Museum of the Origins of Man



THE BICEPHALIC HUMAN HEAD IN THE PALEOLITHIC SCULPTURE

The production of sculpture of bicephalic heads is subdivided into four phases:
- from 750,000 to 400,000 years ago (Acheulean and early Clactonian);
- from 400,000 to 200,000 years ago (Acheulean and Middle Clactonian);
- from 200,000 to 40,000 years ago (Acheulean and recent Clactonian, and Mousterian);
- from 40,000 to 12,000 years ago (Upper Paleolithic).
The typology of the sculptures is constituted by numerous types of bicephalic anthropomorphic heads. These heads are without necks.
In the Lower Paleolithic, sculptures are of small dimensions and are represented as looking in opposite directions (Fig. 5.2). At the end of the Lower Paleolithic, in the Mousterian, there are smaller ones (Fig 5.35), and bigger ones ( Fig. 5.24), up to the weight of about 88 lbs, and with the orientation of the look, that is of the head, in every direction.
Between 200,000 and 12,000 years ago, this type of sculpture was realized in a remarkable variety of styles, from the very realistic, with real proportions, to some elongated forms. Moreover, one head can be smaller than the other to which it is combined.
In the Paleolithic no sculptures of bicephalic anthropomorphic heads with a body have been found, but some very small statues have been found from the Upper Paleolithic that I will describe with the Venuses.
In the Upper Paleolithic there are no paintings showing bicephalic human heads. The bicephaly is found in sculpture in historic civilizations and in small primitive civilizations.
In the Lower Paleolithic, bicephalic anthropomorphic sculpture often represents in the same sculpture two hominid heads of different species, and this coincides with skeletal findings of different hominids that have co-existed, that have been found in Africa.

Fig. 2) The most ancient find. Drawing of a two-sided anthropomorphic pebble (or pebble of many faces) in reddish-brown jasper. On the back of the pebble is a second image, which resembles the face of an Australopithecus. This two-sided pebble is considered random by scholars, but was brought into the cave from a distance of nearly three miles by an Australopithecus africanus whose remains were found in the cave, as if it were a sculpture with the representation of a face, thus revealing the capacity of symbolic thought of Australopithecus; therefore we must consider it the first known form of Pre-Art, even if we do not know the use of such ready-made objects before the manufacture of anthropomorphic or zoomorphic sculptures for cult rites; but if it also had a few touches of workmanship, it could be considered art.
Found in a cave by W.I. Eitzman in 1925. First described by R. Dart in 1974.
Height: 2 inches.
Origin: Makapansgat (valley of the Northern Province, South Africa).
Absolute dating: 3,000,000 years (Dart) and 2.5 - 2.9 million years (Bednarik).
Find studied by Raymond Dart, Mary Leakey, and Robert G. Bednarik.
Material culture: not defined, but the use of accidental cutting stones is established.
(Drawing deduced from a drawing by R.G. Bednarik.)

Fig. 5.1) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture. It represents two hominid heads joined at the neck, looking in opposite directions. The head on the left side is in the line of Homo habilis, while the head on the right represents a more modern hominid, probably in the line of a pre-Homo erectus or a pre-sapiens. The sculpture is obtained from a nodule of flint and can be considered of good workmanship for the epoch.
Height: 2 inches.
Origin: Rodi Garganico, Foggia, Italy.
Material culture: probable transition between Oldowan and ancient Clactonian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.2) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck, probably two Homo erectus.
Height: 2 inches.
Origin: Rodi Garganico, Foggia, Italy.
Material culture: probably a transition between Oldowan and ancient Clactonian.
Obtained from a flint pebble; the sketched-out part is greater than the unsketched part (see dots in the drawing). Under the jaws of the two heads there is a hollow some millimeters deep, deliberately made to highlight the shape of the jaw. The sculpture has traces of alluvial rolling but is not disfigured.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

5.3) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck, of different species. One head is smaller than the other. The sculpture is obtained from a nodule of flint, the original shape of which has been partially used in the larger head.
Length: 2.7 inches.
Origin: Rodi Garganico, Foggia, Italy.
Material culture: probable transition between Oldowan and early Clactonian.
The larger head is lengthened for stylistic deformation, but it is evident that the hominid species represented is more modern. Four other sculptures with the same cultural attribution have several typological affinities. Three sculptures can be compared (Fig. 5.1 - 5.4 - 5.6) that have this in common: 1) one head larger than the other; 2) the larger head is elongated; 3) a part is hollowed upwards to show the union of the jaws of the two heads; 4) two different species of hominids are represented; 5) the smaller heads are all oriented to the left. The fourth sculpture (Fig. 5.5), collected by J. BOUCHER DE PERTHES, has two heads of equal dimensions, oriented differently than the other four sculptures, but with the same two types of hominids.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.4) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck, of different species. It is in flint and completely worked from every side, that is, no one single surface of the original pebble has been used; nevertheless the shape is similar to other sculptures that have used parts of the natural shape of the nodule. (See Fig. 5.1 e 5,3)). This means that the hominids, when possible, used nodules with shapes that allowed less working.
Height: 3.1 inches.
Origin: Gela, Caltanisetta, Sicily, Italy.
Material culture: probable transition between Oldowan and early Clactonian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of the Man.

Fig. 5.5) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture. (The original drawing by J. BOUCHER DE PERTHES is inserted in the table Fig. 5.8, where other descriptions follow.
It represents two hominid heads of different species joined at the neck.
Material culture: probable early Acheulean.

Fig. 5.6) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck, and of different species. In the head on the right, the orbital zone is well-represented. The sculpture has an elegant stylistic deformation and is in greenstone (not hard like flint) and the alluvial tumbling has obliterated the external traces of workmanship, but the originally represented shape is preserved.
Length: 3.3 inches.
Origin: Tortona, Alessandria, Italy.
Material culture: probable a transition between Oldowan and early Clactonian, or early Clactonian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.7) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck and looking in opposite directions. Length: 6.5 inches. Origin: Rodi Garganico, Foggia, Italy. Material culture: Early Acheulean or perhaps Middle Acheulean. Greater descriptions are provided in a study on this sculpture in "Short history of the discoveries of the lower Paleolithic art, and hypothesis on the future of the research" by P. Gaietto, 2002, in " Paleolithic Art Magazine ".
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.8) Drawings of stone sculptures found and drawn by JACQUES BOUCHER DE PERTHES and published in "Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes: Mémoire sur l'industrie primitive et des Arts à leur origine" (1847 - 1864).
They are representations of human heads joined at the neck, looking in opposite directions, and are bicephalic anthropomorphic sculptures. They are all typical. The material used is flint.
The stylistic deformation is of various types, proof that they originate in different periods of the Lower Paleolithic.
Boucher de Perthes's interpretations were varied, and different from the current typology.
Size: from 2 to 5.1 inches long.
Technique of working: it isn't analyzed; however, sculptures nos. 16 and 16a seem not to have rounded edges, while the other three sculptures seem to have slightly rounded edges from alluvial tumbling.
Origin: "Alluvial sands", probably of the Valley of the Somme.
Material culture: Early or Middle Clactonian. All the sculptures collected by Boucher de Perthes are in large part authentic, and those that aren't, that are errors, re-enter in the margins of error, made also by other researchers, along with the stone tools and the fossil human remains of the first half of the 18th century.

Boucher de Perthes died at 80 years of age in 1868. The ferocity of his enemies did not cease: in 1869, in the name of official science, his works were sent for pulping.

Fig. 5.9) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture found by ANTONIN JURITZKY. (Drawing from a photograph published by Juritzky in 1953.)
The sculpture represents two hominid heads joined at the neck looking in opposite directions. Obtained from a nodule of flint. The eye is constituted by a natural hole; the sides most worked are in the zone from the nose to the front part of the jaws, and the hollows that join under the two jaws towards the top. The human types are archaic, that is hominids with absence of forehead and chin; however, from a drawing it is not possible to establish if the features are those of Homo erectus or archaic Homo sapiens.
Juritzky thought this sculpture represents two joined heads, but of ferocious animals. The statement can be explained by the fact that, half a century ago, there was not yet the knowledge we possess today about skulls of hominids found in Africa. In his typology of bicephalic heads, using the hollows under the jaws, Juritzky made a geometric distinction measured in degrees.
Length: probably 8 7.8 inches long.
Technique of working of the flint: hollowing, with little refinement.
Origin: probably central northern France.
Material culture: Acheulean or Middle Clactonian

Fig. 5.10) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture (drawing and photograph). It represents two hominid heads joined at the neck. The sculpture is obtained from a nodule of flint, finely worked across most of the surface.
The white side in the photograph is the crust of the nodule. In the drawings it is represented with dots. In the photograph a natural hole is examined (the zone of the mouth) that was increased by removing the crust.
Height: 3.1 inches.
Origin: Gela, Caltanisetta, Sicily, Italy.
Material culture: Early Clactonian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.11) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck, of two different species.
Length: 2.9 inches.
Origin: Rodi Garganico, Foggia, Italy.
Material culture: Early Clactonian.
It represents a human species similar to those described in the previous photographs.
The stylistic deformation, in this representation, tends to horizontal elongation. This sculpture is in flint, and worked on every side. This type of sculpture has been occasionally found by paleoethnologists who remain rigorously unaware of this type of art. They however have understood that these were artifacts, therefore some have considered them "œprocessing waste" while others, more "enlightened", understood they were "intentional artifacts", as they did not have cutting edges like the processing waste, and considered them "useless tools"! In the studies of prehistory it happens also that some scholars make illogical interpretations, perceiving humans as making "useless tools".
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.12) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck. The stylistic deformation is relatively realistic in proportion. The sculpture is carefully worked from the two sides. In the front view, the head on the left has the eye represented with precision in spite of the hardness of the flint; while in the photograph (posterior view) the other head (that appears here on the left) has represented the orbital zone with a great hollow, that could represent a gap, because the eye appears extinguished.
Height: 2.1 inches.
Origin: Romandato river, Rodi Garganico, Foggia, Italy.
Material culture: Early or Middle Acheulean. The attribution of Acheulean is based, also, on the similar type of workmanship of the Acheulean hand axe or biface, chipped on one side and then turned and chipped on the other side.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.13) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck. The right head is bigger, and is looking upward. The rear side is flat. It's greenstone, and, due to alluvial rolling damage, the traces of workmanship are not seen, but the overall shape is intact.
Height: 3.5 inches.
Origin: Vesima, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Acheulean or Early or Middle Clactonian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

5.14) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture. It represents two hominid heads joined at the neck. Despite the stylistic deformation by horizontal elongation, the profile of the head on the left has an angle due in part to the nose, while the profile of the head on the right is rounded. This coupling is present in the Lower Paleolithic, but also in the Middle Paleolithic (See Fig. 5.21). In this case the representation is realistically proportioned. This constant difference between the two different hominids joined at the neck, is currently under study to interpret the mechanisms of evolution.
Length: 8.6 inches. Width: from 1.5 to 2 inches.
Origin: Cave of the Olive Tree, Valle del Vero, Toirano, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Acheulean or Early or Middle Clactonian.
The Cave of the Olive Tree was uncovered during excavations for the Spanish mission in Italy in 1958, in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age levels. In the excavated material from these digs, deposited outside the cave, this sculpture was found. It is in local grey stone covered with a coating of white limestone approximately .07 inches thick that demonstrates the long time it was in the cave; it also establishes that the sculpture was carried into the cave for cult rituals. This would be the first finding of a sculpture in a European cave dating to the Lower Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.15) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture. It represents two hominid heads joined at the neck, of different species.
Length: 3.3 inches.
Origin: Venosa, Potenza, Italy.
Material culture: Middle Clactonian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.16) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture. It represents two hominid heads joined at the neck, of different species. The sculpture is worked from all sides. There's a residue of the crust of the flint nodule, which you can clearly see in the photograph. It's indicated by dots in the drawing. The two heads have lateral and semi-frontal representation. The sculpture is flat in the back, but this is not a consequence of the "œready-made"; it was finely worked to make it flat.
Length: 3.3 inches.
Origin: Rodi Garganico, Foggia, Italy.
Material culture: Clactonian or Middle or Late Acheulean.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.17) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck, of which one is represented on the side and in front with a half face and head, while the other head is frontally represented. It's completely worked across the entire exterior, and even inwards, even though it's made of flint, which is a very hard material.
Height: 3.3 inches. Width: 4.1 inches.
Origin: Maribo, Denmark.
Material culture: Clactonian or Middle or Late Acheulean.
A study with seven photographs and drawings entitled : " A bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture of the Lower Paleolithic of Denmark " by P.Gaietto, 2001, is published in Paleolithic Art Magazine.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.18) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck. These heads by their general structure, including the absence of chin and forehead, represent two Homo erectus. The sculpture is in flint, and finely worked; it represents the mouth through an incision by percussion that demanded remarkable skill. This find is the only one of the bicephalic anthropomorphic sculptures of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic to have a neck. It's from an area that is worth researching.
Height: 1.7 inches.
Origin: Caramanico, Pescara, Italy.
Material culture: Clactonian or Middle or Late Acheulean.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig.5,19

Fig.5,19,1

Fig.5,19,2

Fig. 5.19) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two hominid heads joined at the neck, of different species. (Fig. 5.19.1 rear). This sculpture is stylistically proportioned. It is similar to the sculpture of Gela (Fig. 5,4) because of its two human types, but also to many other sculptures. In this sculpture the head side (B) (see drawing 5.19.2) has the chin, while the attached head does not have a chin, and has a rounded face. It is the only sculpture of the Lower Paleolithic that represents this human type with the NOSE; and this makes one think that in other sculptures of this type it was omitted, as the ears were also not represented.
The sculpture is obtained from a flint nodule on which the original crust remains; it is white in color. In the drawings this is indicated by dots. It has only slight signs of alluvial transport, which are not disfiguring.
The other sculpture from Maribo (Fig. 5,17) is much more painstaking in its details, and the style tends toward vertical elongation; however, the head side B is similar to the sculpture in Fig. 5.9.2, side B. Three human species (or varieties) are represented in these two sculptures from Maribo.
Length: 4.3 inches.
Origin: Maribo, Denmark.
Material culture: Clactonian or Middle or Late Acheulean.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.20) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing a head of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis or perhaps of a pre-sapiens neanderthalensis, with very elegant stylistic deformation. A small head is represented on the big head, and this is the only known combination of superimposed bicephaly in the stone sculpture of the Lower Paleolithic. The small head has been broken in half and is smoothened by alluvial tumbling, as is the entire sculpture.
It's possible, however, that the small head is actually a ritual headdress or hairstyle.
Height: 4.3 inches. Thickness: from 1.9 to 3.1 millimeters. Red silex.
Origin: Senigallia, Ancona, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian or pre-Mousterian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.21) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck, of which one (on the left) represents a Homo sapiens neanderthalensis with eye and mouth. The other, oriented to look upwards, represents a more archaic human type. The head of the Neanderthal is altogether similar to the head of the Neanderthal woman of Balzi Rossi(Fig. 5,32).
Height: 9 inches.
Origin: San Pietro d’Olba, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.22) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck; the heads are pointed as if they wore the same kind of pointed hat. The two heads are represented semi-frontally. The jaws are not united, but are separated as in the sculpture of Venosa (Fig. 5,15). The human types are rather similar and resemble two pre-sapiens.
Height: 4.1 inches.
Origin: Frosinone, Italy.
Material culture: Late Acheulean or pre-Mousterian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.23) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two half heads of humans joined together. This type of union begins in the Mousterian and continues in the Upper Paleolithic into proto-history, and is present in the world also in historic urban civilizations, where the half head in frontal view can be joined to a half head of an animal, or of a hybrid man-animal, or to a half-skull, which represents death. (See Fig. 9,9 -9A3 - 9A4 - 5A15).
This sculpture represents two Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. The head on the right, oriented to look downward, certainly has a special meaning. The Mousterian was a theater of great inventions in sculpture, as the matchings in the bicephalic sculptures are varied and of different types. However, most of the combinations are repeated and are types that correspond to certain periods of the Mousterian, and also to different geographical areas. It is to be pointed out that the assignment to the Mousterian is usually based on the representation of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, but some sculptures could be precedent, and others posterior, attributed to the Upper Paleolithic.
Height: 11.8 inches.
Origin: Voltri, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.24) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck in semi-frontal position. The overall style is realistic but with slight deformation by elongation in the head on the left, which represents a Homo sapiens of archaic type. The head on the right represents a Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. In the head of the sapiens sapiens the eye, nose, chin are depicted well, and jaw is hollowed from beneath.
Length: 17 inches.
Origin: Campoligure, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.25 Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck. The heads are pointed, as if they had a pointed headdress in common. It has an affinity with the sculpture of Frosinone (Fig. 5,22) because of the two pointed heads together.
The head on the left represents a Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. The eye is formed by a triangular hole. The head on the right represents a Homo sapiens sapiens and has the forehead, nose and chin represented, and the eye that is constituted by a circular incision.
Height: 1.9 inches.
Origin: San Severo, Foggia, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.26) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture. It represents two human heads joined at the neck and looking in opposite directions.
The sculpture is in green stone; it has suffered alluvial tumbling, but is not excessively damaged. The technique of working is of two types: sculpture and incision. The head on the left has represented the eye, nose and big lips. These big lips are also present in a Mesolithic deity and in a Celtic one(Fig. 5A8 - 6A1). The head on the right has represented the eye with an engraving.
Height: 1.9 inches.
Origin: Monte Gazzo, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.27) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck. This sculpture has two techniques of working: sculpted modeling and engraving, which was used to make the eyes, which consist of two deep transversal engravings. It's damaged by alluvial rolling, but probably has lost very little. It can also be said that it has two styles (it is probable that it is due to an encounter between two different artistic civilizations): there is the style of the general elaboration of the two heads, which imitate the real, and the schematic or geometric style used to represent the two eyes, which are essentially inventions of the eyes themselves. In our opinion, this combination is tasteless, but yesterday, as today, it's "fashion" which dictates the artist's actions.
We find an affinity with this sculpture, regarding the combinations of the two styles and of the two working techniques, in the zooanthropomorphic sculpture (Fig. 9.8) found in the Cave of the Children (Balzi Rossi).
Height: 10.6 inches.
Origin: Andora, Savona, Italy (a mountain village on the coast a short distance from the Balzi Rossi caves).
Material culture: Mousterian.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.28) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck with strong stylistic deformation. It’s very damaged by rolling, but it's still an important document. We have already seen this type of coupling in the Early and Middle Clactonian, and it remains to clarify the constant of the two human types of different species, and the elongated horizontal style for one head and the elongated vertical style for the other head.
Length: 5.7 inches.
Origin: Fidenza, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian (previous or later). In the Mousterian, it is likely that some cultures, in certain areas, were more advanced than others. These differences are found in all the post-Paleolithic epochs, and still exist today. It follows that in sculptures like this and others which have been found on the surface, the cultural attribution, that is, the relative dating, is difficult to establish.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.30) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck. Behind it is flat. The head on the left represents a Homo sapiens neanderthalensis; the head on the right is interpreted as Homo sapiens sapiens of feminine sex for the hair (and also for the human type) similar to the feminine head of Dolni Vestonice (Fig. 4.26). It has been found in the cave of Basura approximately 1,148 feet from the entrance, in a place where a ritual or game took place in which small balls of clay were launched against a wall. In the same cave have been found four other small sculptures, of which three are bicephalic anthropomorphic, and one that represents a mammal's head. It cannot be ascertained whether the mammal head is of the same epoch as the bicephalic anthropomorphic sculptures.
The sculpture is obtained from fragments of stalagmite.
Height: 1.9 inches.
Origin: Cave of the Basura, Toirano, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.31) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck. Behind it is flat. It has a sloping forehead, nose and absence of chin. The eye was obtained by turning, and also the mouth, which has a deeper hole. The combined head is looking downward like the Voltri sculpture (Fig. 5,23).
Height: 1.9 inches.
Origin: the Basura cave, Toirano, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian or upper Paleolithic. At the time of discovery, about 45 years ago, this cave excited great interest in the media due to the discovery of footprints and handprints (in the hardened clay) purported to be those of Neanderthal Man. Recently, new studies have prevailed for the attribution of the fingerprints to Homo sapiens sapiens. However, the presence of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis is ascertained from the small sculptures, like this one, which represent it. Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.32) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck. On the left the head of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, probably a woman, given the “Nubian” hair style; the right head is Homo sapiens sapiens, with forehead and chin.
Height: 1.5 inches.
Origin: Balzi Rossi, Imperia, Italy. (Balzi Rossi is a complex of caves on the Mediterranean sea coast of Italy, at the border with France.)
Material culture: Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic (probably Aurignacian).

Fig. 5.33) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck. On the left is the head of an "acromegalic" Homo sapiens sapiens; on the right is the head of a Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. (Photograph by A.N. Rogacev.)
The opinion of the discoverer is different from our opinion, in how much he thinks that the sculpture is a "stylized animal".
Size: Base .07 inch.
Origin: Kostjenki, Russia.
Material culture: for the discoverer, Gravettian; for us, final Mousterian.

Fig. 5.34) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck, of which one is large and the other small. The large head represents a Homo sapiens sapiens with forehead, nose and chin, looking downward. It is made from the limestone rock of the cave, and has many small erosions, but the image is clear. In these erosions with small holes, covered with mud, there are traces of torch coal, which humans used to visit the cave.
Height: 2.7 inches.
Origin: the Basura cave, Toirano, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.35) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture. It represents a head with two faces: one of a young person (front view), and one of an old or a deceased person (back view). It is the only finding from the Paleolithic with a conception of two half-faces of different types combined in lateral view. The human type is Homo sapiens sapiens, given the forehead and chin.
Height: 1.5 inches.
Origin: the Basura cave, Toirano, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.36) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck, one small and the other large. The small head is joined on the nape of the neck of the big head, as if it were a headdress, and is looking up. The man looks like an archaic sapiens, despite the stylistic deformation. Another sculpture of this type is the menhir at Carnac (Fig.5.37), which is proof of the orientation of the heads.
Length: 5.1 inches.
Origin: Palo, San Pietro d'Olba, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Mousterian or Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.38) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two heads united at the neck, one great and one small. A characteristic of this sculpture is that it's the only one (currently known) of the Paleolithic in which the two heads are represented frontally, that is each has two eyes, and, at the same time, the larger head also has lateral representation, and workmanship under the jaw. The human type of the big head is Homo sapiens sapiens.
The sculpture is in red travertine, and besides being sculpted, it is modeled by scraping, and the eyes and mouth are obtained with scraping by twisting.
Length: 3.5 inches.
Origin: Borgio Verezzi, Savona, Italy. (A mountainous zone on the coast of the Mediterranean sea.)
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.39) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck. The right head represents a Homo sapiens sapiens of acromegalic type; the head on the left is not clear, but could be of Neanderthal type. The sculpture is in red flint, and is flat in the back. The orientation of the heads is arbitrary, as the representation can be oriented in many ways.
Height: 2.2 inches.
Origin: Senigallia, Ancona, Italy.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5,40

Fig. 5,40,1

Fig. 5,40,2

Fig. 5.40) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two heads of Homo sapiens sapiens joined at the neck.
- Fig. 5.40 the left head is of acromegalic type, probably a male; on the right is a feminine head or that of a young person. This head is well modeled, with cheek in relief, but behind it is flat.
- Fig. 5.40.1 back of the sculpture. On the left the female or young person's head is not represented, and we can see only the profile with chin. The head on the right is complete in the face: nose, eye, mouth and chin. This head is not frontal, but the representation is from the two sides (it is the only one known from the Paleolithic) and is a prelude to the all-round representation of the head of post-Paleolithic ages.
Height: 7.01 inches.
Origin: San Pietro d'Olba, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.41) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck, one small and the other large. The stylistic deformation is by vertical elongation. The large head seems a Homo sapiens sapiens with beard. Behind the jaw of the small head is a disc 1.5 inches in diameter and .39 inches thick carved in relief.
Length: 16.5 inches.
Origin: Rossiglione, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.42) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck (B and C), and between the two heads at the top, there is a small human figure (A), consisting of a head and body without limbs.
There are two hypotheses on the use of this sculpture in rituals: it could be placed horizontally on the ground, as it is flat on the back, or placed upright with the end (D) in the ground, in such a way that the head on the left looks downward while the head on the right looks forward. This is the only bicephalic anthropomorphic sculpture we know of with a human figure applied. A similar type of human figure (head and body) is found joined to the head of a mammal in the sculpture from Palo (Fig. 9.10 ).
Height: 17.7 inches.
Origin: Rossiglione, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.43) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck, which can be interpreted as two varieties of Homo sapiens sapiens, and in which the head on the left seems of acromegalic type.
Height: 2.3 inches.
Origin: Tiglieto, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.44) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck, in an extremely elegant style. The larger head is clearly a Homo sapiens sapiens.
Length: 8.6 inches.
Origin: Pian Castagnè, Lessini mountains, Verona, Italy.
Culture material: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.45) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing two human heads joined at the neck. In the head on side A is etched an eye; in the head on side B is a mouth. In spite of the stylistic deformation, they seem two Homo sapiens sapiens.
Height: 4.7 inches.
Origin: Rossiglione, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.46) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture. Three heads, one large and one small, are represented, joined at the neck and looking in opposite directions. On the forehead of the big head is a small head, the smallest of the three. The sculpture is flat behind.
The bicephaly also encompasses sculptures that have three and four heads, or multiple faces in a single head.
Height: 5.5 inches.
Origin: Palo, San Pietro d'Olba, Savona, Italy.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.47) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing three heads joined at the neck and looking in three different directions. The back side is flat.
It has a distant affinity with a bicephalic zoomorphic sculpture on bone representing three horses looking in three different directions (Fig. 11.2) and of three different "ages": colt, adult horse and skull of horse.
Height: 5.1 inches.
Origin: Tiglieto, Genoa, Italy.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.48) Bicephalic anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing four heads: two larger ones joined at the neck, and two smaller ones on their foreheads. The sculpture is damaged by alluvial tumbling; however, the big head on the right can be attributed to Homo sapiens sapiens. The back side is flat.
Height: 7.08 inches. Width: 1.18 inches.
Origin: Saint Feliù, Brava Coast, Spain.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic.
Collection of the Museum of the Origins of Man.

Fig. 5.49) Bicephalic anthropomorphic sculpture in ivory representing two people joined at the neck in an "acrobatic" manner! The lower figure seems female; the higher figure seems a male. It is the first finding of this type, and an evolutionary hypothesis cannot be made, as there are not finds in post-Paleolithic ages; it can however be associated with the sculptures of overlapping heads made from tree trunks in Canada and in the Pacific Northwest of USA.
Height: 5.8 inches (low figure 2 inches; high figure 3.7 inches).
Origin: Gagarino, Russia.
Material culture: Upper Paleolithic (according to L.M. Tarassov).



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