Young Bull. 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 has a preserved height of 72 cm, a width of 121 cm and a thickness of 47 cm.Carved from a single block, it represents a young bull standing and erect. It is a hieratic sculpture devoid of movement. The head is rendered with great realism. The wrinkles of the skin are marked on the forehead with four wide parallel bands ending in a peak. From them emerges a group of wavy, parallel incised lines that extend to the front quarters. The eyes are almond-shaped and framed at the top by four incisions in the form of eyebrows. The muzzle has soft wrinkles. Remains of red paint are preserved on the rear legs.This sculpture, together with the so-called offering with caprids or the divinity of rams, is one of the two largest sculptures of the Cerrillo Blanco Sculptural Group. The size, weight, effort and human work that went into the transport and carving of the sculpture could correspond to a symbolic metrology, as this bull sculpture is an expression of the value of what is represented. The large rotund bull is standing, not lying down. It is a young animal, chosen for its age for the presentation: a feature that perhaps suggests its consecration prior to the sacrifice. It is a perfect plump specimen, a symbol of the richness of nature.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.