It is a pebble of fine-grained gray sandstone shaped by the fluvial flow into an oblong shape with rounded ends (phallic shape), with a slightly arched longitudinal axis and an ellipsoidal cross-section. The head separated from the trunk by an incised furrow is decorated with incisions that seem to represent a head of hair surrounded by a cord at the top; the face is broad and flattened, the body in front is covered by a plot of oblique lines; three cup marks, located at the vertices of an ideal inverted triangle, indicate the breasts and the sex; from the shoulder, rendered with an engraved triangle, the arms descend at the end of which a regular rectangle divided by two parallel lines represents the hand and the five fingers. On the back, the herringbone design seems to repeat the motif on the front, albeit with a different form.

Historical notes

During a break-in carried out for the planting of a vineyard near Castelvetro in the province of Modena, materials belonging to various periods were collected: Paleolithic, Eneolithic, Bronze Age, Villanovan age. In particular, the pebble was found, together with other materials from the Etruscan necropolis of Galassina, during the excavations that took place in 1879.