A new find of an eneolithic stone sceptre on the river Fars

The paper is devoted to the publication of a new find of a stone terminal (so-called scepter) of the Eneolithic period. It originated from near the village of Kolosova Polyana on the River Fars in the Western Caucasus foothills. The object is interest, since it is now the only find of an intact sceptre with fluted decoration. The terminal dates back to the Tripolye B1 period (middle or third quarter of the 5 millennium BC). The find is promising from the standpoint of clarifying the general typology for primitive zoomorphic sceptres. It seems possible that the idea for a cultic object of this kind took shape among the East-European tribes of the Volga valley and the western foothills of the Caucasus. Then it spread into the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture and was adopted by local tribes. In the southern part of Eastern Europe the sceptres represent both realistic depictions of an equid and a mythical creature; some items are shaped in abstract forms