“Stone gods and men”: in this way, archaeologist Enrico Atzeni has synthetically interpreted the symbolic value of the three types of megalithic sculptures - protoanthropomorphic menhirs, anthropomorphic menhirs, statue-menhirs or statue-steles - attested in Sardinia between the fourth and third millennium BC.
The definition of “protoanthropomorphic menhirs” is used in reference to monoliths characterized by their height development (in Sardinia there are known specimens that reach a considerable height of five or even six meters) and “aniconic”, that is, without a real representation. They are characterized by a flat face (it is assumed that this was the main face) and an ogival shape both in the front profile and in the back side. The processing technique is hammering, which the executors of these works demonstrate that they have mastered masterfully.
The name “anthropomorphic menhirs” is instead used in reference to a second type of monoliths. They differ from protoanthropomorphic menhirs by the manifest effort to attribute to the frontal shape of the sculpture a sketch that seems to be interpretable as a strongly schematic representation of the shoulders and head of a human being. In some examples, this representation is made more effective by the presence of a, always schematic, representation of the human face.
The 'statues-menhirs' (also called 'statues-steles') strongly accentuate the predominance of the frontal face. The top is characterized by the appearance of a face without eyes and mouth, represented only with eyebrows and nose joined together in the characteristic “T” pattern. The “pectoral” section is variously occupied: it can present conical or “tablet” drafts, interpreted as schematic breasts (in these cases the statue is classified as “feminine”); or the pattern of the so-called “inverted trident” or “candlestick” (an image that recalls the “inverted” present inside some domus de janas and then interpreted as an anthropomorphic figure “inverted” pertaining to a “world of the dead” imagined as “inverted” compared to the normal “world” of the living”), below which a double dagger appears triangular blade (in these cases we would be in the presence of 'male' figures).
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