O Pedrón: time and a stone in northwest Iberia

Abstract

The granite block of O Pedrón, a recarved Roman altar to Neptune, is an object of veneration at the church of St. James in the town of Padrón along the Camino de Santiago in Galicia, northwest Iberia. I use this enchanting object as a vehicle for thinking about materials, assemblages, and time, engaging with ideas drawn from Bergson, Benjamin, Deleuze, and Husserl. I describe how O Pedrón has participated in events across two millennia: the Roman colonization of Iron Age Iberia; the medieval creation of the cult of Santiago; and a contemporary push for tourism. The concept of assemblage helps us visualize the sensory, emotional, political, and other dimensions connected with the stone. The emergent properties of assemblages move not only forward but backward in time, in a process characterized by Husserl and Gell as protension and retension.