Terracotta
5th c. BC
Saus (Saus, Camallera, Llampaies - Alt Empordà)
A small hand-modelled terracotta boar about 9 cm long found in Silo 7 at the Iberian rural settlement of Saus (Saus, Camallera i Llampaies, Alt Empordà). It is dated to the 5th century BC.
It is almost complete, with only the tail missing and the sex organs broken. It is therefore a male boar. Several fragments of other terracotta figurines were found in different silos at the same site (a leg similar to those of a boar, a horse’s head, part of a cartwheel, etc.).
Terracotta figurines representing animals are well known in pre-Iberian, Iberian and Greek settings. When the figurines are found in funerary contexts, i.e. tombs, as is the case of many of those from Empúries, they are usually attributed to a ritual or symbolic significance.
In the Martí 77 tomb of an infant in Empúries, a boar figurine similar to the one from Saus was found, among other items. This tomb is also dated to the 5th century BC and the small boar has been interpreted as a toy belonging to the deceased child.
Neither the boar nor the other Saus fragments came from a funerary context, but from a domestic environment. They ended up in silos that were refilled with the settlement’s rubbish. Therefore, it would seem logical to assume that they were broken or lost toys belonging to the children of the people who lived and worked there.
