VISIGOTHIC
             RELIEFS 
Cerro de Las Balsas (Albufereta, Alicante)

Sandstone
h: 46 cm; w: 97 cm; th: 12 cm
h: 50 cm; w: 66 cm; th: 13 cm.
Roman
7th century AD

 

Two large sandstone slabs decorated with Christian symbols. One of them is complete and is rectangular in shape and decorated with two circular tangents. The exterior edge of the slab and the circles are marked by an incised line. The first circle is composed of (from the outside towards the centre), a smooth circumference, oblique carved lines and in the centre a six pointed star with various carved fusiform shapes with bevelled edges. The second circle, following the same order as the first, is formed by a flat circumference, a circular motif in the form of a laurel or palm crown which encircles a cross with triangular arms and deeply inset ends. Next to the upper arm are the letters C and S. On one side of the slab, between this circle and the edge of the stone are the letters, alpha (badly drawn) and omega.
The second stone slab would have had similar decoration to the other slab, although only one of the circles and part of the adjacent decoration has survived. The best preserved decoration is a circular tangent with two smooth circumferences which enclose a circular motif in the form of a laurel or palm crown (similar to the other stone slab). The central carved relief is a four pointed star with the ends in the shape of arrow heads, linked together by a cross. In the quadrants between the star and the edge of the inner circumference, there are four figures in relief in the shape of spindles, the points of which nearly touch the apexes of the star. Only the smooth exterior circumference and adjoining oblique lines are preserved of the other incomplete circle. The stone slab would have been marked near to the edge by an incised line, although this is missing from one of the corners.

E. Llobregat noted in his day, that the decoration of the stone slabs was Visigothic, citing parallels present in various religious buildings of this period. Similar pieces have been recently found in the Visigothic basilica of Tolmo de Minateda. It is thought that they could have been screens or part of an ornamental frieze, however the absence of decoration on one of the sides could suggest the latter use. The stone slabs suggest that there was a religious building of some certain standing, built on the right hand edge of la Albufereta in the 7th century. With this in mind, it should be said that these very important features of Visigothic culture in the Alicante region, have not been found completely out of context. A decorated structure interpreted as a funerary crypt of the Visigothic period has been recorded and also hundreds of inhumation burials have been found in el Cerro de Las Balsas, which span the whole of the Late Antiquity period and include some Early Medieval burials, which suggests the existence of an important settlement.
The reuse of the stone slabs in a grave shows that this burial, would have been later to the original use of the structure which the slabs originally formed part of, perhaps dating to the 8th century.
C.S.: 6378
LLOBREGAT CONESA, E. 1970.
LLOBREGAT CONESA, E. 1985.