Indalo Man Early Picture
June 8th, 2008 - Chris MarshallI have written about the Indalo man before, in fact as far back as March 2007 which makes it one of the first posts that we did on the site, but I was browsing through some stuff the other day and came across this picture of the very first Indalo man – sometimes known as the Indalico or Mojacar man.
Further research came up with this fact:
The prehistoric cave painting that came to be the Indalo man was first identified by the local archaeologist Antonio Gongorra Martinez in 1868, when he published his book “Antigüedades arqueológicas de Andalucia”, based upon his study of a large cave in the north of Almeria that was covered in ancient paintings. It’s value and importance was confirmed by later studies at the turn of the century, and in 1924 the area was designated a National Monument of History. On the 5th December 1998 UNESCO declared it to be a World Heritage site. Currently, the cave is off limits to visitors.
A few facts and myths
The name Indalo comes from ‘Indalecio’ (a reasonably common Almerian name). The first bishop of Spain was apparently both an Almerian and an ‘Indalecio’. The name was adopted by the artist group (José Perceval, Canton Checa et al) and the totem was called Indalo. Hitherto, the only name it ever had was ‘el pequeño hombrecillo mojaquero’. The sign is certainly used in Mojácar long before the Indalianos showed up.
The Indalo was the Mojácar sign until the mayor (who is currenty mayor of Los Gallardos) signed it away to the Almería tourist authority in the late ‘eighties when places like Adra started painting a rather hunch-backed version of the totem on the sides of their trucks. In exchange, Mojacar got a brand new design – a sun coming up over a jagged mountain!
It was in 1946 when Jesus de Perceval, painter and intellectual, disciple of the somewhat anarchic philosopher Eugenio d’Ors, adopted this local symbol as the flag of his new school of thought and painting, which took as its base the “vital position, the cosmovision of the Almerian, and the essence of ancient and past civilisations before our own”, in order to “continue the great cycle of reinnovation and reinvention of classical classicism as a movement that cycles for eternity”.
Other Sources of Information
David Jackson
Arte Rupestre
Nueva Acrópolis Almería
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November 6th, 2008 at 10:07
[...] beaches, and the tourist resort is good if you like that sort of thing! The area is known for its Indalo, a cave painting representing a tribal witch doctor with a serpent. It was discovered in the Cave [...]