Engravings on megaliths of Brittany

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Multiple arches ('shield idols') on supporting stones in Gavrinis (copies from bougon ); the right-angled dividing lines are among the earliest of their kind in art.
Les Pierres Plates , 'Schildidol'
Petroglyphs from Barnenez - Dolmen A + H (rectangle with fringes = shield or goddess (?) / Horns or waves (?) / Ax and stone hatchet / waves (?) / Bow)

The engravings on megaliths of Brittany are on the supporting stones and capstones of dolmens and gallery graves and - albeit less often - on the menhirs of rows of stones and on solitaires.

The representations are u. a. differentiated into: Déesse-mère (mother goddess), Hache-charrue (ax plow), Crosse pastorale ( Báculo ), Herminette emmanchée (ax), Peigne (comb), Bucrane (Bukranion), Écusson (coat of arms). Respective: Phallus , Cachalot (whale), Crosse de jet (boomerang), Homme en croix (Adorant), Bateau (boat), Oiseau en vol (bird in flight).

Regional distribution

Most of Europe's megalithic sites (with the exception of the Atlantic area) are undecorated. In the south of Brittany, especially on the Gulf of Morbihan, there are plants with a large variety of ornaments. The dolmens of Gavrinis , Les Pierres-Plates and Mané Lud should be mentioned here, but also Kermario II, Mané-er-Hroek , Mané Rutual , the menhir of Kermarquer and the menhir of Kermaillard and the tumulus on the Île Longue .

In the north of Brittany, the engravings in several passage graves of Barnenez Dolmen H as well as in the dolmen La Maison des Feins , Prajou-Menhir and Crec'h Quillé are particularly noteworthy. The range of shapes in the two regions is different - so the concentric half-circles, 'shield idols' and' ax plows, which are more common in the south, do not appear in the north of Brittany, or only appear in a completely different form. The starting point is probably the oldest engraving in a megalithic complex, that of Dolmen H von Barnenez, which shows axes, bows and waves / snake symbols.

Interpretations

While some representations on the megaliths of Brittany seem to be quite clear to today's observer ( axes , arches), most of the shapes are difficult or impossible to interpret (rectangles, concentric semicircles, crooks, 'shield idols' etc.).

The following attempt to classify and interpret the engravings comes from Yannick Rolando :

  • Shield-shaped symbols are supposed to represent different forms of the mother goddess . This is shown with or without a head, with breasts or arms, sometimes concentrically multiplied.
  • Hatchet-shaped symbols are meant to represent stalked and sessile axes . Unhandled axes almost always appear in pairs.
  • Crook-shaped symbols mean Báculos .
  • Comb-shaped symbols are supposed (this interpretation is particularly controversial) to be dead sacred animals that stick their legs in the air.
  • Other symbols are interpreted as the sun , with or without rays. It can also be about eyes , since on Spanish ceramics often (but much later) only the eyes of the Magna Mater were depicted.

The French megalithic researcher Serge Cassen interprets forms that have long been interpreted as so-called 'ax plows' as 'blowing whales' (see Mané Lud ).

Particularly highly abstracted signs are representations of the mother goddess or a snake , which in turn is supposed to be a synonym for the deity. Sometimes shields ( Les Pierres-Plates ) are interpreted as female forms, in other cases it is breast-like reliefs and "necklaces". This motif can be found in the facilities of Crec'h Quillé near Saint-Quay-Perros , Kerguntuil near Trégastel , Prajou-Menhir near Trébeurden and Mougau-Bihan near Commana .

The interpretations of the carving in the Allée coudée (bent) of Luffang , municipality of Crach , are extremely different . While Sibylle von Cles-Reden and Y. Rolando want to recognize the symbol of the mother goddess in the drawing, Werner Mantel interprets it as a stylized octopus and believes that this motif can already be identified in the Mesolithic East Spanish rock art and especially in the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean culture similarly stylized motifs appear, e.g. B. on vases and on the floor of the megaron at the castle of Tiryns ( Peloponnese ).

The menhirs Le Babouin et la Babouine , which were sculpted late, occupy a special position .

swell

When searching for the sources of this art, it is found that the Breton hierograms are very likely related to the Iberian Peninsula . In some depictions of the so-called 'mother goddess', possibly also in the case of the 'blowing whales' (see Mané Lud and Dombate ), relationships are clearly recognizable (see web links).

Summary

With the current state of science, interpretations must remain controversial, especially since the symbolism in Brittany shows regional differences and is testimony to a long pictorial tradition. The oldest symbols include the naturalistic representations of the ax (also combined with the 'ax plow' - Hache-Carrure ), the dagger and multiple bows ( Gavrinis ), marble-like representations with a rostrum in the crown region (Mané-er-Hroek) and horned Animals ( table des marchands ). When it comes to the interpretation of the abstract symbols, Werner hull, Herbert Glöckner (who grants the special status of Brittany) contradict each other. B. also use Central and Northern European and other engravings of the megalithic culture, and Yannick Rolando.

See also

literature

  • Marcel Baudouin: De la signification des menhirs. Report fait au nom de la Société Préhistorique de France. In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française. Vol. 1, No. 4, 1904, pp. 123-147, JSTOR 27906526 .
  • Michael Everson: Tenacity in religion, myth, and folklore: the neolithic Goddess of Old Europe preserved in a non-Indo-European setting. In: The Journal of Indo-European Studies. Vol. 17, No. 3/4, 1989, ISSN  0092-2323 , pp. 277-295, ( online ; representations of the 'mother goddess'; inter alia from Luffang).
  • Herbert Glöckner: Documents on religion from megalithic times. On the development from the culture of the western megalithic stone graves (= European university publications. Series 3: History and its auxiliary sciences. 356). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1988, ISBN 3-8204-9953-9 .
  • Werner envelope : stone markings of Brittany . 2nd Edition. Dreves, Harburg / Rosengarten 1989, ISBN 3-924-532-00-1 .
  • Yannick Rolando: La Préhistoire du Morbihan. Le Vannetais Littoral. 3e édition. Societe Polymathique du Morbihan, Vannes 1971.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. http://bibliotheque.numerique.sra-bretagne.fr/files/original/8f9df2c6c57936333bafffd3d8d9d07e.pdf
  2. "From the (...) cited forms and drawings, those of Brittany stand out in an impressive way." Glöckner: Documents on religion from megalithic times. 1988, p. 210.