Phalanx idol, Escoural Cave, Portugal

Provenance and description: Polished equine phalanx, without decoration. This type of magical-religious idol is often found in funerary contexts of the late Neolithic. The choice of this type of support is justified by the natural shape of the bone, vaguely anthropomorphic. They were polished and most often decorated with linear motifs and the representation of radial eyes. In this particular case, it shows only polishing. It comes from the excavations of M. Farinha dos Santos, in the Escoural Cave. It belongs to the collection of the National Museum of Archeology and is currently in storage in the Museum of the Convent of S. Domingos, in Montemor-o-Novo.