旧石器時代の女性像と線刻棒（第Ⅰ部 縄文時代草創期における定住化）

ユーラシアの後期旧石器時代前半，オーリニャック期の約40,000年前に出現し，グラヴェット期の約33,000～28,000年前に発達した立体女性像は，出産時の妊婦の姿をあらわし，妊娠・安産を祈願する護符の意味をもっていた。しかし，グラヴェット期後半の約24,000年前に女性像は消滅する。そして，後期末～晩期旧石器時代マドレーヌ期の約19,000年前に線刻女性像や立体女性像が現れ，その時期の終わり頃の約14,000年前に姿を消す。日本では，大分県岩戸遺跡出土の石製品が女性像とすれば約25,000年前で，もっとも古い。愛媛県上黒岩遺跡から出土した立体女性像の石偶は14,500年前で，その後，13,000年前頃には三重県粥見井尻遺跡の土偶があり，縄文早期以降の発達の先駆けとなっている。後期末～晩期旧石器時代の立体女性像は，フランスのロージュリー＝バス型，ドイツを中心とするゲナスドルフ型，ロシア平原のメジン型，シベリアのマイニンスカヤ型，日本の上黒岩型と粥見井尻型，相谷熊原型を設定することができる。ロージュリー＝バス型はアングル＝シュール＝ラングラン型の岩陰の浮彫り女性像に，ゲナスドルフ型はラランド型の岩陰の線刻女性像またはホーレンシュタイン型の板石の線刻女性像に起源がある。ゲナスドルフ型の立体女性像は，腹部のふくらみはなく，乳房を表現した例は少なく，妊婦をあらわしているようにはみえない。しかし，ラランド型の線刻女性像に先行するペック＝メルル型の線描女性像は，妊婦の姿をあらわし，さらにラ＝マルシュ型の線刻女性像は出産時の妊婦を表現している。ゲナスドルフ型の立体女性像も，妊婦を記号化した表現と理解するならば，後期末～晩期旧石器時代の立体女性像も，後期旧石器時代前半の立体女性像と同様，妊娠を祈り出産を願う呪いに使った可能性がつよい。その背景には，最終氷期の極相期がつづくなかで世界的に人口が減少していた，あるいは不妊の傾向が顕著にあらわれていたという事情があったのであろう。ユーラシアには男根形の象牙に記号化した女性器を表現した男女交合の象徴物がある。ロシア平原のメジン遺跡の旧石器人は家屋内で，羽状文を施したマンモスの頭骨，下顎骨，肩胛骨を女性器にみたて，牙製の男根形拍子木でたたいて一種の音楽を奏でていた。立体女性像を妊娠・出産にかかわる護符とみるならば，それは妊娠あるいは出産を促す呪いの演奏であろう。上黒岩遺跡出土の棒状の石に羽状文や三角形を彫った線刻棒も，同様の目的をもって使用していた可能性がある。

On the Eurasian continent, female figurines from the Aurignacian period to the Gravettian period and Kostenki period (42,000 to 24,000 years ago) in the upper Paleolithic Age represented the figures of pregnant women just before childbirth and were talismans to pray for pregnancy and safe and easy birth. After that, the Solutrean period (25,000 to 23,000 years ago) was devoid of female figurines, and in the Magdalenian-Mezin period (21,000 to 14,500 years ago) in the late Paleolithic Age, line-engraved female figures and female figurines appeared. Those types of female figurines in Japan are older if the assumption is made that the stone items unearthed from the Iwato site in Oita Prefecture of about 25,000 years ago are female figurines. Stone female figurines were discovered at the Kamikuroiwa site in Ehime Prefecture dating back 14,500 years. After that, 13,000 years ago, clay figurines appeared, leading to the development after the Intial Jomon Period.The female figurines from the late Paleolithic Age can be classified into the following types: Laugerie-Basse type in France, Gönnersdorf type mainly in Germany, Mezin type in the Russian Plain, Maininskaya type in Siberia, and Kamikuroiwa, Kayumi-Ijiri and Aitani-Kumahara types in Japan.The Laugerie-Basse type originates in the relief engraved female figures of the French Angle-surl'Anglin type from the rock shelters. The Gönnersdorf type originates in the line-engraved female figures of the French Lalinde type from the rock shelters or in the line-engraved female figurines on plate stones of the German and French Hohlenstein type. The origins of the Mezin type, the Maininskaya type and the Kamikuroiwa type of female figurines are currently unknown.The female figurines of the Gönnersdorf type have flat abdomens with almost no breasts, and they do not appear to represent pregnant women. The line-engraved female figures of the Pech Merle type, however, which precede the line-engraved female figures of the Lalinde type, represent the figures of pregnant women. The line-engraved female figures of the La Marche type also represent pregnant women just before childbirth. Assuming that the female figurines of the Gönnersdorf type also symbolize pregnant women, there is a high possibility that the female figurines in the upper Paleolithic Age, as with the female figurines in the late Paleolithic Age, were used as talismans for safe pregnancy and birth. Against the background to this, there was a seemingly global tendency of infertility that manifested in the on-going maximum of the Last Glacial Age.The line-engraved batons from the Kamikuroiwa site in Ehime Prefecture have pinnate patterns and triangular shapes engraved on rod-like stones. These shapes and patterns are the symbols of sexual intercourse which represent female genital organs on priapic ivories in Eurasia. People in the Paleolithic Age at the Mezin site on the Russian Plain played a type of music indoors, beating cranial bones, mandibular bones and blade bones of mammoths with pinnate patterns on them, which symbolize female genital organs, with priapic clappers made from ivory. When it is assumed that female figurines were talismans for pregnancy and childbirth, praying to invite pregnancy or childbirth was a fertility ceremony, and there is a possibility that the line-engraved batons from the Kamikuroiwa site were used for the same purpose.

source:https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/outline/publication/ronbun/ronbun7/index.html#no172