Idol - Ancoriform Pendant

Cova de la Barcella, (Torremanzanas)Bone38 x 13 x 3 mmCalcolithicFirst half of the 3rd millennium BC.

The piece on display is one of the most unique pieces in the MARQ's collection of prehistoric artefacts. It has been part of the Museum since its beginnings. As a priest in Torremanzanas, José Belda Dominguez excavated in the Cova de la Barcella in 1928 and 1929. After moving to Alicante, in 1931 he gave all the materials obtained during the excavation of the cave to the Provincial Monuments Commission for display in the inaugural exhibition of the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Alicante.

The human figure is cut out of a thin plate of bone with a rectangular cross-section in a manner reminiscent of the shape of an anchor. The upper part, or head, is broad and perforated, the body is elongated and narrow, and the four limbs: the upper limbs are only sketched as appendages and the lower limbs (one of which is fractured) are curved upwards, looking towards the body at the ends.

Only one other piece of this shape and nature is known in the Chalcolithic multiple burial complex of the Blanquizares de Lébor cave in Totana, Murcia (ARRIBAS, 1953, Fig. 49: 6). As a motif, the ancoriform idol is present in the cave repertoire of figures of Schematic Art, as can be seen in the representations found in Abric VI of the Barranc de El Salt in Penáguila (HERNÁNDEZ, FERRER and CATALÁ, 1988, 50).

Belda found the piece in what he called the lower level of the site (BELDA, 1929), where the human remains were accompanied by flint blades and arrowheads, polished axes and adzes, pendants and beads of various kinds, bone awls and flat rods, flat bone idols, copper elements and ceramic vessels. This context is what allows us to consider that this piece, due to its perforation designed to be carried, must have been worn by a dead person when his body was deposited in the cave, at a time, the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, when this funerary practice was a common occurrence.

Jorge A. Soler Díaz
Curator of Prehistory
MARQ

Bibliography:

ARRIBAS PALAU, A. (1953) El ajuar de las cuevas sepulcrales de Blanquizares de Lébor (Murcia). Memorias de los Museos Arqueológicos Pronciales, XIV, pp. 78-126.

BELDA DOMÍNGUEZ, J. (1929) Excavations at Monte de la Barsella. District of Torremanzanas (Alicante). Memorias de la J.S.E.A., nº 100, Madrid.

BORREGO, M., SALA, F. and TRELIS, J. (1992) The "Cova de la Barcella", (Torremanzanas, Alicante). Serie Catálogo de Fondos del Museo Arqueológico Provincial, IV, Alicante.

CUADRADO RUIZ, J. (1930) El yacimiento eneolítico de los Blanquizares de Lébor, en la provincia de Murcia. Archivo Español de Arqueologia, 16, 30.

HERNÁNDEZ M.S., FERRER P. and CATALÁ, E. (1988) Arte Rupestre en Alicante, Alicante, 1988.

SOLER DÍAZ, J.A. (2002). Multiple burial caves in the Valencian Community. Bibliotheca Archeologica Hispana, 17 - MARQ. Serie Mayor 2. Real Academia de la Historia - Diputación de Alicante, Madrid - Alicante.