March 2008

Two stamps make up this issue , one depicting the Bicha of Balazote (Albacete) and the other the Vaso Cinerario de Apofis I (Funerary vase of Apep I) found in the archaeological site of Antigua Sexi, in Almuñecar (Granada).

Bicha of Balazote

The Bicha of Balazote, is a sculpture from the VI century B.C. of the Iberian period found in a site known as Majuelos, in the village of Balazote in Albacete. This sculpture has two heads, one human and the other a bull’s and was probably part of a temple decoration in the necropolis where it was found. It is made up of two blocs of pinkish limestone 93 cm long and 73 cm high. It represents the head of a bearded man with small horns and a bull’s ears and the body is that of an animal resting. This sculpture is exhibited, since 1910, in the Archaeological Museum of Madrid.

Vaso cinerario de Apofis I

The Apep I funerary vase is the most important piece of the Museum of Almuñecar, in the Phoenician necropolis of Laurita in the San Cristobal hill of this seaside village. This vase, made of marble, is the only one that exists in the Mediterranean and has one of the oldest texts written on it kept in Spain. This Egyptian piece, made at the end of the XVII B.C. probably arrived here with the Phoenicians towards the end of the VIII century B.C. It belonged to pharaoh Apep I according to the hieroglyphic writing at the top of the vase. The Laurita necropolis, the first primitive Punic researched in Spain, was discovered in February 1963 on occasion of the building of an apartment block.