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Copper statuette of a striding figure dating to the Proto-Elamite period (about 3000 B.C.), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The figure is possibly a hero or demon, wearing upturned boots, a headdress with ibex horns and ears, and the body and wings of a bird of prey around the shoulders. The beard is a feature that usually characterize divine beings and royalty, while the particular type of footgear is associated with the highland regions. The blending of animal and human attributes could be a way to represent the powers of a being associated with the mountainous regions, or a man impersonating such a being for ritual purposes. In this case it should be the earliest example of a ceremonial attire representing a hybrid goat-man of ibex-man, which is still observed in several popular Carnivals, particularly in the Alpine region (Krampus, Pelznickel, Schmutzli, etc.).

[Image: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/331619]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Copper statuette of a striding figure dating to the Proto-Elamite period (about 3000 B.C.), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The figure is possibly a hero or demon, wearing upturned boots, a headdress with ibex horns and ears, and the body and wings of a bird of prey around the shoulders. The beard is a feature that usually characterize divine beings and royalty, while the particular type of footgear is associated with the highland regions. The blending of animal and human attributes could be a way to represent the powers of a being associated with the mountainous regions, or a man impersonating such a being for ritual purposes. In this case it should be the earliest example of a ceremonial attire representing a hybrid goat-man of ibex-man, which is still observed in several popular Carnivals, particularly in the Alpine region (Krampus, Pelznickel, Schmutzli, etc.). [Image: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/331619]