A groundbreaking discovery has been made in the Damjili Cave in Azerbaijan's Gazakh district: the first human figurine from the Mesolithic era.
Dr. Yagub Mammadov, head of the Azerbaijan-Japan Damjili International Archaeological Expedition at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), confirmed the finding, Caliber.Az reports via local media.
The figurine, which is unlike any other found in Mesolithic sites along the Kura River or throughout the Caucasus region, was unearthed during joint Azerbaijani-Japanese archaeological excavations in 2023.
Mammadov noted that the discovery is particularly significant as no similar artifacts have been found in the surrounding area. The human figurine, measuring just 51 mm in length and 15 mm in width, is made from sandstone. It was meticulously studied at a museum in Japan using modern laboratory techniques to gain further insights into its origins and significance.
The figurine was discovered by Ulviyya Safarova, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of ANAS. This discovery has already captured academic attention, with the first official article about the figurine published in Archaeological Studies in Asia—a prestigious journal indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases, holding a Q1 category ranking.
By Naila Huseynova
Source: caliber.az
scorpion.az