Buste-socle

The Bard of Paule.

A buste-socle is a type of Iron Age stone statue found in France. Most buste-socles have been found within Armorica (a historical region of Gaul, roughly modern day Brittany), though examples have been found in central and southern France. The statues are busts of male figures which sit on an unworked, square base (or socle). These bases were perhaps intended to be buried. The statues have been dated to within the later La Tène period.

Excavations at Paule, Côtes-d'Armor between 1988 and 1997 found four buste-socles. A lyre-playing figure with a torc, named the Bard of Paule, is perhaps the best known buste-socle. It is from the examples found at Paule that the type was defined.

Buste-socles usually have a height upwards of 20cm and less than 1 metre. The largest known buste-socle, found in Bozouls, Aveyron measures 95 cm. On some buste-socles the arms are rendered and on others they are not. Some have their arms pressed flat against the torso, while others hold items. The Bard of Paule holds a lute and the buste-socle from Bozouls wields a dagger.

Several buste-socles have been found in archaeological contexts that suggest they were recipients of devotion. A buste-socle found in Tour Magne, Nîmes was mounted in a box into which coins had been thrown. A granite buste-socle found in La Vraie-Croix, Morbihan was ploughed up next to a Roman altar, suggesting that such devotion extended into Roman times. However, one buste-socle from Molesme, Côte-d'Or appears to have been part of a late La Tène sanctuary complex and then deliberately buried during the reign of Tiberius.

Gallery

• 
  Buste-socle from Bozouls, Aveyron.
• 
  All four buste-socles found at Paule, Côtes-d'Armor.
• 
  Decapitated buste-socle from Plounévez-Lochrist, Finistère.

Further reading

• Petit, C.; Wahlen, P. "Une statue gauloise découverte sur le sanctuaire de Molesme (Côte-d’Or, France)" Archâologisches Korrespondenzblatt 35 (2005): 223–32.