Sheela-na-gig, the squatting, bald woman with comically large ears holding herself open in the most blatant way has long been a figure of mystery throughout Ireland where the stone statues are most prevalent. A multiplicity of theories have left Sheela-na-gigs the subject of curiosity. Researcher Jack Roberts has spent decades documenting and discovering Sheela-na-gigs in all her incarnations. His work places them as a critical element of Gaelic and Celtic culture at the crossroads of the Christian conversion of Ireland. This rigorous survey shows they are neither graven images nor warnings against women as the source of lust but highly spiritual images of female divinity and power. Roberts takes readers to the Ireland of the Middle Ages, a land filled with mystery, conflict, and contradictions as he brings the world in which the Sheela-na-gig thrived. This is a deluxe flexi-bound edition. Born in southern England and moved to the south of Ireland in the early 1970’s. Began an interest in ancient Irish archaeology in the late 1970’s and worked on an important archaeological project on the Boyne Valley and related monuments and is referred to as co-researcher in the seminal classic book, "The Stars & the Stones," principle of which is author/researcher Martin Brennan. His first book on Sheela-na-gigs was published in 2001, with co-researcher Joanne McMahon