The Bicha of Balazote is an

Iberian sculpture Iberian sculpture, a subset of Iberian art, describes the various sculptural styles developed by the Iberians from the Bronze Age up to the Roman conquest. For this reason it is sometimes described as Pre-Roman Iberian sculpture. Almost all ...

that was found in the borough of Balazote in

Albacete province Albacete () is a Provinces of Spain, province of central Spain, in the southern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. As of 2012, Albacete had a population of 402,837 people. Its capital city, a ...

( Castile-La Mancha),

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), '' Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), '' The Old Gringo'' (1985) and '' Christop ...

has called it the "Beast of Balazote." The sculpture has been dated to the 6th century BCE, and has been in the

National Archaeological Museum of Spain The National Archaeological Museum (; MAN) is a archaeology museum in Madrid, Spain. It is located on Calle de Serrano beside the Plaza de Colón, sharing its building with the National Library of Spain. It is one of the National Museums of ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, since 1910. The Bicha was found at the site of Majuelos not far from the city center. Recent excavations in the Balazote plain revealed a tomb and burial mound where this piece may have originated. Nearby, important mosaics from a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

were also discovered. Carved of two

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

blocks in the second half of the 6th century BCE, the statue is 93 cm long and 73 cm high. It is a chimeric synthesis of man and a bull. The body is in repose and shows good knowledge of the traits of that animal, with the forelegs bent under the chest and hind legs tucked under the belly. The tail is curved on the left thigh and ends in a tuft of hair. The head is that of a horned, bearded man with bull's ears. Details of the sculpture are similar to archaic Greek hieratic sculpture in that the hair and beard are rendered by straight grooves. The piece is not carved in entirely in the round; one corner appears to be

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

and designed to adhere to some place, like the lions of the

Mausoleum of Pozo Moro The Mausoleum of Pozo Moro is a Mausoleum of the Iberians from the end of the 6th century BC, which was discovered in 1970 in excavations made in the Province of Albacete. Location Pozo Moro, near the Spanish community of Chinchilla de Monte- ...

. It may have belonged to a tomb or temple. There is some possibility that it represents a god of fertility, as did the man-headed bull statues used by the Greeks to represent river gods which made the fields fertile. According to A. García and Bellido, the Bicha represents the Greek river god

Achelous In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Achelous (also Acheloos or Acheloios) (; Ancient Greek: Ἀχελώϊος, and later , ''Akhelôios'') was the god associated with the Achelous River, the largest river in Greece. Accordi ...

whose image on Sicilian coins it resembles. "This sculpture is a daughter of the Greeks, and if you will, granddaughter of the

Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...

and great-granddaughter of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

," A. García and Bellido observed in 1931.A. García and Bellido, “La Bicha de Balazote”, '' Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología'', 1931 Achelous

References

* Almagro Gorbea (1982) "Pozo Moro and the Phoenician Influence in the Orientalizing Period of the Iberian Peninsula". * Benoit, F., (1962) La Biche d'Albacete, Cernunnos substrate and the indigenous. Seminar on history and archeology of Albacete. * Blazquez, J.M. (1974) Animalist Figures Turdetanas, CSIC. * Chapa Brunet, Teresa (1981)
El Toro Androcefalo de Balazote: Nueva Puesta a Punto de su Problematica
''Al-Basit: Revista de estudios albacetenses,'' ISSN 0212-8632, No. 10, 1981, pp. 145–158 *Heuzey, Léon Alexandre. "Le taureau chaldéen à tête humaine et ses dérivés", ''Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres: Monuments et Mémoires Piot'' 6 *Paris, Pierre. ''Essai sur l'art et l'industri de l'Espasgne primitif'', vol. I 1903: plate 4, reproduced in the survey of "Pre-Roman Antiquities of Spain", ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 11.2 (April - June 1907:187); Paris noted that Léon Heuzey remarked on similarities of technique in Achaemenid Persian and Babylonian sculpture. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bicha of Balazote 6th-century BC sculptures Limestone statues Iberian art Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid Sculptures in Madrid Archaeological discoveries in Spain Sculptures of bovines

See also

References