Buste-socle explained

A buste-socle is a type of Iron Age stone statue found in France. Most buste-socles have been found within Armorica (a historical region of Gaul, roughly modern day Brittany), though examples have been found in central and southern France. The statues are busts of male figures which sit on an unworked square base (or socle). These bases were perhaps intended to be buried. The statues have been dated to within the later La Tène period.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Excavations at Paule, Côtes-d'Armor between 1988 and 1997 found four buste-socles. A lyre-playing figure with a torc, named the Bard of Paule, is perhaps the best known buste-socle.^[1] It is from the examples found at Paule that archaeologist Yves Menez (in a 1999 article) defined this type.^[3]

Buste-socles usually have a height upwards of 20cm and less than 1 metre.^[2] The largest known buste-socle (found in Bozouls, Aveyron) measures 95 cm.^[1] On some buste-socles the arms and torso are rendered and on others only the head is (as on a herm). Of those with arms, some have their arms pressed flat against the torso while others hold items. The Bard of Paule holds a lyre and the buste-socle from Bozouls wields a dagger.^[2]

Several buste-socles have been found in archaeological contexts that suggest they were recipients of devotion. A buste-socle found in, Nîmes was mounted in a box into which coins had been thrown.^[1] A granite buste-socle found in La Vraie-Croix, Morbihan was ploughed up next to a Roman altar, suggesting that such devotion extended into Roman times.^[1] However, one buste-socle from Molesme, Côte-d'Or appears to have been part of a late La Tène sanctuary complex and then deliberately buried during the reign of Tiberius.^[1]

What these statues were intended to depict is not certain.^[3] Menez has suggested the Paule buste-socles were intended as ancestor portraits.^[2] Armelle Duceppe-Lamarre has suggested a Levroux, Indre buste-socle, buried in the 1st century BC with a polisher and a deer antler, was intended to depict a god (with the polisher and deer antler intended as that god's attributes).^[3]

Further reading

• Girond, S. "Images de dieux, images d’ancêtres: aperçus sur la religion antique dans la cité des Bituriges cubes". in Nicolas, T. et al (eds.) Les images: regards sur les sociétés. Éditions de la Sorbonne (2011), pp. 181-212.
• Gomez de Soto, J.; Milcent, P.-Y. "La sculpture de l’âge du Fer en France centrale et occidentale" Documents d’archéologie méridionale 25 (2002): 261-267.
• Krausz, S.; Soyer, C.; Buchsenschutz, O. "Une statue de pierre anthropomorphe à Levroux (Indre)" Revue archéologique du Centre de la France 28 (1989): 77-90.
• Petit, C.; Wahlen, P. "Une statue gauloise découverte sur le sanctuaire de Molesme (Côte-d’Or, France)" Archâologisches Korrespondenzblatt 35 (2005): 223–32.

Notes and References

1. Book: Kiernan, Philip . Roman Cult Images: The Lives and Worship of Idols from the Iron Age to Late Antiquity . Cambridge University Press . 2020 .
2. Ménez . Yves . 1999 . Les sculptures gauloises de Paule (Côtes-d’Armor) . Gallia . 56 . 357–414 .
3. Duceppe-Lamarre . Armelle . 2002 . Unité ou pluralité de la sculpture celtique hallstattienne et laténienne en pierre en Europe continentale du VIIe au Ier s. av. J.C . Documents d'Archéologie Méridionale . 25 . 25 . 285–318 . 10.4000/dam.395 .