Stone Anthropomorphic Head

The object is made from a fragment of a larger chalcedony concretion (probably jasper). It has an elongated shape, rounded on the sides and tapering upwards – the upper part of the concretion is narrower than the lower one, which gradually widens towards the base. Overall, the object has an approximately pear-shaped form, 11 cm in height and 6 cm wide at the bottom. The cortex of the concretion is preserved on the front and sides, while the back surface is glossy and uneven due to breakage. The stone is reddish-brown in color.
On the front side and underside of the object, small parts of the whitish cortex and subcortical layer have been flaked off by percussion, probably intentionally. The shape of the concretion fragment resembles an elongated head (possibly wearing a tall headdress?), and it seems that additional work was done to accentuate its anthropomorphic features. Below the middle of the front surface, two slightly vertically oval depressions were shaped by blows to form the eyes, separated by a narrow vertical ridge representing the nose. Beneath the nose, across the cortex, a horizontal elongated depression with parallel edges was cut, representing the mouth.
Within the concave area forming the right eye, a natural horizontal ridge has appeared; its surface was not further modified. The left eye, however, shows evidence of significant effort, considering the hardness of the stone: in the center of the oval depression a second, perfectly circular pit was made and highly polished, probably by rubbing with leather. The mouth of the anthropomorphic figure is relatively wide and long, incised and hollowed out, most likely using a flint blade. Although very schematic, the image is undoubtedly anthropomorphic. It was found in the fill of a burial mound at the Provadia–Solnitsata complex. Though without close parallels so far, it was most likely made during the Chalcolithic period, i.e. in the fifth millennium BC.