Bronze Male Votive Offering. Haza del Rayo Sanctuary (Sabiote, Jaén). Jaén Iberian Museum: MIBDJ00404/9 Figurative bronze votive offering representing a naked man in an attitude of presentation. It is dated to the 3rd century BC and belongs to the culture of the Iberians. It comes from the Haza del Rayo Sanctuary, municipality of Sabiote, Jaén province, Spain.It is 6 cm high, 1.1 cm wide and 1.1 cm thick.It is a markedly geometric figure. The head is covered with the characteristic “mane-helmet” headdress. This has a rounded shape with a pronounced protrusion at the nape of the neck and two thin lateral bands like cheek pads, which end in a peak on the lower jaw and reveal the elongated face. Particularly notable is the thickened triangular-shaped nose. The eyes are round, made with an incised circular line, and project their gaze forward. The mouth is open, created with a slight recess, and the chin is square and pronounced. The shoulders are represented in a very accentuated, oblique position, as if drooping, and the arms are attached to the naked body, with the palms of the hands touching the hips.It shows a bulging pubis and the enlargement in the centre expresses a relaxed phallus. On the front the groin is marked with incised lines. On the rear, a recessed horizontal line marks the end of the back, fitting the buttocks with a thickening of the area up to the line that marks the beginning of the legs. These are shown together, with thick thighs up to the knees and thinner calves. The feet stand out as a flat surface with marked toes.Such male votive offerings that are depicted naked, only dressed in the “mane-helmet” headdress and in a contemplative attitude, are linked to both fertility propitiation and initiation rituals. Sometimes, as in the sanctuary of Cerro del Manantial (Santo Tomé), these types are associated with female votive offerings of women wearing veils that open at the height of the pubis, showing the sex in an explicit language alluding to fertility. In this way, repetitive gestural codes are created and form part of an approved system for communication with the divinity. It is a standardised and very frequent iconographic type within the votive imagery of the territory of Cástulo and is documented in all the region’s sanctuaries.The Iberian sanctuary of Haza de Rayo is located near Villacarrillo (Jaén), not far from the modern A-32 motorway. It is a natural pass that connects the valleys of the Rivers Guadalimar and Guadalquivir. An open-air sanctuary, without architectural structures, it involved the modification of the natural features of the site. It represents the sacralisation of an intermediate step in the ritual itinerary that runs from the town of Baecula to the sanctuary of Castellar. It is a landmark in the landscape related to its function as a natural corridor and enhanced by the presence of a seasonal wetland around which rituals and the deposit of offerings were organised. The sanctuary is linked to the transitional borders, the gateways to the territory that give access to the wildest landscape, where the supernatural becomes tangible. Thus the petitions are related to permission, health and protection linked to the ritual journey itself. The repertory of offerings is diverse:- Semi-schematic female and male bronze figurines in various ritual attitudes related to cohesion, fertility and protection practices- Anatomical parts (legs, hands and arms, as well as phalluses) related to health and healing cults- Items of personal attire, fibulas or brooches for the clothes- Miniature objects: small votive pottery vessels that would have been used in libation and food consumption practices.Altogether, they are common finds in the territory of Cástulo, consistent with the religiosity of these protohistoric communities in the 3rd century BC.References:Rueda, C., Bellón J. P., Herranz, A. Lechuga, M. A., Ruiz A., Moreno Mª. I., Molinos, M., Rísquez, C., Gutiérrez, M., Portillo, M. (2021): “Ofrendas en el humedal: el santuario ibero de Haza del Rayo (Sabiote, Jaén)”. Trabajos De Prehistoria, 78(1): 140–152.https://doi.org/10.3989/tp.2021.12269