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STATUE-MENHIRS. 



tomb-chamber in the grottoes of the Marne and in the tumulus 

 of the dolmen of Collorgues, Gard, would seem to identify it 

 as the guardian goddess of the dead. Broca would see in it 

 the prototype of the mother goddesses of the ancient world. 



In tracing the probable eastern origin of this idol, 

 Dechelette compares it with the numerous small statuettes, 

 chiefly of female divinities, found by Dr. Evans and other 

 explorers in tombs of the early Minoan period in Crete, 

 as well as with the idols sculptured on small tablets of marble 

 found by Dr. Schliemann in the II City (the burnt city) of 

 Hissarlik dating from the 1st Bronze Age, B.C. 3000 to 2500. 

 Mr. A. J. B. Wace and Mr. M. S. T. Thompson have also 

 recently found in a Neolithic Station, at Tsangli, in Thessaly, 

 20 to 30 terra-cotta statuettes of male and female figures, 

 showing that this cult was in existence even at this early 

 period in the East. In South-East Spain and in Portugal, 

 MM. L. & H. Siret and others have discovered in graves and 

 stations of the late Neolithic period, and also in those of the 

 Eneolithic, or Copper Age, numerous idols representing the 



Fig. 9.—Idanha a Nova, Portugal. Fig. 10.— Collection Rotondo, Madrid. 



human figure in a highly symbolised form, identical in shape 

 to those found by Evans and Schliemann in Crete, Hissarlik 



