Ancient Copper Alloy Figurines from Daghestan

Nothing appears to have been written in English about a group of powerfully-sculpted lost-wax copper alloy, standing, naked figurines, 30–60mm tall, mainly from mountainous regions of west Daghestan and south-east Chechnya in the Caucasus. More than a hundred of these phallic (male), or otherwise sexually explicit (female and hermaphrodite) figurines have been found at different places at different dates since 1867 up to the present day. Most writers have suggested datings from the first millennium BC and indeed dating between 500 BC and AD 500 has been recently confirmed by the first technical and chemical analysis of a sample of these figurines by Dr Peter Northover. The thirteen figurines which he analysed are catalogued here. However, a Daghestani archaeologist Dr M S Gadjiev has recently proposed that the period of their manufacture is from the sixth to ninth centuries AD, since similar figurines have been found with a small spoon, datable to that period. The author's suggested interpretations of the ‘adoration’ and ‘cup-bearer’ types of figurine, which occur most frequently, do not affect the debate on their dating.