Weird Shell

[jungleboy]

Or not! Just for fun, anyone want to guess what this is, and why it's on the ground in a camino city?



P.S. If you already know the answer, maybe give a hint or two but not spoilers!

 

[trecile]

It looks like it's meant to be some kind of animal track.

 

[Turga]

Well, seems to have something to do with someone having a long nose

 

[jungleboy]

Well, seems to have something to do with someone having a long nose

Proboscis monkey maybe!

 

[lovingkindness]

Bear print? As El Camino is signed in most european countries, and there are bears lurking behind many a tree, it could be almost anywhere.

Cheers

 

[Caomhin O Fearghaill]

Did someone make it to Santiago by elephant?

 

[CWBuff]

It looks like it's meant to be some kind of animal track.

Bear print?

My first thought.

On a serious note the large part is reminiscent of a heraldic shield so... perhaps ... something like "city-state with it's satellites" ?

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I first thought of a bear print, too, or a war shield, but then not sure what the four blobs would be.

 

[lovingkindness]

Did someone make it to Santiago by elephant?

Hannibal? Predating ג'יימס / lacobus/ Iago-James- etc....

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Edit: Nope.

 

[jungleboy]

Did someone make it to Santiago by elephant?

Now we're getting somewhere!

 

[Stephan the Painter]

Now we're getting somewhere!

You've got me really curious. An online search for elephant tracks and Camino resulted in nothing. It does seem to say something at the bottom of the medallion....

...and I sleuthed it : From Wikipedia:
"The Elephant's Journey is a novel by Novel by Nobel prize winning author Jose Seramago.

In 1551, King Jao 111 of Portugall gave Archduke Maxamillian an unusual wedding present: an elephant named Solomon. This elephant's journey from Lisbon to Vienna was witnessed and remarked upon by scholars, historians, and ordinary people. Out of this material, José Saramago has spun a novel already heralded as "a triumph of language, imagination, and humor."


And it seems to say in Portuguese something about the foundation José Saramago. So I'm guessing it's a plaque in Lisbon commemorating the book and/or journey?

 

[henrythedog]

We have a slightly less impressive commemoration of an elephant which escaped from a circus, in less enlightened times, close to where I live.

Rather than a splendid brass footprint we have ‘Jumbo’s’ Chinese takeaway.