Griffin. Sculptural group of El Pajarillo (Huelma, Jaén, Spain)

A sculpture with a round lump representing the head of a tap. It is very deteriorated, although it is appreciated the border that separates the neck of the face, as well as slight signs of the eyes and the crest that would go longitudinally along the dorsal neck. The dimensions are: Height = 45.5 cm Width = 32 cm Thickness = 24 cm This piece comes from the Heroic Sanctuary of El Pajarillo. It forms a couple with another griffin figure and is associated with two other sculptures representing lions. Both pairs of animals, without actively participating in the main scene represented, serve as a stage frame helping to explain it. Lions are complementary pieces, which are interpreted as elements that flank both sides of the access ladder to the interior of the monument. The incomplete carving and the voluntarily rough surface of one side of each figure seems to reaffirm this proposal. These pieces follow the models of feline characteristic of the Iberian world, although with some own features. Although both heads are missing, they had to maintain the frontality so common in the Iberian statue. On the contrary the body, that in the s. V B.C. is usually light, schematic and thin extremities, it has here a greater volume, appreciating a clear study of the muscles and the invisible bone structure. The heaviness of the body, without signs of movement, reveals that felines are not involved in the main scene. However, its presence gives the whole and the building itself a special character, related to the highest hierarchical values. The gripho specimens are also fragmented. They are griphos with raptor beak and feline body, as indicated by the mouth without teeth and the start of the forelegs. They lack the curls of the ancient specimens, and yet a longitudinal crest is strongly highlighted as crinera. The novelty is that it is a couple, which makes think that they could flank some access or, more probably, place themselves framing the main scene. His presence refers us to a fantastic world that proclaims the exceptional of the action represented and the heroic character of the protagonist. There is a link here with the funerary world, in which these monsters inhabit, and which probably gives the representation of a mythical and timeless character. The sanctuary of El Pajarillo was documented in a place located at the head of the river Jandulilla (Huelma, Jaén, Spain), just at the point where the river becomes such by converting several streams that pour from Sierra Mágina. Chronologically it has a limited sequence that begins with the fourth century B.C., but does not advance much beyond the middle of that same century. The sculptural group discovered in this place is currently preserved in the Provincial Museum of Jaén where it is part of the permanent collection and can be visited. In addition to these animals, the monument is made up of a large figure of a carnivore interpreted as a wolf, similar figures of smaller size that could be dogs or wolves, and two human sculptures, a naked male and a male character dressed in short robes and covered by a mantle that collects on the left hand to protect her while with the right grabs a falcata that she wears in the red. The monument has been interpreted as the representation and legitimation of the aristocratic power that controls a territory that exceeds the direct hinterland of an oppidum, Úbeda la Vieja (Iltiraka) in this case. The absence of stable settlement in a wide space indicates that what is intended with the location of the monument was to point out the limits of the controlled space and it was done in the most appropriate place: at the very entrance of the valley, where the passage was narrower and where it was necessarily forced to circulate. In this way, the very symbology of the sculptural group that crowned the monument must be related to the colonization. The idea of controlling the unknown, the mysterious, of dominating the uncontrolled nature, enhances the social role of the sociopolitical direction of colonization. Bibliography: Mills, M, Chapa, T.; Ruiz, A.Pereira, J.; RIsquez, C.; Madriga, A.; Stephen, A.Mayoral, V. and Llorente, M. (1998): El Santuario Heroico del Pajarillo (Huelma, Jaén) Provincial Council of jaén, University of Jaén. Consejería de Cultura of the Junta de Andalucía v Centro Andaluz de Arqueología Ibérica. Jaén. Mills, M, Chapa, T.; Ruiz, A. and Pereira, J.(2015): “El Pajarillo sanctuary, Huelma,” in A. Ruiz and M. Molinos (eds.): Jaén, Iberian land 40 years of research and transfer. University of Jaén.