Researchers from the University of Alicante report the discovery of a carved face etched into rock at the old fortress site known as Tossal de la Cala, a place that later history tied to Roman defensive works along Spain’s eastern coast. The panel also features a cornucopia and a phallus rendered alongside the visage, offering clues about the symbolic repertoire that circulated in this frontier zone. The find adds a new layer to our understanding of artistic expression in a landscape that bridged local communities and imperial power. The team emphasizes that the carving is joblike in scale yet rich in meaning, inviting interpretation about beliefs, rituals, and daily life during a tumultuous period of Roman expansion and local resistance. Although the site sits within a military precinct, the surface inscription suggests a more nuanced cultural conversation taking place at the edge of empire.
The synthetic dating of the rock relief places it roughly two millennia in the past, aligning with the era when Tossal de la Cala served as a Roman fortress during the Sertorian conflict of the late first century BCE. This was a time of political fragmentation as Sertorian rebels clashed with the central Roman state, a struggle that echoed across the Iberian Peninsula and shaped the social topography of the region. The location itself, perched on the Mediterranean shore, would have seen fortifications, seasonal garrisons, and exchanges between soldiers and local communities. The carved panel, with its careful composition, provides tangible evidence that the site functioned not only as a military outpost but also as a place where symbolic images were produced or repurposed to mark authority, protectors, and communal memory against threats on both a local and imperial scale.
A single face dominates the stone beside two potent symbols, a phallus and a cornucopia. The overall dimensions of the relief are 57 by 42 centimeters, but researchers suspect the artwork may be incomplete because the upper portion appears to have broken away long ago. This missing element invites speculation about how the scene would have presented its intended message to viewers who encountered it within the fortress environment. The purpose behind the carving remains uncertain, and scholars ponder whether it served as graffiti, a ritual emblem, or a protective talisman. The phallus among Roman iconography has long been associated with male vitality and state security, as reflected in religious and political contexts where the symbol conveyed safeguarding power. Its presence alongside the face hints at a layered function that could encompass protection, blessing, or authority—an inscription of power carved into the rock to endure through time.
Corroborating this interpretation, the cornucopia appears in Roman art as a symbol of harvest, abundance, and prosperity. In reliefs and coinage, it often accompanies deities linked to fertility and material plenty. The pairing with a human likeness may imply the depicted figure represented a god or goddess connected to fields, fertility rites, or communal well being. This assemblage aligns with broader Roman visual language in which divine or semi divine figures were invoked to watch over productive landscapes and the resilience of frontier settlements facing scarcity or conflict. The placement and style of the carving thus contribute to a growing view that religious iconography intersected with civic life and military settlement at the fringes of the empire, inviting viewers to interpret the relief as a multi layered message about protection, fertility, and social order.
Legends surrounding this discovery add another layer of mythic resonance. One tale connects fertility to the mythic clash between the hero Hercules and the river god Achelous, a story in which the hero breaks off a horn from the horned river deity, an act reputed to symbolize the harnessing of primal forces. Though a myth, such narratives circulated widely in antiquity and could reflect traditional motifs carried by artisans who worked in provincial workshops or by soldiers who carried local lore into their routines. The convergence of myth, ritual symbolism, and imperial imagery in this carved panel underscores how the inhabitants of this frontier might have used art to navigate the pressures of conquest, settlement, and cultural exchange. In this context, the ensemble of the face, the phallus, and the cornucopia becomes a compact visual narrative about protection, vitality, and prosperity at a site that witnessed both conflict and coexistence under Roman rule.