Small-size Clay Objects Decorating Late Bronze-Early Iron Age Minor Cult-Ritual Structures in Eastern Georgia

Household-ritual ovens and sacrificial altars (in certain cases they are combined) are found in the 14th-4th cc. B.C. single-chamber dwellings and shrines of Kartli (eastern Georgia) settlement-sites. These varied-shaped objects built to the walls are adorned with clay figurines, revealing cosmogonic-cosmological and aphothrophic meaning of these objects (mainly, altars were adorned). Zoomorphic effigies have horn-like protrusions (together with phallus, they are also seen on the ovens) and heads of animals (ox, young bull, ram, horse). Plastic elements are shaped from clay with the sand admixture, which makes generalized modelling possible, contributing to the common stylistic features. Minor plastics are in harmony with the shape of the altar (e.g., on the semicircular shape, ox horns are rounded; next to the wall, static accents of the horns are discernible; four horns are placed along the wall, `in response~ to the pilasters – in the 7th-6th cc. this is a result of certain development). Despite conventionality, due to the changes in the interrelation of the head and neck, etc., certain differentiation of effigies is achieved (Khovle VI, 13th c. B.C.,), certain stylistic changes are also noticeable – static tranquillity in Khovle VI is replaced by dynamics in Khovle V (12th-11th cc. B.C.), alongside increased conventionality. The same changes are also seen in anthropomorphic figurines (e.g., Samtavro settlement-site, II Mill. B.C.-I Mill. B.C.) as compared with the material from Meligele, Khovle, etc.