Bicha of Balazote on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Bicha of Balazote is an 
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 were also discovered.
Carved of two limestone 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 
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. {{Iberian sculpture Limestone statues Iberian art Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid Sculptures in Madrid Archaeological discoveries in Spain Sculptures of bovines
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 e ...
that was found in the borough of Balazote in Albacete province
Albacete ( es, Provincia de Albacete, ) is a province of central Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. As of 2012, Albacete had a population of 402,837 people. Its capital city, also called Albacete, is ...
( Castile-La Mancha), Spain. 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 ( es, Museo Arqueológico Nacional; MAN) is a 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.
History
The museu ...
in Madrid, 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 were also discovered.
Carved of two limestone 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 finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
and designed to adhere to some place, like the lions of the Mausoleum of Pozo Moro. 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 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. According to Hesiod, h ...
whose image on Sicilian coins it resembles. "This sculpture is a daughter of the Greeks, and if you will, granddaughter of the Phoenicians and great-granddaughter of Mesopotamia," A. García and Bellido observed in 1931.A. García and Bellido, “La Bicha de Balazote”, '' Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología'', 1931
See also
* Balazote *Oretani
The Oretani or Oretanii (Greek: ''Orissioi'') were a pre-Roman ancient Iberian people (in the geographical sense) of the Iberian Peninsula (the Roman Hispania), that lived in northeastern Andalusia, in the upper Baetis (Guadalquivir) river valley, ...
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. {{Iberian sculpture Limestone statues Iberian art Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid Sculptures in Madrid Archaeological discoveries in Spain Sculptures of bovines