Stone Figurine from the Farmers Burial Ground of Gelot

Abstract

Archaeological excavations of the Gelot burial ground were carried out in Southern Tajikistan in the vicinity of the city of Kulyab on the loess hills adjacent to the village of Gelot. In one of the excavations, a rich grave was discovered, i. e. burial No. 2. This is a catacomb-type burial with an entrance pit and a chamber where there was a skeleton of a woman in a crouched position with a rich accompanying inventory. The most remarkable find in this grave was a stone figurine of a man of indeterminate gender, which probably depicts a man. It was found under the heel bone of the skeleton’s right foot. Spectral analysis showed that the statuette is made of soft white stone, a kind of gypsum. The weight of the figure is 555 gr, its height is 13.2 cm, and its shoulder width is 8.2 cm. The finds of the grave No. 2 burial complex in Gelot date back to the Sapalli-Dzarkutan stage of the Sapalli culture and date back to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The figurines from burial No. 2 in Gelot, unlike the ceramic material, do not find direct analogies in the Bactrian-Margian complexes. According to the style of execution, this figurine can be compared with the Mesopotamian plastic of the Early Dynastic period: broad shoulders, widely spaced arms, an image of a face with “smiling lips” and large almond-shaped eyes. The Gelot figurine, in addition to the above parallels with Mesopotamian sculpture, has a certain similarity in Bactrian and Margian plastic. This is a subtle modeling of the eyes, the auricle, and the hairstyle — the hair is laid with a roller on the back of the head. This hairstyle is typical for Bactrian composite figurines. Another line of parallels of the Gelot statuette can be drawn with Eastern Iran — Shahdad (Necropolis A). Characteristic of sculptures sculpted under the influence of Mesopotamian plastics are: broad shoulders and widely spaced arms. They are folded on the chest or on the belt. It is these elements in the image of the torso of the statues that brings the Gelot statuette closer to the Shahdad. The Gelot statuette was made from local stone in Bactria under the influence of Southeastern Iran. The discovery of the stone statuette from Gelot once again confirms P. Amiet’s opinion about a certain influence of Elam (“the second Sumer”) on the formation of the Bactrian civilization [Amiet, 1989, p. 135].