A unique statuette of a bison and two female figurines carved from the mammoth tusk of the Upper Paleolithic era were discovered by archaeologists near Zaraisk, 150 km from Moscow
They were taken out of the ground by employees of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Khizri Amirkhanov and Sergey Lev. Scientists believe that these are the most ancient magic dolls. Almost in the same way as the current sorcerers of the Voodoo cult, our ancient ancestors in the land near Moscow pricked a figurine of a bison in order to send death to it and make the hunt successful. And the figures of women were rubbed with lard, so that real women were more fertile and childbirth was easier …
On one side, the bison figure is rubbed with blood-red ocher.
“Our expedition began excavating the archaeological monument“Zaraiskaya site”in 1995,” says Khizri Amirkhanov, Doctor of Historical Sciences. - We work there without interruption and will research it for another 5 years. "Zaraiskaya site" is the remains of a settlement of hunters for large mammals: mammoths, bison. We found the ruins of dugouts, hearths, pantries, food storage and utensils, more than 100,000 stone tools, tools from animal bones, from mammoth ivory.
A unique find is a figurine of a bison - one of the most perfect works of this kind for primitive art. The bison is carved from the tusk of a mammoth; this is a figurine perfect in terms of naturalism and beauty!
And two female figurines are very naturalistic, they have all the characteristic sexual characteristics. They can be called "Venus" of the Paleolithic era. “We are talking about works of art made 20,000 years ago,” says Academician Amirkhanov. - These are extraordinary finds. They had both ritual and artistic significance. The bison has 2 legs broken off, accented butt blows were made on one side of the chest with something hard and sharp, most likely a stone. The second side of the chest is painted red. Ancient hunters buried a bison figurine in a specially dug deep hole - this is already a ritual magical action.
A hearth, mammoth tusks and permafrost cracks are visible at the excavation site
Promotional video:
The expedition transferred the finds to the Zaraisk Museum. Khizri Amirkhanov is convinced that both the Historical Museum and the Hermitage would gladly take them, but the head of the expedition has a principled approach to this issue: not to take everything to Moscow, but to transfer it to the museums where the monument is located.
In addition to the statuette of a bison and female figurines, scientists donated to the museum a mammoth rib with figurines painted on it, a small bone with an x-shaped ornament, and a cone-shaped object, again carved from mammoth bone, whose purpose is a real mystery.
