Main content
The Menhir from Algund
During the Copper Age, people living in the Alpine valleys between the Main Alpine Ridge and the Po Plain erected man-size statue-like stones, known as menhirs. A menhir of this type was discovered during field work near Algund in 1932. Chiselled into the face of the marble are numerous images of daggers and axes. The inscribed axes look very similar to the Iceman’s axe. In the bottom third of the stone a garland-shaped belt can be seen. Below that are two horizontal daggers and a four-wheeled cart drawn by two horned animals. The menhir at Algund dates from the Copper Age.
A close examination – statue menhirs
Twelve menhirs from nine finds are known from the area south of the Main Alpine Ridge in modern-day South Tyrol. The human-shaped engraved stones vary in height from 0.60 to 2.75 metres. They all bear inscribed images that are continued on the backs of the stones. The images are thought to have been made using stone chisels. Male menhirs are identified by engraved weapons. The flat axes and triangular daggers depict the first metal weapons. Female menhirs, by contrast, show breasts and jewellery but never weapons.
In many cases statue menhirs can be dated on the basis of the weapons they show. We know from comparing the shapes of the triangular daggers and axes with real finds from archaeological excavations that the statue menhirs were erected in the Copper Age.
Ancestors or gods?
Who the statue menhirs actually represent remains unclear. Are they ancestors who were worshipped as founding fathers, or heroes, or gods. Their meaning is also a subject of debate. Some believe that they were used in cult rituals. For example, at Feldthurns in Eisack Valley a statue menhir was found on a burial site. Others believe that they served as markers of territorial boundaries. Archaeologists do agree, however, on the great symbolic significance of these stone monuments.
Statue menhirs are widely distributed from Portugal and France to Corsica and Sardinia to Upper Italy and across the Alpine region into Central and Eastern Europe.
Dedicated to the gods?
During the Copper Age, people in the Alpine valleys placed valuable stone objects in rock crannies and pits. A deposit of this kind was found, for example, in 1975 on Sonnenburg Hill near Bruneck. The inventory of objects included a fluted axe, a small perforated stone axe complete with whetstone, a hafted point, a point-butted stone axe, a second stone axe, and a fluted club. The objects were placed together in a pit. None show any traces of use. All were, as it were, brand new when placed there.
In a stone cranny at Piglon Head, a rocky spur in the Etsch Valley south of Bolzano, five small copper axes were found. On the hilltop itself eight retouched flint spear points were discovered, which had also been placed there purposely.
There is some disagreement about the interpretation of the deposit finding. Were they sacrificial graves dedicated to gods in ritual ceremonies, as most archaeologists believe, or were they simply hiding places for valuables?
