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Verraco

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The Bulls of Guisando, in El Tiemblo, Castile and León, Spain.
The Sow of Murça, in Murça, Portugal.

The verracos (Spanish: verraco; Portuguese: berrão; literally 'boar'), in the Iberian Peninsula, are the Vettones's granite megalithic monuments, sculptures of animals as found in the west of the Iberian meseta – the high central plain of the Iberian Peninsula – in the Spanish provinces of Ávila, Salamanca, Segovia, Zamora, Cáceres, Ourense and the Portuguese provinces of Beira Baixa, Beiras e Serra da Estrela, Douro and Terras de Trás-os-Montes. Over 400 verracos have been identified.

The Spanish word verraco normally refers to boars, and the sculptures are sometimes called verracos de piedra (pigs of stone) to distinguish them from live animals. The stone verracos appear to represent not only pigs but also other animals. Some have been identified as bulls, and the village of El Oso, Ávila, named for "the Bear", has a verraco which supposedly represents a bear. Their dates range from the mid-fourth to first centuries BC. There are some similar zoomorphic monument markers in lands of Poland from the same period or older. [1]

Though they were perhaps not confined to a single usage, the verracos were an essential part of the landscape of the Vettones, one of the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula. It has generally been assumed, from their high visibility in their original open fields surroundings, that these sculptures had some protective religious significance, whether guarding the security of livestock or as funerary monuments (some of them bear Latin funerary inscriptions). The verracos are particularly numerous too in the vicinity of the walled Celtiberian communities that Romans had called oppida.

Verraco is also the root word of the native Philippine coffee, Kapeng barako. It is called this as culturally Barako in Philippine languages is equivalent to the English term "stud" (both literally and figuratively), from Spanish varraco, "wild boar" (baboy ramo in Tagalog). The word is associated with connotations of masculinity and machismo in Filipino culture.

Notable verracos

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Portugal

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Berrão head displayed in the Marvão Municipal Museum
  • Murça
    • Porca de Murça (literally the "Sow of Murça" in Portuguese, although the sculpture appears to represent a boar, i.e. a male rather than a female pig). The name has been taken to designate a red wine of the Douro district.[2]
  • Torre de Dona Chama
    • Berroa
  • Marvão
    • Head of berrão, with right eye clearly visible, found in the Abegoa area of Marvão. Today in Municipal Museum in Marvão.

Spain

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Castile and León

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Verraco in Mingorría, Castile and León, Spain.
Verraco located in the Plaza mayor of Villanueva del Campillo. It is the Vettones' largest zoomorphic sculpture found until now in the Iberian Peninsula.
Verracos in Villatoro, Castile and León, Spain.
Province of Ávila
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Province of Salamanca
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Verraco in Ciudad Rodrigo, Castile and León, Spain.
Province of Segovia
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  • Segovia (two verracos: a bull and a wild boar; today in the Museo Provincial).[3]
  • Coca (three verracos: two in front the City Gate of the Town[3] and one embedded in the castle's walls).
Province of Zamora
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Mule of Villardiegua de la Ribera, Castile and León, Spain.

Castile-La Mancha

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Province of Toledo
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Extremadura

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Province of Cáceres
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Further reading

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  • J. Leite de Vasconcelos, Religiões da Lusitânia, Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, Lisbon.
  • Eduardo Sánchez Moreno, 2000. Vetones: Historia y Arqueología de un pueblo prerromano (Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma)

References

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  1. ^ "Wożniak, Zenon (2004). PROBLEM ISTNIENIA CELTYCKIEGO NEMETONU NA ŚLĘŻY (in Polish). Przegląd Archeologiczny, Vol. 52, pp. 131–183" (PDF).
  2. ^ "Concelho de Murcaport". rtsmarao.pt.
  3. ^ a b MARTÍN, José Luis (1992). The Segovian sculpture. Segovia. pp. 231–235. ISBN 84-606-0909-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ City Council of La Puebla de Montalbán (2010). "El VII aniversario del Museo 'La Celestina' acercará al público el verraco encontrado en La Puebla". Archived from the original on June 29, 2012. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
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