Little idols of Monte San Giuliano (CL)

The card was edited by Eleonora Ambrusiano

Little idols of Monte San Giuliano (CL)

The card was edited by Eleonora Ambrusiano


In 1963, during the works for the opening of a quarry on the hill known as Monte San Giuliano, some finds were found that can be dated back to the ancient Bronze Age and classifiable in the field of figurative clay plastic. Several years later, between 1968 and 1969, the in-depth investigations of the site continued by carrying out a small excavation test in the same area where the previous discovery had taken place and another nineteen statuettes or fragments of them with a similar style and make were recovered. previous. The total of the statuettes found in Caltanissetta amounted to twenty-two specimens and therefore the faces castellucciana is the one best documented in the context of Sicilian prehistory as regards the plastic representation of the human figure. Furthermore, given the number of finds that have emerged, the scholars have affirmed with extreme certainty the possibility that the site was a cult area; since the statuettes were found already reduced to scattered fragments and mixed with those of pottery, in contact with a rocky layer, the hypothesis has been formulated that they were the deposit of a sanctuary or even the discharge of this.

From the analysis of the finds conducted by the scholars it is therefore possible to state that the figurines of Monte San Giuliano constitute a unitary group in terms of typology and style. In general, the body is rendered in a very stylized way, without clear definitions; the shoulders are not highlighted, the neck is elongated and ends in the head which is also elongated or flared; the arms are open, recalling triangular "stumps".

This type of clay statuette, similar to others found throughout the Mediterranean, the Aegean and south-eastern Europe, is classified into three variants.

The first is represented by a group of female statuettes between 4,3 and 9,5 cm in size, in some cases without the head or legs, distinguished by protruding or barely hinted breasts and by the indication of the sexual organ ; moreover, they are painted in a more or less glossy red and decorated with geometric motifs in brown.

The first find belonging to this group (fig. 1.A) is a small hand-molded torso in greyish clay, with a polished surface with a pinkish color and a vertical line painted in black paint that crosses the body in a vertical direction. longitudinal; moreover, a decoration with circles, always in black, is visible on the right side; the find is about 4,5 cm high and the breasts are highlighted, although otherwise very stylized; the arms are open and lead back to the iconography of the stylized wings that Marija Gimbutas refers to the Bird Goddess.

The finding of fig.1.B has the same characteristics of material and construction and the same structure with protruding breasts; in addition there is an elongated neck that ends with a cylindrical head and slightly flared in the upper part. A painted vertical black line ends at the belly with a horizontal zigzag motif and underlying circles arranged in rows that continue on the side and on the back, probably simulating the decoration of the garment, with decorative motifs and manufacturing techniques already in the repertoire Castelluccian vase.

Also interesting is fig.1.C, which probably represents a little girl or young girl, given that the shape of the breasts is just sketchy, but the pubic triangle is clearly present, made, in this case, not by incision but with the application of clay modeled in a triangular shape. The second variant is represented by smaller female statuettes, colorless, without breasts, but characterized by a realistic representation of the sexual organ.

The first, only 2,4 cm high, is the only one found intact (fig. 2); the shape of the body is synthetic and stylized: the arms are very short and have a triangular shape similar to the previous ones, the legs sketched out in a cylindrical shape; very prominent and defined is the shape of the female organ, in which the anatomy of the labia majora can be identified; finally, the indication of the somatic features of the face is extremely stylized, made with a technique that produces an effect of great expressiveness and intensity: the protruding nose, the eyes and nostrils indicated with deep holes, the mouth with a horizontal cut that makes half open. The whole figure clearly recalls the iconography of the Bird Goddess and of the hybrid female-animal figures: the nose-beak, the arms-wings and the round eyes of the owl or the vulture, birds considered sacred as a representation of the divine feminine in her Deathbringer aspect.

The third and final variant brings together the statuettes defined as male, as they lack breasts: the find analyzed here (Fig.3) is 9 cm tall, characterized by a bust without breasts and the attachment of the phallus which, however, is missing. The body, leaner and more slender than the female figures, is painted in red, without black decorations. Another ithyphallic figurine must have been similar to this, found in the 30s and of which only photographic evidence has been preserved, since, according to local testimonies, it was destroyed on the opinion of the local parish priest, scandalized by the iconography it represented. As regards the analysis and interpretation of this type of "anthropomorphic figurines", the scholar Valeria Rita Guarnera points out that most of the studies have concentrated on the analysis of the stylistic characteristics to grasp affinities between geographical areas: in fact, their presence and production in locations and sites in the Near East, the Aegean and South-Eastern Europe, as well highlighted thanks to the enormous work done by Marija Gimbutas, underlines the evident link between all these areas from the point of view cultural and cultural-religious, albeit with the differences in the types of places where these artifacts were widespread. For example, in Sicily female representations and anthropomorphic figurines are distributed in different sites (caves, funerary or residential contexts), starting from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age; in Malta they are mainly recovered from tomb contexts; in Sardinia they were often placed in temple structures or community meeting places. Furthermore, from an iconographic point of view, the figures represented with the body without partitions, the elongated neck ending in a pointed head, the triangular arms, the small breasts, find comparisons with finds from various Mediterranean centers in the III and II millennium BC, from Crete to mainland Greece, from the Cyclades to Anatolia, in the Balkan and eastern area and in northern Italy, demonstrating that local productions incorporate and re-elaborate iconographic models of wide circulation and sharing, but with different and peculiar results from site to site site.

As regards the interpretation of this type of artefact, as Marija Gimbutas explains, the image of a female figure with a mask or bird-like appearance, protruding or pendulous breasts and stylized wings instead of arms, has already been present since the Paleolithic. The human figure is rendered in a stylized way, often in the shape of a stick; the neck is merged with the head which does not have defined features and neither the belly nor the legs are marked-engraved. The production of statuettes with prominent beaks or breasts and arms in the form of stylized wings continues throughout the Neolithic, with examples and finds spread throughout Europe.

Furthermore, the iconography of some of these statuettes refers both to the owl and above all to what Gimbutas calls "rigid nudes", made of various materials and in which the pubic triangle is highlighted. The "portraiture" or plastic representation of the human face is totally absent, certainly not due to a technical incapacity, but more probably because these objects were precisely a symbolic, and therefore synthetic and stylized, representation of the forces or concepts to which they refer; that is, they can be the three-dimensional and plastic equivalent of the representations in rock paintings (such as those of Cala dei Genoese). As regards the use and function of these artifacts, Orlandini highlights the most probable hypothesis that of considering the statuettes as "offers or depositions of a magical-ritual nature made in the context of a prehistoric sanctuary with the aim of provoking the beneficial or malefic intervention of the divine forces in respect of single people through the visible vehicle of the plastic image, of the exposed or buried statuette-person in the sacred place”; hypothesis supported by the fact that these images were not found in an inhabited agglomeration, and therefore do not seem to have relations with everyday life, that is, used as dolls or toys and not even with funerary contexts, such as idols-protectors of the deceased.

Historical notes

In 1963, during the works for the opening of a stone quarry, at the Redentore hill, better known as Monte San Giuliano, some finds were found that can be dated back to the ancient Bronze Age and classifiable in the field of figurative clay plastic . Several years later, in the years between 1968 and 1969, a small excavation test was carried out in the same area where the previous discovery had taken place and another nineteen statuettes or fragments of them, similar to the previous ones, were found; the discoveries therefore led to twenty-two specimens. The total number of statuettes found in Caltanissetta has made the Castelluccian facies the best documented in the context of Sicilian prehistory, as regards the plastic representation of the human figure.

CARD

Name

Little idols of Monte San Giuliano (CL)

Subject

Female figurine

Timeline

Early Bronze Age 2210-1600 BC

Location of discovery

Monte San Giuliano or Monte del Redentore – Province of Caltanissetta

Region

Sicilia

Environmental context

External area

exhibits exhibited

The finds are exhibited at the Interdisciplinary Regional Museum of Caltanissetta, in Contrada Santo Spirito in Caltanissetta, Tel. 0934567062 – fax 0934567086

State of conservation

The figurines are well preserved, despite missing the lower part of the body and, in some cases, the head and a limb; preserved surface polish and overpainted decorative details

Dimensions:

Exhibit fig.1.A – max height 5 cm. max width (at the level of the upper limbs) cm. 4,2 width (at hip level) cm. 3 and max thickness cm. 1,1; Exhibit fig.1.B – max preserved height cm. 10,5 max width (at the level of the upper limbs) cm. 6 width (at hip level) cm. 3,5 and max thickness cm. 1,2; Exhibit fig.1.C – max preserved height cm. 5,2 max width (at the level of the upper limbs) cm. 3,2 width (at hip level) cm. 2 and thickness cm. 0,7; Exhibit fig.2 – height cm. 2,3 width (at the level of the upper limbs) cm. 1,9 width (at hip level) cm. 1,4 and thickness cm. 0,4; Exhibit fig.3 – height cm. 11 width (at the level of the upper limbs) cm. 4,6 width (at hip level) cm. 3

Legal condition

State property

REFERENCES

  1. Marco Stefano Scaravilli – “Figured clay plastic in Sicily in the ancient Bronze Age" - in Papers of the degree course in archaeology – University of Catania 2016 – pp. 157-176;
  2. Pietro Orlandini – “Prehistoric statuettes of the early Bronze Age from Caltanissetta” - In Art Bulletin – II-III – 1968;
  3. Sebastiano Tusa (edited by) – First Sicily. At the origins of Sicilian society – Ediprint 1997;
  4. Valeria Rita Guarnera – “A fragment of an anthropomorphic figurine from the site of Valcorrente (Belpasso): typological study and interpretative proposal" - In prehistory hypothesis – vol. 13 - 2020.