Jar

Tossal de Manises (Alicante) Ceramic h: 31.5 cm; w: 21.4 cm Iberian Late 3rd century BC.

Iberian ceramic jug or oinochoe with painted decoration. The mouth is missing, but the shape of the neck suggests that it is trilobed. The body is pyriform with a convex base. The lower part of the handle, which would have been bifid, is preserved. The reddish paste is very well polished.

The central decorative theme consists of two riders facing each other, separated by a large ivy leaf and framed horizontally by bands and fillets between the area of the larger diameter and the base of the neck. The figures are silhouetted and the male bodies indicated by leaving the corresponding area on the horse's body in reserve. The rider on the left is missing his head and also part of the animal's body. The clothing of the horseman on the right is drawn with diagonally crossed strokes and the other with bands. Both hold the broad reins with one hand while with the other they wield spears at the distal end, the heart-shaped points of which are on the opposite side.

The decoration is completed with geometric and vegetal motifs based on trilobal flowers, scrolls, stars and cobblers. The neck is decorated with geometric elements (triangles, bands and vertical 's').

This piece, found in 1994 during consolidation work at the site, is the first documented example of the "narrative" or Lliria-Oliva style at the site and so far south of the Contestania, until now practically widespread in the Alcoià-Comtat area, under the influence of La Serreta (Cocentaina-Penàguila-Alcoy), and with some examples in the Tossal de la Cala (Benidorm), as well as the famous vase from the Oliva necropolis. Subsequent excavations have found other vessels of this style in the Tossal de Manises.
The decoration is related to the themes of Sant Miquel de Lliria and Serreta, although the outline and arrangement of the figures and complementary motifs are more reminiscent of the painted vases from the interior site in El Contijo de Sant Miquel de Lliria.

We believe that the horsemen are not shown in an attitude of combat but rather express a ritual act or parade, since the weapons, the spears, do not threaten the horseman facing him but, on the contrary, the points are placed at the far end of the hypothetical rival. This would be proof that most of the scenes with warriors in the narrative style do not express fighting attitudes or plastically relate battles but rather exhibitions of the Iberian aristocracy, as suggested for the Lliria vases.

C.S.: 5962
Unpublished.