Lady of Cerro Alcalá (Torres, Jaén, Spain)

The Lady of Cerro Alcalá (Torres, Jaén, Spain) is a sculptural fragment that represents a bidding female figure, fragmented. It lacks the head, the neck, the left shoulder, the left side zone from the hip and both legs almost entirely. It preserves reddish paint on the back. Viste tunic and two mantos, one of them with a wide fold. It is adorned with three necklaces of different shapes and size. One of them alternates ornaments in the shape of an aphoriscus and medallions with amulets, strung to a cord or wire. The second is similar, but has a greater number of pendants. The third, larger, is a smooth torques. This feminine image, although exceptional from the point of view of its context, responds to a well-known iconographic scheme in Upper Guadalquivir, which has its maximum expansion from the second half of the fourth century B.C. through a different support: the small bronzes of the sanctuaries of Collado de los Jardines (Santa Elena) and Cueva de la Lobera (Castellar). The attire is quite significant, reflecting on the entity of the person represented. He is not spared in intentional details that help to build the ideal image of the aristocrat woman. In fact, the dress actively contributes to the expression of rank, but also as a distinctive element of class, of female maturity, religious role and the social space of women. The dress fulfills, therefore, an approval and coding with a social background reading. What is clear through the analysis of the feminine attire is that the model that includes this sculpture is well fixed in the social and religious ideology of the ibera aristocracy. Cerro Alcalá is located at kilometer 13, and on the left edge of the road that leads from Mancha Real to Jimena; its extension belongs to the term Torres, although it also occupies part of Jimena’s. It is a large plastered hill, located on the left bank of the Torres River, subsidiary of Guadalquivir in its upper section, which presents a long chronological sequence. Some materials of the Copper age have been documented and it seems to have a continued occupation from the Final Bronze to the Medieval period, corresponding in Roman times with the Ossigi Latonium that cite the sources. As far as the Iberian stage is concerned, an oppida of medium size has been identified that has a strategic position, controlling the route that connects Sierra Mágina with the Guadalquivir Valley. At this time the settlement would occupy a large part of the surface of the hill. The surface ceramics are attached to the Iberian Plenum and some fragments to the Ancient Iberian, which chronologically dates the settlement between the VI-IV centuries B.C. Attic ceramics of the fourth century have also been found occasionally. In two excavation campaigns carried out in 1986 and 1987, two necropolis zones were found associated with the oppidum. The first, called Era Alta de Caniles, is made up of burials in pit (all of them plundered), covered with adobes attached to the Iberian Plenary, and three burners in large and shallow pit (ustrina) with remains of metallic trousseau. The pits are rectangular and are covered inside by clay walls or red tapial. Some have a stone foundation. The cemetery seems to belong to a well-off social segment and can be chronologically realized in the early years of the fourth century B.C. It is in a small elevation at the foot of the northern slope of the hill. In this same elevation, called Cerro de Caniles, there are also structures of irregular fortification, of limestone worked to rope, without bastion, which has a perimeter of 500-1000 meters long, by 200-500 meters wide. Many remains have been found, today in the hands of private individuals or museums: basas, fustes, ashlars, capitals, inscriptions, etc. It stands out a vase of copper and silver griego-punic and the so-called Lady of Alcalá. The second cemetery of Cerro Alcalá is in the area called La Tosquilla, a small elevation southwest of the hill. These are burials in hole and tumular structures in stone of different sizes and typology. On the surface were attic ceramics, ceramics decorated with red varnish and bands and brass tools. Three moments of occupation were detected: The first one would correspond to the second half of the sixth century B.C., defined by a Toya urn, of clear decorated paste and black ceramics. Funerary urns would not be covered. The second would correspond to the first half of the fourth century B.C., defined by ceramics of the Iberian Plenary. Funerary urns covered by a dish or bowl. Finally, the third one would be from the end of the first century B.C., defined by a partial burial under teggle (exceptional and isolated). Between both necropolis there are great similarities. Bibliography: Negueruela, I.Rodríguez, P and Avellá, L. (1990): “Preliminary report of the 1987 excavation campaign in the cemetery Las Tosquillas. Cerro Alcalá (Torres, Jaén).” Archaeological yearbook of Andalusia 1987-2. Junta de Andalucía: 294-300. Risquez, C. and Rueda, C (2015): “The Lady of Cerro Alcalá. An Aristocrat of Ossigi,” in A. Ruiz and M. Molinos (eds.): Jaén, Iberian land 40 Years of research and transfer. University of Jaén.177-188.