In the Roerge region, south of central Massif, the tiny prehistoric statues haven’t revealed all their secrets. To discover at the Fenaille Museum, in Rodez, follow the hiking trails.
As at every closing day, the Fenaille Museum, in Rodez, remains drenched in darkness, only the star of the place is in the spotlight, spurred on by sprinklers from every corner. Our Lady of Saint Sernin – that’s her name – has been the subject of a few months of a scientific imaging campaign led by an archaeologist, which involved photographing a sandstone statue of 113 cm high, square centimeters by square centimeters, in very high resolution. The images produced by this advanced digital technology return the studied object to three dimensions without touching it. Thus, Our Lady of Saint-Sernin will reveal some secrets about herself and her peers, the unusual statue of Occitania, the mysterious monolith representing men or women, dating back to the end of the Neolithic period.
These real statues, and not the bas-reliefs, were discovered since they were carved on all four sides, two to three thousand years ago before the discovery of our era since the end of the nineteenth century.e A century in Monts de Lacaune, at the southern end of the Massif Central, Rouergue region, at the crossroads of the counties of Aveyron, Tarn and Hérault. What do they represent? VIP? goddess? Ancestral? What were they for? dignitaries of worship? Landmarks on the roads? Tombstones? Archaeologists have put forward hypotheses, but the mystery is still almost complete. The lack of site evidence doesn’t help, because in five thousand years of history these monolithic stones have sometimes been moved and no archaeological context, deposits of objects, ceramic pieces, or architectural arrangements can be identified. Less well known, and much less well known than mural art, yet equally exceptional: they are the oldest representations of humans in large form known in Western Europe.
Les Maurels, sandstone statue – Meher, 4th-3rd millennium BC.
Photo: P. Soisson
To date, there are one hundred and fifty-seven busts of pedestal in Occitanie, but the list promises to grow because we still find them by chance, as for the first time in this way, Our Lady of St. A deserted stone wall along a low wall on a road in Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, a village in Aveyron. An amateur archaeologist, he fell in love with his strange discovery like nothing known, and published the first description of the sculpture, and others soon followed. To this day, the discoveries continue: one, upside down, is still paved on a farm a few decades ago and has withstood generations of farm machinery. Another for a long time served as a bonfire, through which it retained signs of fire and a crack in the middle. Last September, a small last one entered the collections of the Fenaille Museum, given by the couple who discovered it in 2000 while excavating their home.
Prehistoric stone heroes
For Aurelien Pierre, director of the museum, the statue has undoubtedly been known for a long time in the region without anyone knowing what it is. ” In the Middle Ages, he explains, Tradition says that a monastery was built on the site where a statue of the Virgin was discovered. It may have been a tumbled statue. » None of them were standing, stuck in the ground as they had originally been, but all fell to the ground or buried in the ground, discovered at random from working in the fields, in bits or intact. Some of them were even reworked before our era, with metal tools, and not with stone as it was originally.
The Fenaille Museum, which celebrates its 20th anniversary reopening this summer, has 22 copies, seventeen of which are on display in an upstairs room. We discover, to our amazement, a small phalanx of plump characters, somewhat taller or less, not only adorable but also very friendly. Carved in sandstone or granite, and sometimes schist, it evokes the shape of an Eskimo – an ice-cream stick – with a one-piece body and face, above, outlined by two circular eye holes, similar to a large drawn nose, no mouth. Irresistible with their little arms and legs dangling, just like a rag doll, all the characters wear a finely sculpted belt and a slashed shoulder strap, a kind of policeman’s holster, which goes on at the back and is fastened, for men, something like a dagger. Women are adorned with pendants, bobs, small breasts sculpted like buttons and curly hair indicating their gender.
Our Lady of Saint Sernin, sandstone, 4th and 3rd millennium BC.
Photo: P. Soisson
To celebrate the anniversary of the Fenaille Museum, which twenty years ago wonderfully restored these prehistoric stone heroes, three more specimens of megaliths from antiquity were invited to come and speak with their distant cousins: Bethel from Syria, on loan from the Louvre , which resembles two drops of water the famous, adored Mr. Patate of children, but more magnificent, than black basalt, at least 4000 years old, two statues from Quai Branly, one of the Austral Islands, in southern Polynesia, criss-crossed with his arms and majestic breastplate; The other, a anthropomorphic Akwanshi Atal, from the Cross River region, Nigeria, whose prominent phallic shape and sculpted features of incredible refinement reflect its protective role, ensuring the fertility of the soil and men.
owns
” A monolith, from one continent to another Exhibit until November 6 at the Musée Fenaille, Rodez (12). Such as. : 05 65 73 84 30.
to do
Monher Occitanie Statue Road : A wonderful route, organized by associations, site museums, interpretation centers, to go out into the square, walk in the footsteps of the statues. You will not encounter the originals, now safely kept in museums or with private owners, but their copies are made of stone and absolutely faithful to their most prestigious models. with interactive map To know the places and conditions of each discovery.
as well Statue Site Map By Aveyron Tourist Office.
