<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> Source Memory: Reweaving the Connections

These monumental women are carved in relief with necklaces, breasts, belts and abstract faces. Those from south central France often hold a ceremonial object between their hands or suspended from their necklaces. In this region, male figures wear a dagger or hold a baton of some kind. Over the most of the megalithic terrain of western Europe, the focus is on ancestral women.

statue menhir from Filitosa

The most striking exceptions are Corsica (above, Filitosa) and the Alps, where most of the statue-menhirs are masculine.

Statue-Menhirs of western Europe

This ancestral woman comes from Frescaty in the Tarn region
of southern France.

She displays the classic attributes of the grandmother stone of this region: a mask-like face with tattoos or face-paint, head sunk into the chest, heavy necklaces above naked breasts, hands held over breasts or mid-body, adorned sash, and a flowing cloak in back. Her skirt folds are also shown in this example.

View statue-menhirs
5000-4200 years old ...
stone slab with abstract woman in heavy necklaces