statue-menhir de Nicoules
DatedEst. 4800–2500 BCE
Photo Fagairolles 34 · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The statue menhir of Nicoules is a carved standing stone of the Rouergue group, found at Saint-Sever-du-Moustier in the département of Aveyron, France. It is dated by typological estimate to between 4800 and 2500 BCE.
It is a complete male figure in very good condition, 1.31 m high, engraved on its front face only.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
statue-menhir de Nicoules
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Statue-menhir de NicoulesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Statue-menhir de NicoulesCC BY-SA 4.0
The figure was engraved on a slab of local schist measuring 1.31 m high, 0.58 m wide and 0.19 m thick. The statue is complete and in very good condition. It is engraved only on its front face.
It represents a man and shows all the anthropomorphic attributes: face (nose, eyes, tattoos), arms, hands, feet and toes. The figure wears a belt, a baldric and “the object” (l’objet), which is distinguished by its almost vertical position.
Matet at the place called Nicoules, on the south-eastern slopes of the Puech de Roqueferral.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Statue-menhir de NicoulesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Statue-menhir de NicoulesCC BY-SA 4.0
The statue was found in 1976 by M. Matet at the place called Nicoules, on the south-eastern slopes of the Puech de Roqueferral.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Statue-menhir de NicoulesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Statue-menhir de NicoulesCC BY-SA 4.0
The statue is exhibited in the room of statue menhirs of the Musée Fenaille at Rodez. A copy in sandstone has been erected in situ, near the place where it was found.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Statue-menhir de NicoulesCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (French): Statue-menhir de NicoulesCC BY-SA 4.0
Statue menhirs are carved standing stones of the later European Neolithic, in which a vertical slab or pillar has a stylised human figure cut into it, sometimes with hints of clothing or weapons. They are most commonly found in southern and western France, Catalonia, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy and the Alps.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Statue menhirs of France
A statue menhir is a carved standing stone of the later European Neolithic, in which a vertical slab or pillar has a stylised human figure cut into it, sometimes with hints of clothing or weapons. They are most commonly found in southern and western France, Catalonia, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy and the Alps, and France has most of the Atlas's records. A group from the Iron Age is also known in Liguria and Lunigiana in Italy, and there are two on Guernsey. One of them, La Gran'mère du Chimquière, "the grandmother of the cemetery", stands in a churchyard.
A well-known site is on Corsica. Filitosa, in the south of the island, is a megalithic site occupied from the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age until about Roman times. Arrowheads and pottery date the earliest habitation to 3300 BCE. Around 1500 BCE menhirs 2 to 3 metres high were erected there, carved with human faces, armour and weapons. About twenty menhirs of various periods have been counted. One interpretation, by Roger Grosjean, was that they were set up to ward off an invasion by a people he called the Torréens, who threw them down, broke them up and reused some as building stone, and then built the circular stone structures called torri; later researchers disputed this theory.
Dating rests on comparison with the Arco stelae, six Copper Age statue menhirs found in Trentino in 1989, which are similar in style to other anthropomorphic stelae of the fourth and third millennia BCE.
When visiting, look at the weapons and belt carved on the stone.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Statue menhir, Wikipedia: Filitosa, Wikipedia: Arco stelae · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1976
Matet en 1976 au lieu-dit Nicoules sur les pentes sud-est du Puech de Roqueferral.
Source - 2005
384-385 Jean-Pierre Serres, Les statues-menhirs du sud-Aveyron, Millau, Éditions du Beffroi, 2005, 48 p.
Source - 2010
Jean Guilaine), Hommes et femmes de pierre - Statues-menhirs du Rouergue et du Haut-Languedoc, Toulouse, Archives d'Écologie Préhistorique, 2010, 538 p.
Source
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4800–2500 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for statue-menhirs in France; this site has not been dated itself. Statue menhirs were created during the later European Neolithic Period and the megalithic constructions of Brittany begin c. 4800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
France
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 43°46′01″ N, 2°40′14″ EFor a GPS or map app: 43.76707, 2.67062
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
statue-menhir de Lucante4800–2500 BCE- statue-menhir de Lucante4800–2500 BCE
- Statue-menhirstatue-menhir de Granisse4800–2500 BCE
- Statue-menhirstatue-menhir de Granisse4800–2500 BCE
statue-menhir du Trou de l'Avenc4800–2500 BCE
statue-menhir de Serres4800–2500 BCE- statue-menhir de Serres4800–2500 BCE
Peyro-Lebado4800–2500 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q111669635wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- statue-menhir de Lucante6.1 km N
- statue-menhir de Lucante6.1 km N
- statue-menhir de Granisse6.8 km S
- statue-menhir de Granisse6.9 km S
- statue-menhir du Trou de l'Avenc6.9 km S
- statue-menhir de Serres7.0 km N
- statue-menhir de Serres7.0 km N
- Peyro-Lebado7.6 km SE
- statue-menhir du Vacant de Rieuvel7.6 km SE
- statue-menhir du Puech de Naudène7.9 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Statue-menhir de Nicoules" (French), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors