The Pozo Moro Reliefs (Chinchilla, Spain): A Mediterranean Hero Between East and West

Abstract

archaeologists discovered the oldest series of architectural and sculptural remains currently known in Iberian culture. It is traditionally assumed that they were part of a single ten-meters-high tower that was builtand immediately collapsedin the late sixth century BC, some fifty years before an Iberian necropolis flourished around its ruins. This paper proposes that the site housed not just one, but various monuments, built at different times, that depicted the deeds of a local version of a Mediterranean hero, an 'Iberian Heracles' whose saga was to some extent known throughout the Mediterranean and used everywhere to bolster local claims to power.

More Than One Monument at Pozo Moro? Notes on Iberian Architectural Decoration

“…From a stylistic and iconographic perspective, it presents a problem that was already detected by García Cardiel and Olmos (2021): the fully Greek style of this piece does not belong in a monument with a markedly Orientalizing style and iconography. In fact, it is quite significant that the blocks placed below the building's first Egyptian or gorge cornice presents an ovolo moulding with clear Ionic roots.…”

“…However, the two fragments that together constitute our piece were found to the south of the monument, in grids 5E and 5D‐6 (Alcalá 2003, 31), according to the numbering written on them (Prieto 2017, 427). The blocks that would constitute the ‘Monument B’ as proposed by García Cardiel and Olmos (2021) likewise appeared scattered throughout the necropolis, far from the aforementioned accumulation of ‘Monument A’ blocks.…”

“…Following the line of research on Pozo Moro initiated by García Cardiel and Olmos (2021), in this paper the study of one the least known pieces recovered during the excavations of the necropolis has been considered in detail. This block does not appear to fit into the traditionally restored two‐story monument, nor does it fit with the Orientalizing style and iconography of the recently christened ‘Monument A’.…”

“…2 bottom). This fragment gave the opportunity to expand upon something suggested in the cited work of García Cardiel and Olmos (2021), as it reveals the existence of a monument of a type and time‐frame that differs from that of the sixth‐century tower‐shaped monument(s) currently proposed.…”

“…The first is that this piece was the block supporting the cornice of the so‐called ‘Monument B’. The piece in question would fit better in this monument with clear Greek roots, visible in its stylistic and iconographic program and of a slightly later date than ‘Monument A’ (García Cardiel and Olmos 2021). Even though, due to a lack of data, an architectural restoration of this second building has not been offered, the most logical view is that it was a second tower‐shaped monument, as suggested by the large size of its blocks and a second pebble floor documented in the necropolis (Alcalá 2003, 71), similar to the one encountered beneath the tower‐shaped monument.…”