Rocky debate swirls around a squiggle on the “fingerlike menhir” at the entrance to the Dolmen of Guadalperal in Spain. (See https://ethicaldative.com/2022/09/17/the-dolmen-tells-the-wind-hard-weather-ahead/).

Opposite a vaguely anthropomorphic shape etched on the menhir’s side lies the squiggle. Angel Castaño, a philologist, believes it depicts the contours of the Tagus River before the hydroelectric dam was built. “The menhir may be the oldest realistic map in the world,” he says.

Primitiva Bueno Ramírez, an archaeologist, demurs. “The hypothesis of a map is based on a pareidolia,” she says. Dr. Bueno notes that the geometric squiggle resembles “twisty markings” widely found in European megalithic art. Her conclusion: It’s a snake.

(c) 2022 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved