Above, some Celtic three-faced gods from Roman Gaul. The obsession of our Indo-European ancestors with the number three has of course spawned a lot of speculation, much of it focusing on the quirks of our language. But I am not really convinced by any of it. There is a wonder to these triplings, a mystery, something we can almost grasp but that remains just outside our grip, a notion that things can be the same in some ways but nonetheless distinct, a basic idea that the divine world does not follow mundane laws. I would look to that sense of mystery rather than to any "explanation."
Anyway, these carvings did not disappear with Christianity, as you can see from the medieval versions below, all in French churches of the 12th to 15th centuries. Love the three-faced Pope, which hints that there used to be more of these images in now-vanished church paintings.
Again, I am reluctant to assign much meaning to these. Maybe they have something to do with the Trinity; maybe they are memories of ancient three-faced gods; maybe they are just arresting, provoking images that are really fun to carve.
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