Warrior of falcata I. Sculptural group of Cerrillo Blanco (Porcuna, Jaén, Spain)

Sculpture in a round package of which only the central part is preserved. He represents a warrior in a fighting position judging by the inclination of the figure forward. The breaks of the piece only allow to appreciate some features of its clothing. Thus, in the back is observed part of the plume that falls on the warrior’s back. It can also be observed that it has a wide belt with four reinforcements, serving one of them as a fastening of the sheath that it carries on its left side. It is a very long sheath, with the longitudinal features very marked, corresponding to a large or falcata sword. He wears a short robe, with faldellín and double folds ahead and behind. Possibly this sculpture was made to be seen on the left side, since this part is treated much more than the right. Chronology: 450-400 B.C. Dimensions Height = 78 cm Width = 40 cm Maximum thickness = 39 cm Weight = 84.5 Kg This sculpture together with the Warrior of falcata II would form a scene within the group of duels, the wider and more complex group of the whole of Cerrillo Blanco. War defines the space and time of aristocratic representation. The war is conceived as a sum of individual or monomachian fighting. In Porcuna we collect five cases of duels that constitute a real seriation of the usual scenes of a single duel: in one the defeated rider is standing; he has released the shield when he receives the impact of a falcata on his body, in another the rider has fallen and raises his arm to assist the leg of the winning warrior, a third scene shows the character lying on the ground touched of death because a spear crosses him from the back and by En face. However, it is not the dismissal of a mourning because the deaths of the defeated are different: with falcata wound on the left side of the trunk, with spear on the face or with wound on the right shoulder, on the contrary they are different duels that refer to some collective fact that can respond to a ritual of games of fight with death or to the narration of a past fact that were protagonists the adult warriors of the lineage. It is significant that almost all of the heads have been crushed when the monument was destroyed. The faces of both groups, victors and defeated, have been meticulously shattered, reflecting a deep aristocratic conception: if both groups have the right to memory, destruction affects both equally. The glory of the victor does not exist without his mirror of the defeated: both are heroes and complement each other. Currently the sculptures from Cerrillo Blanco can be visited in the Provincial Museum of Jaén and the archeological site in Porcuna (Jaén) is also visible, 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 Chapa, T. (2015): “Los escultores del Cerrillo Blanco de Porcuna,” in A. Ruiz y M. Molinos (coord.): Jaén, ibera land. 40 years of research and transfer. University of Jaén. Jaén. Olmos, R. (2002): “The sculptural groups of Cerrillo Blanco de Porcuna (Jaén). A convergent iconographic reading essay.” Spanish Archive of Archaeology, 75 107-122. Ruiz, A. and Molinos, M. (2015): “The sculptural group of Cerrillo Blanco, Porcuna,” in A. Ruiz and M. Molinos (Eds.): Jaén, Iberian land 40 Years of research and transfer. University of Jaén. 67-84. Torrecillas, J. F. (1985): The late period cemetery of Cerrillo Blanco. Institute of Giennenses Studies. Jaén.