggle of dogs of different shapes and sizes in tow. He offered Paola a ride on his horse and walked along with me.

            I was interested to hear his opinion about the menhir park. The Stones, he told me, had been ‘robbed’ from various locations in the valley and put above the main Road, and then moved again to the archiological park. He echoed my sentiments about the lack of any feelingf of presence in the park. ‘It is the place that is important’ He Said. He advised me to Go to El Rincón where He assured me that there were places where you could ‘really feel something’ El Rincón I knew was where a great deal of the monoliths had been removed from.

            Lucho also confirmed something I had already discovered, that there were important archiological sites near his house including standing Stones that had not been removed.  The name of the indigenous community ‘Casas Viejas’ of course means ‘old houses’ in Spanish. The land on which Casa Viejas is strewn with boulders, perhaps I had thought cynically why it had been set aside for the Indians ; ‘rock growing country’as Paola put it referring to her family’s in joke about their ancestral land in Northern Italy. With some time and observation however, the land becomes more than ajumble of rocks and reveals the remenents of human constructions – ancestral dwellings, the most striking being the two or three circles of Stones of about ten paces in diameter. One had a large upright Stone placed at what seemed to be the entrance. We found a cluster of three on the mountain side off the Road to Tafi, the next town. There is also one in Lucho’s garden, where I am sitting writing this with a pear tree planted in the centre, whose shade I am enjoying very much in the heat of the afternoon.

 upright stone . Part of a circle of stones at Casa Viejas

 circle of stones, remnants ancient building , Casas Viejas