Example of a statue menhir, a rough counterpart to the Big Mama stela.

The Big Mama stela is one of a group of stelae from the Arco area of northwestern Italy. The stele may be associated with the culture to which Otzi the Iceman is archaeologically linked.

The stele is one of a group of six from the region. The Big Mama stele is 7 feet (2 m) tall and made from sandstone.[1]

List of Big Mama stela iconography

The iconography of the Big Mama stela is as follows:

  • a partial glyph (lower half of a star?) adorns the worn top edge of the stele
  • Central vertical archaic dagger at upper center chest
  • Necklace arced above dagger
  • six horizontal daggers, three-by-three pointed towards chest midline
  • archaic pin-(fibula (brooch)-like), (flanked as 4th item above left three daggers)[2]
  • two opposed-facing halberds flanking vertical central dagger
    • four facing vertical halberds
      (all six halberds, are either three triangle-bladed, or three rectangle-bladed)
  • four-segmented "corded belt", horizontally flanks the lower 4th of the stele's iconography

The seven archaic daggers have semi-circular, buttressed perpendicular handle terminations. The central vertical dagger handle termination is doubly ornamented. The corded belt may symbolize a "broad collar", that represents the 'agricultural field',[3] and mothering and sustenance.

References

  1. ↑ The Iceman, Lone Voyager from the Ice Age, National Geographic, p. 60-61.
  2. ↑ The Iceman, National Geographic, p. 60.
  3. ↑ Slab cist and wedge tomb.
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