Euffigneix statue

The boar was a potent symbol for the Celts and the figure has been thought to represent a Gaulish boar-god, perhaps Moccus.

Archaeologist Philip Kiernan has suggested it once bore the characteristic square base of the Iron Age Gallic buste-socles.

The hair is tied into a palmette-shaped ponytail at the back of his head; long locks on either side reach to the figure's collarbone, tucked behind his ears and into his torc.

[6]: 381  Paul-Marie Duval [fr] has suggested the statue is a copy in stone of an anthropomorphic wooden original.

Stone sculpture is much more common in this era,[3] and the style of the facial features and boar-relief suggest such a date.

[10]: 140  The boar god was called "Moccus" by the Gallic tribe Lingones and "Baco" by the Gauls of the Chalon-sur-Saône region.

[4][10]: 141  Indeed, Émile Thévenot [fr] has pointed out that Euffigneix lies within the tribal territory of the Lingones, so the statue may be a representation of Moccus.

[5]: 96  Celtic bronze statuettes of boars sometimes served a religious function, but as household items they were sometimes simply prophylactic.

[5]: 96  A very similar arrangement, in which an upside-down boar appears on the neck of a torc-wearing human, is on a coin of the Eburovices of Évreux.