OUK STATUE - MENHIRS AND THOSE OF 

 FRANCE AND ITALY. 



BY LIEUT.-COL. T. AV. M. DE GUERIN. 



In our two statue-menhirs, we have most interesting specimens 

 of prehistoric or protohistoric sculpture, unique, so far as our 

 immediate neighbourhood is concerned. Recently the origin 

 and probable date of similar statues and sculptured figures in 

 the valleys of the Seine and Oise, in the Marne, and also in 

 the south-eastern departments of France, have much occupied 

 the attention of French savants. M. Salomon Reinach, 

 Curator of the famous Museum of Saint Germain, in his 

 work on "La Sculpture en Europe avant les influences Greco- 

 Romaines " as Avell as M. J. Dechelette, Curator of the 

 Museum of Roane, in his recently published " Manuel 

 d'Archeologie Prehistorique," have written on them at con- 

 siderable length. It may be of interest to us to examine 

 their conclusions and thus gain a better knowledge of our 

 own statues. 



First let us glance at the statue-menhir now standing in 

 the Catel churchyard (Fig. 1.), the rudest and without doubt 

 the oldest in our island. It was discovered during the 

 restoration of the church, in 1878, buried, according to 

 Sir Edgar MacCulloch, about a foot beneath the pavement 

 at the entrance to the chancel. It lay on its side midway 

 between the two walls, with its foot pointing towards the 

 east. Its total length was 6 ft. 6 in. and width at the 

 shoulders 1 ft. 3 in. It was removed from the church and 

 erected in its present position in the churchyard under the 

 trees to the north of the porch. It resembles a natural 

 boulder very rudely sculptured by man. The back is plain 

 and slightly rounded, and on the front side are sculptured 

 two projecting female breasts, and just above them a slightly 

 raised semi-circular object, without doubt, the typical neck- 

 lace found, as we shall see, on most figures of this type. 

 From the shoulders upwards the stone gradually tapers to 

 the top of the head round which is a small rounded fillet or 

 diadem. No features of the face are at present discernable, 

 but what should be the face and the right breast bear 

 [1910.] 



