STATUE-MENHIRS. 



183 



round its body and also traces of legs below it, similar to 

 those represented on the statue-menhirs of Southern France. 

 On a recent examination of it I came to the conclusion that 

 while I could not distinguish any trace of legs, there are 

 undoubtedly on the back and right side of the statue, traces 

 of a band. At about a foot to fifteen inches above the ground 

 are two horizontal lines about an inch and a half apart, the 

 space between them being slightly rounded. The front of the 

 statue is so weather-worn that it is most difficult to trace the 

 continuation of the band, but in line with it there seems to be 

 a slightly raised mark across the stone. The presence of this 

 band shows the great affinity in details of our St. Martin's 

 statue with those of Southern France. There are also some 

 curious indefinite marks carved near the left shoulder below 

 the necklace, but it is impossible to make out their meaning. 



On the origin of these statues and the cult they symbolize 

 there is a difference of opinion. Reinach points to a local deri- 

 vation and traces their development from the rude sculptures of 

 a necklace and two female breasts, of the dolmens of the 

 vallevs of the Seine and Oise, through the more advanced 

 figures of the grottoes of the Maine and the tumulus of 

 Collorgues, Gard, down to the more perfect statue-menhirs of 

 the Aveyron and adjoining departments. lie will have none 

 of " le mirage oriental " which looks to the Eastern basin of 

 the Mediterranean as the home of the prototype. Dechelette 

 on the other hand accuses lieinach of wishing to trace the 

 whole of the early Eastern civilization to Western sources. 

 He states that in spite of variations of form, variations due to 

 local influences, all these anthropomorphic sculptures are 

 closely related to each other, and may be traced back to the 

 same ^Egean prototype ; that their dispersion can be traced 

 from Asia Minor, through Spain, as far as the British Isles. 

 But in the dispersion of this divinity in Gaul there is one 

 unexplained fact to be noticed ; it has never been discovered 

 in Brittany, so rich in other megalithic sculptures. He 

 questions whether the anti-anthropomorphic influences, which 

 were so strong at a later date, in the time of the Druids, were 

 not already existent in that province. This is a point waiting 

 further elucidation, as in other respects the sculptures of 

 Armorica in Neolithic times are said to present many signs of 

 southern influences. Another fact to be noticed is that the 

 cult of this idol does not seem to have been general in Gaul, 

 but confined to certain isolated centres. 



The presence of this idol in the galleries of the dolmens 

 of the valleys of the Seine and Oise, at the entrance of the 



