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.

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

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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