The flesh-hook featuring a scene of fist fighting from a Maikop culture dolmen near the village of Tsarskaya in the Northwest Caucasus

The paper reports on the results of comprehensive analysis of a uniquebronze flesh-hook featuring anthropomorphic figures from an Early Bronze Age dolmen(ca. 3200-2900 BC) near the village of Tsarskaya (contemporary Novosvobodnaya)in the Northwest Caucasus (fig. 1). It was established that the flesh-hook was cast fromarsenical bronze with the use of the lost wax method and was used to take meat outof a cauldron and, therefore, it entered a ceremonial table-ware set used in public feasts.The depicted pair of naked men in boxing stand (fig. 2; 3) represents a scene of ritual fightin the presence of or in honor of a deity whose attribute are bull horns (fig. 4), on whichfighters are standing. As a whole, the item is associated with the theme of a funeral feastand funeral games. The narrative scene and iconography of the images are likely to haveits roots in the canons of Sumerian temple art of the Early Dynastic period and, probably,even of the earlier time (fig. 5). The adaptation of this narrative to the Maikop culturalmilieu is explained by its attribution to the circle of cultures located in the northernmostperiphery of the Western Asia civilization. Two figures depicted on the Tsarskaya flesh-hook represent the earliest example of anthropomorphic portable art in the Caucasus andthe earliest sculptural image of fist fighting in the world.