Sculpture from the funerary chamber of Toya (Peal de Becerro, Jaén, Spain)

Sculpture in round bundle carved in limestone. It represents a herbivore that lacks his head. Currently this sculptural fragment is preserved in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional of Madrid. The burial chamber of Toya was discovered casually in 1909 by a farmer in the village of Peal de Becerro (Jaén), near the ancient Iberian Tugia. The place is located in the foothills of the Sierra de Cazorla, on the right bank of the Peal stream. The mound of Cerro de la Horca rises about four hundred meters above sea level and about sixty meters above the boundary lands. The cone is almost flat and the tomb is placed in half, half a meter deep. It is one of the best examples of Iberian princely tomb linked to a clientelistic society. The chamber has almost square floor plan (4.55 x 4.60 m) and a tripartite structure of elongated ships, in which the side stays are divided, in turn, into two differentiated spaces which gives it a subdivision in five departments. The center, which serves as an access, presents in its previous part a space as a lobby in which the entrance door is located. On both sides appear two communication openings with the side ships that constitute, thanks to their specific configuration and the way in which one of them is decorated, one of the most outstanding features of the structure of the building. The construction of the chamber has been dated in the fourth century B.C. Running banks and ledges served to place the cinerary urns and other ceramic objects that formed the funerary trousseau. The arch and lintel doors are of great architectural value. The building rests on a conglomerate of lime and boulders, on which rest the pavement slabs run below the walls. No care was taken to form spinning in the wall survey. The stone used is soft and very fine limestone, brought from Toya. Horizontal moats, nine or ten per ship, form the ceiling; the monument covered all of it with land. The dispersion of the materials appeared inside the chamber was immediate to its discovery. Most went on to swell the particular collections of important scholars of the moment. Over time these collections, or part of them, entered different museums, sometimes losing the reference of their origin. Other pieces, on the contrary, were lost forever. Later studies have managed to identify some of the dispersed materials that belonged to Toya’s chamber, such as the aforementioned sculpture of the herbivore cast. It has also been possible to document the existence of a hearse, which must have been dismantled next to the chamber door at the time of burial, and ceramics, highlighting a bell crater of red figures. On his face A appears a scene of apotheosis formed by six characters; in the center a male imberbe, naked and seated on his mantle turns his head, while holding a rod with his hand is crowned by two erotes. Behind another seated male, naked and bearded is accompanied by another naked young man. Opposite a seated and dressed woman holds in her hand a tinge. On the B-side there are three young men dressed in hymation. They complete the trousseau fragments of other attic craters and numerous Iberian vessels that can be dated in the fourth century B.C. Currently in the Provincial Museum of Jaén is exhibited a reproduction of the chamber and funerary objects from this burial. It can also be visited in its original location in the municipality of Peal de Becerro (Jaén), since it is one of the stops of the cultural route “Journey to the Time of the Iberos” with which it is intended to value the iberas first level traces existing in the province of Jaén. Bibliography: Madrigal, A.(1997): “The ajuar of the Iberian funerary chamber of Toya (Peal de Becerro, Jaén).” Prehistory work, 54 (1): 167-184. Mills, M. and Ruiz, A. (2015): “Del Cerrillo de la Sociedad de Hornos de Peal to the necróplolis del Cerro de la Horca de Toya,” in A. Ruiz y M. Molinos (coords.): Jaén, ibera land. 40 Years of Research and Transfer. University of Jaén: 55-67.