Uzbekistan, an ossuary, seating man with a torc / pectoral [d/b]

Statuary ossuary in the form of a sitting man. Vicinity of Koy-Krylgan Kaia, 3rd-2nd century BCE (?).

Clay; forming, englobe; restored with gypsum; 104 x 45 x 40 cm.

This ossuary should be in the Hermitage, but is not listed on the website.

Source: The book-album “The Collection o f the State Hermitage Museum” (St. Petersburg, Russia) from the series “The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in World Collections” TASHKENT • 2020
An article: OSSUARIES by P.B. Lurje

“The exposition in the Hermitage presents perhaps the best example of the Khorezm statuary ossuaries of the Kangju period. Its fragments were collected at the manor 1 km to the northeast of Koy-Krylgan Kala; and the accompanying inventory is dated to the third to second centuries BC. The fragments were assembled into the form of a human body, although the arms could not be restored (however, a fragment of a hand was found).
A man, practically of natural height, sits cross-legged on a rectangular platform (apparently, on a pillow). He has a shirt down to his hips (the lines drawn in the lower part may indicate lamellar armor), with a U-shaped collar, and he seems to be wearing boots. On his thin waist is a belt, to which a fragmentarily preserved dagger was attached. On his broad and anatomically elaborate breast is a torc, with the front part in the form of a disk and two argali on the sides; it has connections in the jewelry of the Achaemenids and Iranian nomads of the Black Sea region.
A rectangular hole for insertion of bone is located on the back of the figure and the platform. The character’s head, with a hemispherical hairstyle, large eyes and a slightly hooked nose, a mustache and a pointed beard, was molded separately.
The chest ossuaries appeared in Khorezm at about the same time as the statuary, since the Kangju time, and existed until the eighth century AD, until the establishment of Islam in the region.”

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The Astodans of Khorezm. A Contribution to the History of Religion in Khorezm
Iu. A. Rapoport https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/AAE1061-1959020115

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