Monstrous Figurines, of BMAC, and the Dragon Myth: From a Meteoritic Headband to Rig Veda Mythology

Oxus “Scarface”, a small statuette from the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex culture (Middle Bronze Age of Central Asia) preserved at the Metropolitan Museum (New York), wears a meteoritic iron headband like a comparable specimen preserved in Le Louvre Museum (Paris), as shown by XRF analyses of the headband. This implement could be crucial for the interpretation of these elusive figures. It could be the symbolic material for the retention of water by these monstrous creatures of the underworld, retainers of spring water, as is recorded in the Rig Veda, a myth in agreement with the problematics of agriculture in a semi-arid context. Accordingly, the scars across their faces are the deadly “split across the head” through which the water was released. The convergence of this culture of elamitic affinity with an Indo-Aryan myth suggests some hybridization between the two cultures.