First mesolithic human figurine found in Damjily cave in Azerbaijan

The first human figurine of the Mesolithic era was discovered in the Damjili cave in Gazakh, the head of the Azerbaijani-Japanese Damjili international archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), PhD in history Yagub Mammadov, told Report.

He noted that similar human figurines have not yet been found in the known Mesolithic sites on the Kura River and its environs, as well as in the Caucasus as a whole.

According to Mammadov, the human figurine discovered in 2023 during joint Azerbaijani-Japanese archaeological research in the Damjili cave was studied in the Japanese museum using various modern laboratory technologies.

"The figurine was discovered by Ulviyya Safarova, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of ANAS," he added.

The figurine is 51 mm long and 15 mm wide and is made of sandstone. It depicts a neat hairstyle and a belt with lines, but the facial features are not depicted.

However, the question of whether this figurine symbolizes a man or a woman remains a subject of debate. The first official article about the figure was published in the 42nd issue of the journal "Archaeological Research in Asia", which is included in the Web of Science (WOS) and SCOPUS databases and has the category Q1.