The « Capovolto » symbol of the pre-nuragic Sardinia

and the matriarchal cult of the goddess of fertility.

This writing is a part of the book published on Amazon :

Baldaravita’s hat shaped stones

Neolithic cults and symbols

- Southern Corsica & Sardinia -

« …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

These cave paintings are unknown in Sardinia where appear, for cons, petroglyphs of the "Capovolto" in

burial tombs of the 4th millennium, which are similar to those of the Piedmont Alps.

Sas Conca necropolis. Oniferi. Sardinia.

Capo di Ponte. Val Camonica.

The same symbol is used on the petroglyphs of the Bue Marino cave near Dorgali and in the Domus de

Janas of Branca Cheremule where appear, side by side, the male and female figures.

Branca tomb. Cheremule. Sardinia. Bue Marino cave. Dorgali. Sardinia.

These petroglyphs are difficult to date and their engraving may have been made after the creation of

the monuments. However, the resumption of the Capovolto symbol on the statue menhirs of the Ozieri

Culture can locate them historically.

Foppe di Nadro. Val Camonica. Croatia.Osijeh. 3rd mill.

The figure called "Capovolto" in Sardinia, is reproduced from the Paleolithic era in the eastern

Mediterranean and has become a common symbol to Neolithic cultures of the Black Sea and the

Balkans.

Nevali Cori. Anatolia. 9th mill. Sarakino cave.Pelion. Greece. 9th mill.

Polland.Swidwin.9,000. Romania.Calarasi. Vinca culture. Balkans.

This figure, which is a religious marker of Neolithic Sardinia in the 4th and 3rd millennia, has not been

found by cons in Corsica.

The Capovolto is interpreted, by the authors of Sardinia, as a male anthropomorphic figure, the inverted

body, whose head back down indicates the journey to the afterlife.

According to Jean GUILAINE, professor at the College of France, the "Uomo capovolto" in literal

translation : the upside down man, "appears as a kind of trident to various interpretations: candelabra,

worshiper, man who is falling down, upside down head, dagger combined with bucrane pattern. It is

probably a symbol of authority, unknown in the archaeological record. "

It seems than the authors confuse the « egg », symbolizing the reproduction and which is typical of this

fecundity symbol, with the head of the figure.

Most of the interpretations, including those of the Sardinian museums, seem strongly impregnated with

Catholic religious culture: "With the Capovolto, the concept of hell realm where the souls of the dead

flying away of the earth with the head down ..."

The figure that rises the arms is considered as a "worshiper", a person who prays in a Christian style,

even though the fertility cult rituals, as were practiced in the Eastern Mediterranean, gave a great space

to sexuality accompanied by alcoholic libations, conducted by priestesses who were watered with the

blood of sacrifices, in temples reserved for these events.

The interpretation of the figure with an "egg" between the legs raised in the representations of

Piedmont and Sardinia, is the goddess dedicated to the cult of fertility in all other Neolithic cultures, and

that until those of Pacific Islands.

Atoll Tarawa. Kiribati. Hawaii. Big island.

This figure whose oldest evidence was found at Mezin, Ukraine (10,000) became the universal symbol of

the goddess of fertility of the Neolithic civilizations.

The petroglyphs of the Sardinian Capovolto were carved in the chambers of the funerary hypogeum of

the Bonuighinu culture whose use is maintained in the following Ozieri culture .

Both cultures have devoted a main worship to the goddess of fertility.

Why would they depicted a male symbol to accompany the deceased towards his rebirth ?

It is in the context of matriarchal cult of the Great Mother that it is necessary to appreciate the symbol

of the Capovolto of the Ozieri culture which is, without being reversed, the symbol of the goddess of

fertility, legs apart and arms raised, in a sexual offering or for giving birth to the child represented by an

outgoing egg from the female sex.

The same symbol appears on weights found at Conca Illonis with the head and the hands represented

for giving the meaning of the figure, not reversed, in Lajja Gauri attitude accompanied with his sign M +

V * as in the cultic representations of the peoples of the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.

* The goddess lajja Gauri origins : http://www.amazon.com/The-Goddess-Lajja-Gauri-Footsteps/dp/1478158484

The Capovolto symbol decorates the statue menhirs of the Ozieri culture in Sardinia.

Historians classify these statues menhirs between "maschile", male, the most numerous, and "feminile",

female, when women breasts are shown.

They conclude that it is the representations of warriors armed with dual dagger and stand away from

any mention of fertility cult. http://menhirmuseum.it/capovolto

Maschile Genna Arrele. Feminile

The general form of the statues menhirs of Sardinia is clearly feminine : A masculine attitude would have

favored the shoulder width.

Perda Iddocca 7 Pranu Maore 1 Genna Arrele 2

To enhance the representation of femininity and clearly dedicate the sculpture to the cult of fertility, the

vaginal hole is featured on many steles.

Piscina e Sali 9 Arasseda 7 Palas de Nuraxi 1

Palas de Nuraxi 2

The steles menhirs bear the symbol of the goddess of fertility associated with a "dual dagger".

The museum official interpretation is given in a decidedly patriarchal mind : "the dual dagger is the

element that characterizes the masculine statue menhir. It is the symbol of manhood, strength and

willingness to fight of the warriors who has been deified due to their prestigious rank ... "

The weapon, symbolically represented because the war function of a dual dagger is doubtful, associated

with the goddess of fertility of the stele, is the necessary male counterpart to perform the reproduction.

This male virility is also depicted anatomically, without symbol, on some statues menhirs.

Cuccu de Lai 1 Piscina e Sali 4

The symbol of the male counterpart, double dagger and phallus, is also represented by what appears to

be a mass or a scepter (?) on menhir statues accompanying the grave of "giganti" of Pedras Dolada near

Nuoro. The representation of the symbol is variable but always linked to virility.

Steles menhirs in front of the tomb of the« Giganti ». Pedras Dolada. Nuoro.

The many idols found in the Neolithic tombs in Sardinia are all females and naked, clearly dedicated to

the cult of fertility.

As funerary objects, they are related to regeneration by rebirth in the womb of the mother, represented

by the closed grave whose way out is the female sex.

This latter is represented by a hole in the wall of the tomb chambers which would allow to the deceased

to exit from the sealed tomb.

Sas Conca necropolis. Oniferi. Sardinia.

This same practice of the symbolic hole is retaken, in the successive period, with the tombs of "Giganti"

which take the form of a female body, legs apart, with a narrow door at the place of the female sex.

Reconstruction Giganti’s tomb of Osono. Monte Santu Micheli

Historians speak about "porta falsa", false door, because this narrow gate does not allow a person to

pass. On the contrary, it is the real exit door of the deceased to be reborn by the sex of the mother.

The same type of tomb Neolithic/Chalcolithic shaped as a female body with its narrow door is practiced

in the same period in the Caucasus and on the shores of the Black Sea, especially in the culture of Majkop

that was the major center of copper metallurgy techniques which were diffused in the western

Mediterranean.

. « Giganti » tomb of Majkop. Georgia.

The Sardinia, in the second half of the 4th millennium, became a colony of the peoples of the eastern

Mediterranean that set up their settlements on their sea route to southern Spain.

The Burial tombs of Domus de Janas are decorated with protomes, at the time of the Ozieri culture,

representing the Taurus, god of strength, male counterpart of the goddess of fertility in Eastern

religions. This stylized symbol, the bull horns, is the mark of the Phoenician- Aegean colonizers.

Protome : Anghelu Ruju necropolis. Roccia dell’Elefante. Castelsardo.

The male symbol, the phallus, is an indispensable accessory of fertility cult rituals .

Copies made in stone attended the rites in the Ozieri civilization.

Nuraxinieddu.Santa Vittoria Puisteris. Oristano. Bau'e Porcus.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14180969/Arte-e-Religione-Della-Sardegna-Prenuragica

The symbol of the labyrinth common to Neolithic cultures, is found engraved on the walls of tombs and

on pre-nuragical steles menhirs. Symbolizing the uterus, it represents pregnancy, the course of the

deceased in the womb until its revival.

Sardinia.Luzzanas. Del Labirinto Tomb. Naquane.Val Camonica.

. . Mogor.Galicia. Spain. Cornwall. United kingdom. Tell Rifa'at. Syria.

La Mamoiada. Sa Perda Pinta menhir . Sardinia. Ozieri culture.

Participating to the same cult of rebirth, the water-symbol of life, was associated with funerary

monuments of Sardinia as evidenced by the creation of pools and large cupules.

Sas Conca Cheremule

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….”

Comments and remarks are welcome on :

lajja.gauri@hotmail.com

Penmon church. Anglesey island. Wales. England.