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A neolithic "mother-goddess" from Auvergne?
The fragment of a ceramic feminine statuette has been found during the excavation of a Middle Neolithic site in Pont-du-Château (Puy-de-Dôme), by a team from the Inrap. The excavation is curated by the Regional Archaeology Service.
The Pont-du-Château site
In one of the pits, used as a midden, a female statuette had been thrown out with other ceramic objects.
In the round and rounded
Fairly similar ceramic figurines belonging to different Neolithic cultures exist in France. They have wide shoulders and hips, accentuated breasts and a slim waist, while the pubes is not shown.
A "Mother-goddess"?
The rarity and the careful production of these Chassey Culture figurines, all of which are female, demonstrate decorative continuity during the European Neolithic. They show, in a society which was becoming more complex that the traditional Neolithic ideology, with its mainly female representations, was deep-rooted.


Mahaut Tyrrell
Media communication
Inrap, media partnerships and relations department
+33 (0)1 40 08 80 24
mahaut.tyrrell [at] inrap.fr
Christel Fraisse
Chargée du développement culturel et de la communication Inrap,
direction interrégionale Rhône-Alpes
04 72 12 90 77
christel.fraisse [at] inrap.fr