Mogilev Students Make Discovery While Cataloging Ancient Archaeological Collection
In Belarus, archaeologists found an unusual Neolithic flint artifact, which may be an ancient anthropomorphic human figurine, writes Times.by.
Photo: Alexander Kolosov's archive
The discovery was made by students of Mogilev State University named after Kuleshov when they were studying the collection of artifacts belonging to historian Vyacheslav Kopytin. Researchers' particular attention was drawn to an unusually shaped stone, previously found at the Dauzhanka-2 site on the right bank of the Drut River.
Head of the Center for Primitive Archaeology, Alexander Kolosov, concluded that this is not merely a tool, as previously thought, but a specially processed human figurine made of gray chalk flint in the 5th-3rd millennia BC.
Photo: Alexander Kolosov's archive
Elements resembling a head, torso, arms, and legs can be discerned on the artifact. The researcher notes that in the Neolithic era, many objects could simultaneously serve both practical and ritualistic functions.
Currently, the find is located at the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, where specialists will conduct additional research. This research should help determine the true purpose of the artifact and its method of use.
If scientists confirm that this is indeed an anthropomorphic figurine, it will be the first such find in the Belarusian Dnieper region. According to Alexander Kolosov, similar human depictions are already known from Neolithic era materials in the forest zone of Eastern Europe.