An exciting archaeological discovery at Damjili Cave, among the limestone hills of western Azerbaijan, is rewriting prehistory in the South Caucasus region. Uncovered from a layer dated between 6400 and 6100 BCE, at the threshold of the beginning of the Neolithic period, the small stone figurine is the earliest three-dimensional human representation yet discovered from Mesolithic times in the region.
The figurine, which is made of sandstone and only 51 millimeters long and 15 millimeters wide, was discovered in a well-preserved Mesolithic context during a joint excavation by Azerbaijani and Japanese archaeologists between 2016 and 2023. The artifact was found under layers of ash and soil that had protected it for more than eight millennia.
As opposed to the voluptuous clay fertility figurines typical of Neolithic farming villages, the Damjili figurine is abstract, upright, and androgynous. It lacks gender-defining features and facial detail. Instead, it features faint carvings: parallel lines that could indicate bangs or short hair, a headband or ritual cap, a striped belt, and vertical grooves that could indicate a loincloth or stylized clothing.
Researchers believe this figurine was not merely decorative, but likely held symbolic or ritualistic meaning. Dr. Yagub Mammadov, head of the Azerbaijani-Japanese Damjili International Archaeological Expedition and a historian at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), told the Report news agency that “similar human figurines have not yet been encountered in known Mesolithic settlements in the Kura River basin and its surroundings, nor in the entire Caucasus region.” He added that the figurine was discovered by Ulviyya Safarova, a researcher at ANAS, and was later analyzed with advanced laboratory techniques in Japan.
Scholars believe that this figurine was not only decorative, but most likely had symbolic or ritual meaning. The figurine was discovered by ANAS researcher Ulviyya Safarova and later studied with advanced laboratory techniques in Japan.
The results of these tests, like X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy, confirmed that the engravings were carved deliberately with the assistance of Mesolithic stone tools. Despite the fact that iron oxides have left red coloration on the artifact, no paint residue was discovered. However, the scientists believe that the figurine could have been painted or used in pigment-related rituals.
In a study published in Archaeological Research in Asia, the scientists speculated that this small figurine was part of a unique symbolic tradition prior to the Neolithic cultural package most widely associated with the rise of agriculture.
The figurine also offers critical evidence in support of the “staging hypothesis,” which proposes that Neolithic cultural traits such as domestication, pottery, and symbolic expression arose not in one bundle from the Fertile Crescent but developed piecemeal over time. The stylistic difference between this Mesolithic stone figure and later Neolithic clay figurines—typically seated, stylized female figures—suggests a discontinuity both artistic and ideological.
Before this, most of the Mesolithic art known within the region had been from rock engravings like those at Gobustan. The fact that there have been so few portable pieces of art from this time makes the Damjili figurine a key find regarding how South Caucasian societies viewed the human form and engaged in symbolic thought.
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