The Find Contexts
All of the statuettes and fragments were found in association with the "demeure" and the "construction d'ouest" described above, but were apparently absent from the "construction d'est" and from a contiguous 200 square meter northern zone of the site where the archaeological layer yielded a rich artifact assemblage, but no structures (Tarassov 1996:239). Tarassov describes the statuettes as being "disposées dans la demeure, contre les parois, presqu'à égale distance les unes des autres (deux se trouvant au bord de petites fosses) et dans la construction d'ouest."
The object analyzed here (1968c) was discovered by Tarassov in 1968 while digging to the bottom of a pit (40 cm in diameter and 19 cm deep) in the intact floor of the "demeure" left partially unexcavated by Zamiatnine during his 1927 and 1929 excavations (Tarassov 1971:158). It was near the southwestern margin of the "demeure," resting against the side of the pit in which it was found.