Hunter with Hare and Dog. Cerrillo Blanco Sculptural Group (Porcuna, Jaén, Spain)

High relief 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 preserves a height of 80 cm and a width of 60 cm. This scene forms part of a group of sculptures that show initiation activities of the young aristocrats of Cerrillo Blanco.It represents a young hunter with a hare accompanied by a dog. Hunting was the domain and characteristic of the aristocracy. Young people were initiated into it through running and skill. The hunted hare is proof of that speed, the symbol and mirror of cunning. The dog and the hunter are walking to the right. The young man is putting his left leg forward, while his right leg remains bent. The dog, in perfect synchronicity of movement with its owner, also places its right hind leg forward while the left leg is flexed, keeping the two front paws practically at the same height. His head is turned forward. A complicity between animal and man is manifested. Feet and paws intersect; the hunter strokes the dog's head and both turn to the viewer, whom they would surely have faced.The young hunter is wearing a short tunic with a "V" neckline at the front and back, short sleeves to the elbow and a loose fold at the crotch. The tunic is cinched with a belt. He is striding forward with the trophy, a hare whose excessive size highlights the hunter's merit, in his hand. He holds it tightly and it hangs alongside his body as far as his knees, where its head rests, suspended by his long hind legs.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.