ABSTRACT
There are plenty of indications that Sheela-na-gigs belong with ordinary people and rural traditions. The majority of these figures occur in small country churches and it is obvious that sculptors with varying skills turned their hands to carving them. Judging by their often very poor workmanship they must have been the work of local amateur carvers or stone masons who were not sculptors, rather than that of skilled craftsmen. It is precisely on account of the inadequate technical, often clumsy, execution that many archaeologists have refused to consider the sculptures as proper artefacts worthy of their attention. Furthermore, although Sheelas had existed in churches and other medieval buildings for centuries, scholars had no knowledge of them. When they did discover them they could not believe their eyes and many also refused to believe their ears when they first heard the name, which had been in use for a long time among the ordinary folks.
