Perhaps the most unusual outcome of the Cold War Iron Curtain was that an entire ancient civilisation was hidden from the Western World for almost 20 years. Discovered by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi, and formally identified in AD 1976, the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), also known as the Oxus Civilisation, was an early and highly complex society which developed in Central Asia – around modern Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – around 4600 BC. The BMAC was associated with migrations into the region from the area of modern Iran, who brought with them metalworking and other technological innovations. While it was long thought that they merged with the Neolithic farmers of the local area, recent excavation has shown a break in the settlement pattern, suggesting that these newcomers drove out the locals. By 2800 BC, there was a proto-urban society emerging at Altyntepe in southern Turkmenistan. Further urban centres, scattered throughout the territory of the BMAC, grew up after 2400 BC. A number of formidable architectural achievements – the Palace at Gonur and the Temple at Togolok, for example – attest to the industry and organisation of the BMAC.

One of the most unusual artistic products of the BMAC is the monstrous male figure which is nicknamed ‘Scarface’, after the substantial gash which injures his right eye. He is a stocky, muscular figure, with bulging pendulous pectorals, thick biceps, broad shoulders, and a rotund belly. His head and arms are oversized compared to his torso and legs, and his hands and feet are proportionally smaller still. His feet are encased in hoof-like shoes, though many such idols seem to have been cut off at the feet in antiquity. Under one arm, usually the right, the figure holds a globular vessel on its side, as though pouring liquid from it. His scaly skin leads researchers at the Louvre to describe him as serpent-dragon anthropomorphe (‘an anthropomorphic snake-dragon’) and, indeed, it is likely that his skin represents some kind of ophidian nature. However, the same patterning is used in Mesopotamian art to represent mountains and other rocky geographic features. It is possible, then, that he represents some sort of golem, a demon of the earth or rocks. Unfortunately, too little is known about the BMAC mythology to say with any certainty what role this figure played in BMAC religious life. His severe features, and the fact that he has been deliberately mutilated – a scar across his face, in many cases the feet removed, one eye missing, and with holes in the chin and philtrum which might represent nails driven in to seal his mouth closed – has led many archaeologists to consider him a demonic figure against whom the BMAC people needed protecting. He is usually described as the opposite to the primary goddess of the BMAC, who is often taken to be the subject of the mysterious statuettes known as ‘Bactrian Princesses’.

If he can be considered some type of serpent or dragon figure, it has been proposed that his story may relate to the Indo-European myth prototype of *Trito and *Hngwhis, the hero and the serpent. Present in nearly all European and Asian mythologies, the story is essentially always the same, regardless of variations in the details. A hero or god, who is somehow associated with thunder or the sky, is the protagonist. His enemy is a serpent or dragon, usually with multiple heads, who is associated with water. This enemy is described in most versions as some kind of ‘blocker of waters’, and when the protagonist defeats the enemy, usually with some kind of blow to the head, the pent-up waters are released, perhaps in this case from the idol’s vessel, replenishing an otherwise barren land. Anthropologists associate the story with the Chaoskampf, the primordial struggle between order and chaos. In the Bactrian case, some propose that the hero’s gender is transformed, with the role taken by the Bactrian ‘great goddess’. Alternatively, another figure known from Bactrian composite sculpture – that of the ‘Kneeling Youth’ – may have been the hero of the story, while the ‘great goddess’ served as a protectress of the youthful hero.

This exceptional example of a ‘Scarface’ figure is carved from dark chlorite, close to black, with a slight greenish tinge. The kilt is fashioned from a slightly lighter and slightly greener stone, probably serpentine. He stands squat and powerful, his hulking musculature evident in his broad shoulders, chunky biceps, and defined pectorals. The sense of weight and solidity is added to by the stomach, which slightly overhangs the kilt. His face is severe, perhaps even sad, with downturned lips and a wide-eyed expression, eyebrows arched. Maybe the artist was trying to evoke a once-powerful figure reduced in stature. His head is large and shield-shaped, with a gently curving chinstrap beard; the figure has almost no neck, emphasising his sense of weighty presence. His left eye is inlaid with calcite, the right an empty socket. Across the empty socket is his sizeable scar, also highlighted in calcite. His vessel is held in his right hand; it is usual in BMAC Scarface idols for the pot to be held on the same side as the missing eye. His kilt is decorated with pleats which lead to roundels or medallions, some of which retain their calcite inlay. His squat legs reach down to hoof-like feet, encased in some sort of shoe or sandal, with a strap up the centre. He wears a diadem around his head, which keeps his long hair back away from his face. In this, he reflects the depictions by the Sumerians of their early kings (e.g. Archäologische Sammlung Universität Zurich 1942), perhaps indicating some kind of royal status for this figure.