Proto-Bactrian, late 3rd – 2nd millennium B.C.

Variegated Red Stone

H: 23 cm

Serial: 30714

Provenance: Ex- Japanese private collection, 1970’s

This piece belongs to the type of the so-called “column” idols that constitute a remarkably uniform group. It is always a monolith of cylindrical and concave shape whose base is wider than the top. The top, and sometimes the bottom, has an incised straight groove; there can be two of them forming “Y” or “X”. The most elaborated examples present the rim decorated with metal which is often a bronze sheet.

The use of such “column” idols is unknown. They belong to the cultures of western septentrional Asia, especially the ancient Bactrian. Scholars usually agree in attributing them the role in the religious sphere and believe that they had a specific function in certain rites, the nature of which we do not know. The contemporaneous seals which depict the cult scenes and the libation ceremonies represent objects of similar shape. The incised groove on the top probably served for the flow of some kind of liquid.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AMIET P., L'âge des échanges inter-iraniens: 3500-1700 av. J.-C., Paris, 1986, p. 190 ff.

POTTIER M.-H., Matériel funéraire de la Bactriane méridionale de l'Age du Bronze, Paris, 1984.