Scene of Young Wrestlers. Cerrillo Blanco Sculptural Group (Porcuna, Jaén, Spain)

High relief sculpted 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 preserves a height of 92 cm, a width of 68 cm and a maximum thickness of 30 cm.It represents a training session between young aristocrats. This scene is part of a group of sculptures that show initiation activities of the young aristocrats of Cerrillo Blanco. As with hunting, wrestling was another formative activity of the aristocratic spirit among the Iberians.The wrestlers are held by their hands and belts, which in this case are round and thick. It appears that the young man on the right is attempting to trip the one on the left over. Both are wearing short tunics with "V" necklines at the front and back and short sleeves up to the elbow. The tunics, very tight, end at the top of the thighs, showing loose folds in the front. Both fighters are barefoot and have their heads covered by caps, possibly made of leather.This high-relief, which is cut at mid-body height to finish the figures in three dimensions, shows a great sense of movement, and gives us a glimpse of the skill in the arena required by the training of a young aristocrat.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.