Prácticas rituales ibéricas en La Cueva del Sapo (Chiva, Valencia): más allá del caliciforme

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of a interdisciplinary study in the Iberian site of Cueva del Sapo (Chiva, Valencia). The features of the assemblage have brought to light a very complex ritual context which would be frequented among the Vth and IInd centuries bc. The chronological and material diversity, as well as the volume of remains, indicate the existence of several intermittent ritual activities, not generalized and successive over time. We approach them through the presence of faunal remains with limited evidence of consumption which reflect a ritual about red deer, not incinerated human bones which show a particular process of the corpse related to a complex funerary ritual in the Iberian Iron Age and other materials such as pottery, metal and charcoal, which show a ritual activity in the cave. Whose characteristics differ from the traditional criteria established for the caves with Iberan materials. All these factors make us reconsider the traditional definition, still in force, for this kind of ritual contexts, sometimes full of excessive generalization.