Lake Van Figurines

Lake Van is located at the far eastern side of Turkey. The special type of "Van cat" and the nearby Mount Ararat, where the legend said the Ark rested, made the area famous.

Made of totally solid but quite brittle dickite stone, I think of Morse hardness of about 3, these scrulptured images of human and animal figurines lack the very details like feathers and legs. However, the overall shape and the inclusion of just necessary details like the eyes and the beak (for pigeons), is the reason of its beauty and appreciation. This is exactly the characteristic of Neolithic art. Scientific analysis of several examples in the Cleveland Museum of Art in the surface polishing and age cracks have confirmed the Neolithic dating.

A pigeon figurine, just like most other stone scrulptures, has an inscription letter of a burial figure at its base. Others have similar deeply-inscribed figures on the side. Some have two animal figures. Considering those with inscribed figure on the side, it is unlikely, as suggested by Cleveland Museum of Art article, that these figurines are used as seals.
It is conceived that this bent-figure intaglio resembles a very early example of a pictoral script, possibility the forerunner of the Urartian hieroglyphic alphabet.

The culture of this people is unknown. Perhaps the best parallel artifact examples to these are those unearthed at Tel Brak, southwest of Ninevah dating also to the 4th mil. BC.

Reference: Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Colection, published by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

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