178 



STATUE-MENHIRS. 



unmistakable signs of having been defaced by a hammer 

 or chisel. 



We will now compare this statue with the early anthro- 

 pomorphic sculptures in France, found on the props of the 

 " allees couvertes " or dolmens with galleries, of the valleys 

 of the Seine and Oise. That of the dolmen of Aveny, 

 canton d'Ecos, arrondissement des Andelys, Eure, is typical 

 of the whole series. It represents a necklace above two 

 female breasts, but no attempt has been made to represent 

 the face. Similar sculptures have been found on the two 

 props of the dolmen of Belle Have, commune de Boury, 

 Oise. Another on a prop of the dolmen of Le Trou aux 

 Anglais, commune d'Aubergenville, Seine et Oise, shows 

 an advance. Here we see the same typical necklace above 

 the two female breasts, but above it is the addition of a 

 circular head with indications of the brows, eyes and nose. 

 This type thus approaches in details our statue-menhir of 

 the Catel, and also is we might say the prototype of the 

 famous sculptured figures of the grottoes of the Marne. 

 These grottoes were explored by the Baron de Baye, about 

 the year 1874, and consist in all of 120, artificially excavated 

 in the sides of the hills of the valley of the Petit Morin, 

 near Epernay. They all belong to the Neolithic period, 

 no trace of metal having been found in any of them, but 

 it is probable that they date at the very end of that period, 

 at the verge of the Bronze Age. In every case these 

 grottoes had been used as places of burial. In seven of the 

 most important rude sculptures of human figures and hafted 

 stone axes were found carved upon the walls. Here again, 

 in nearly every instance, we find the same type of female 

 figure, the face being rudely indicated by the brows, eyes 

 and nose only, the neck encircled by a necklace of one or 

 more strings of beads, beneath which appear two projecting 

 female breasts, but no attempt made to represent the body 

 or limbs, or (except in one solitary instance) the mouth. 

 These figures were invariably carved on the walls of the 

 left hand side of the passage or of the anti-chamber leading 

 to the tomb proper, never within the tomb itself. In the 

 grotto of Courjeonnet, there was one rude female figure 

 sculptured on the side of the trench leading to the entance 

 of the grotto, and another in the vestibule leading to the 

 tomb, the latter figure being the only one on which the 

 mouth was indicated. It has also a necklace of several 

 strings of beads round its neck but as no breasts are repre- 

 sented its sex is doubtful. On each side of the doorway 



