THE Human THE BICEPHALIC HUMAN HEAD IN MONOLITHIC SCULPTURES (MENHIRS) OF THE PALEOLITHIC

Museum of the Origins of Man

THE BICEPHALIC HUMAN HEAD IN MONOLITHIC SCULPTURES (MENHIRS) OF THE PALEOLITHIC

Fig. 5.29) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture.(Menhir). It represents two human heads joined at the neck. In this sculpture of large dimensions, it is clearly evident that the stylistic deformation (extremely elegant), deliberately excludes the details of the face, that is eyes, nose, mouth, that the man, if he had wanted, would have been able to make, as he has been able to elaborate a so harmonious shape.
The head on the left depicts a Sapiens sapiens, and the head on the right a Sapiens neanderthalensis; however, this Neanderthal with a "fat" face remains one of the many unresolved problems.
Height: about 3.5 m.
Location : Carnac, Brittany, France.
Material culture : Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic.

clikka per ingrandire l'immagine

Fig. 5.37) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture.(Menhir). To the profane eye it seems a semi-abated menhir, instead it is a sculpture of the same type of that one of Palo (Fig. 5,36), with which it has in common all the characteristics.
Height: m 1.80 about.
Location: Carnac, Brittany, France.
Material culture: Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic.

Fig. 14.1) Bicephalic monolithic anthropomorphic stone sculpture of the Paleolithic.(Menhir).
This big sculpture is present in this site to the Fig. 4,39 , and interpreted by P. Gaietto like a head with neck, looking upward.
The same sculpture photographed from the opposite side by Elisabeth Neumann-Gundrum (1981) (see bibliography) is interpreted by P. Gaietto as bicephalic, while by E. Neumann-Gundrum as a head with neck, but with two superimposed eyes (the many eyes are frequent in the protohistoric and historical art). In P. Gaietto's drawing the second interpretation is given.
With this monolithic sculpture we have three different interpretations to verify.
Height: over 4 meters.
Location : Kermario, Carnac, Morbihan, Brittany, France.
Material culture : Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic.

(Note: in this site are published other two other monolithic anthropomorphic bicephalic sculptures of the Paleolithic, see Figs. 5.29 and 5.37).

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