Phoenix Ancient Art S.A.

Despite its small size, the numerous carefully modeled and incised details of this mythical creature achieve not just power but monumentality through its strength of presence and unflinching masculinity. Centrally parted, long, combed strands are held in place by a fillet. Large, fully rimmed eyes are set in a commanding stare below a thick, straight, low relief brow. The limestone inlay of the figure’s left eye remains; its pupil would have been inlaid in chlorite to further accentuate the striking gaze. The long, broad nose is framed by naso-labial wrinkles that extend to the corners of the wide, horizontal mouth. Full lips are tightly compressed in a rather severe expression. This is due to the two small holes drilled into the center of the upper and lower lips, which may have held a tie to bind the mouth, symbolically silencing the figure as a protective and precautionary gesture. A semi-circular beard covers the cheeks and chin, completely obscuring the neck. The beard is patterned with the same rows of square, lizard-like scales that cover the entire body except for the face and hands (feet are missing). The musculature of the chest and arms is convincingly volumetric and well rounded; the body’s shape is compact and strong.

This composite figure, like the others from the cache, is characterized by exaggerated musculature that is completely covered in scales, and a face divided by a deep, diagonal scar. All except one of these so-called “scarred men” hold an empty cylindrical jar under one arm like it does here. An additional drilled depression in the clenched left fist suggests that it once held an attribute, perhaps a staff or spear. Round holes in the flared skirt appear to be connected to a belt by evenly carved vertical grooves. Archaeologists hypothesize that these holes may have been inlaid, perhaps depicting jewels or seals suspended from the belt by strings.

Because they were fully finished in the round and not found in a tomb, we may conclude that these figures were not made as funerary objects or as objects to be placed in a niche. Careful attention to details such as the prominent facial scar, the bulging musculature, the scaly body, and the coiffed hair suggest an iconography that was already well-developed by the late 3rd millennium B.C.

The heavy beard without moustache resembles the face of the famous Mohenjo-Daro statue from the Indus valley Harappan civilization, also datable to the end of the third millennium. In Bactria, the slightly earlier development of composite seated statues in black chlorite with white limestone heads provides a connection to the tradition of polychrome statuary so prevalent in Near Eastern art, but stylistically, those differ sharply from the statuette shown here. Therefore, in style, composition, and overall form, the singular group of “scarred man” statuettes - to which this wonderful example undoubtedly belongs - is without close parallel.

Amiet, P. “Antiquities of Bactria and Outer Iran in the Louvre Collection,” Bactria: An Ancient Oasis Civilization from the Sands of Afghanistan, pp. 159-180, fig. 20c.

Ghirshman, R. “Notes Iraniennes XII, Statuettes Archaiques du Fars(Iran), “ Artibus Asiae, vol. XXVI, 1963, pp. 151-160.

Nagel, W. “Frühe Grossplastik und die Hochkulturkunst am Erythräischen Meer,” Berliner Jahrbuch für vor- und frügeschichte, 1968, pl. XVIII, figs. 1,2.

Orthmann, W. Der Alte Orient, Propyläen Kunstgeschichte, Berlin, 1975, no. 227.

Sotheby’s, New York, June 5^th, 1999, no. 74