МАЭ № 6080-12

Mesolithcic woman from Murzak-Koba rockshelter (Crimea)

circa 1938

plaster

She died when she was young. Her cranium and the reconstructed head, in Gerasimov’s words, evidence “a striking harmony of features despite the general robustness of the face and its considerable width. This face harmoniously combines physical strength with a certain gentleness and femininity.” Apparently during her life the woman had undergone a cruel magic rite: two phalanges on each of her kittle fingers had been amputated. Similar rites, known as initiations, or rites of passage, were practiced in many societies until recently. They were aimed at leaving a visible trace on the initiated person’s body to mark his or her transition from one age or social category to another.

Anthropological plastic reconstructions, lifetime masks. 19th - 20th centuries