The gate of the year

Engraved slabs from the interior of passage graves. The first one comes from the dolmen of the Pierres Plates, Gulf of Morbihan (Brittany, France); the second from Gavrinis island (Brittany, France). The engravings show a series of wavy lines and spirals the meaning of which is not easy to detect. Marija Gimbutas, in her wide research on Neolithic religions, has suggested that images like these recall the idea of flux, radiation, thus referring to the generative force of the feminine (Gimbutas 2005). Their presence on the wall of megalithic tombs betakes the conception of a continuous cycle intertwining life and death together and attributing to the dead and ancestors a central role in the regeneration of vital force.

[Images: http://www.panoramio.com/user/1131995/tags/Gravures%20du%20N%C3%A9olithique]




Female Symbols

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Engraved slabs from the interior of passage graves. The first one comes from the dolmen of the Pierres Plates, Gulf of Morbihan (Brittany, France); the second from Gavrinis island (Brittany, France). The engravings show a series of wavy lines and spirals the meaning of which is not easy to detect. Marija Gimbutas, in her wide research on Neolithic religions, has suggested that images like these recall the idea of flux, radiation, thus referring to the generative force of the feminine (Gimbutas 2005). Their presence on the wall of megalithic tombs betakes the conception of a continuous cycle intertwining life and death together and attributing to the dead and ancestors a central role in the regeneration of vital force. [Images: http://www.panoramio.com/user/1131995/tags/Gravures%20du%20N%C3%A9olithique]