Griffin’s Head. Cerrillo Blanco Sculptural Group (Porcuna, Jaén, Spain)

Three-dimensional sculpture carved in white calcarenite stone. It is dated to the 5th century BC and belongs to the culture of the Iberians. It comes from the heroon of Cerrillo Blanco in the municipality of Porcuna, Jaén province, Spain.It represents the head of a mythological animal, a griffin. Its preserved height is 46 cm and its width 30 cm.The head stands out for its great expressive force both facing and in profile. The crest is divided into three large waves in front and from it begins a row of curly hair that continues on the head and beak. Attached to this crest of hair are both raised ears. In front of the crest and the ears, separated by an incision in the centre of the forehead, two locks of hair begin and descend the face in soft waves that end in volutes. Two similar but longer partings emerge from behind the ears and the curled hair of the muzzle. The eyes are almond-shaped and strongly emphasised. They are very well marked with deep incisions that also indicate the inside corners of the eyes. The eyebrows are protruding and are marked with five parallel incisions that start from the beak and are lost below the crease of the face. The beak is marked with a double parallel incision and a strong rim that marks its slit. The neck is very strong, giving a sense of strength to this piece.This sculpture is part of the mythical animal representations in this sculptural ensemble. These animals do not interact with any of the human characters in the group and, highlighting the mythical environment, they constitute the metaphorical bases of the landscapes expressed in the monument.Cerrillo Blanco is an Iberian cemetery and sacred area located on a hill north of the present-day town of Porcuna, ancient Ipolka in Iberian times and Obulco in the Roman period. It is an area of memory and a long chronological sequence with intermediate breaks. It began with an initial phase in the Late Bronze Age and reached the peak of its development at the end of the 7th century BC with the construction of a collective tumulus. At the end of the 5th century BC, the tumulus was used as the hiding place for a large although extensively damaged sculptural group from a nearby heroon. The sculptures had been violently destroyed and their identifying features eliminated. They were buried in two ditches around the late 7th-century-BC tumulus. The collection consists of 1,400 fragments from sculpted figures of humans (warriors, mythical combats, ancestors, the divinity) and the animals that defined the territory and mythical space. Together they represent some of the basic principles of the southern Iberian societies’ heroic aristocratic worldview. In summary, the Cerrillo Blanco sculptural group expresses the power of a family lineage at the origin of the Iberian aristocracies of the Alto Guadalquivir.The Cerrillo Blanco sculptures are currently on display at the Jaén Iberian Museum. The Porcuna (Jaén) archaeological site can also be visited as a stop on the "Journey to the Time of the Iberians" cultural itinerary, which aims to focus attention on the important remains of the Iberian culture in the province of Jaén.References:Chapa, T. (2015): “Los escultores del Cerrillo Blanco de Porcuna”. En Ruiz A., Molinos M. (eds.): Jaén, tierra íbera. 40 años de investigación y transferencia. Universidad de Jaén, Jaén. 85-92.Olmos, R. (2002): "Los grupos escultóricos del Cerrillo Blanco de Porcuna (Jaén). Un ensayo de lectura iconográfica convergente". Archivo Español de Arqueología, 75: 107-122. Olmos, R. (2004): “Los príncipes esculpidos de Porcuna (Jaén): una aproximación de la naturaleza y de la historia”. Boletín del Instituto de Estudios Giennenses, 189: 19-46.Ruiz, A. y Molinos, M. (2015): "El conjunto escultórico de Cerrillo Blanco, Porcuna". En Ruiz, A. y Molinos, M. (eds.). Jaén, tierra íbera. 40 años de investigación y transferencia. Universidad de Jaén, Jaén. 67-84.Torrecillas, J. F. (1985): La necrópolis de época tartésica de Cerrillo Blanco. Instituto de Estudios Giennenses. Jaén.