Statue menhir (2000s BC), found at Le Mas Capelier in the commune of Calmels-et-le-Viala (Aveyron, Occitanie, France).
A statue menhir is a type of carved standing stone from the late Neolithic Period in Europe. The stone is a vertical slab or pillar with a stylized human figure carved into it, sometimes with hints of clothing or weapons.
During the 3rd millennnium BC, there was a highly original artistic centre in southern France, where statues were carved in the round with single three-dimensional figures. In the region of Rouergue, where the départments of Aveyron, Tarn and Hérault meet, a collection of around 50 sandstone statue menhirs were found. These statues were stylistically very similar.
This statue menhir was found in 1886, along with another one that has since disappeared. It is a monolith, and was once fixed upright in the ground like a menhir. It depicts a standing woman, with her outline following the stone's contours; her back and ribs are also carved.
The area where it was found was, during the Neolithic Period, a dense oak forest, with no sign of habitation or tombs. Most of the other Rouergue statues were also found in places where people did not live. At that time, people preferred to live in the Causses, a group of limestone plauteaux in the Massif Central and the areas around them, as the soils there were easier to cultivate. So these stone divinities were set up in the depths of dark forests, far from the settlements. They may have been intended to protect hunters.