“Sunheaded” anthropomorphic personage in petroglyphs of Bronze Age in Central Asia

Many petroglyphs in Central Asia and neighbouring areas feature anthropomorphic figures with heads surrounded by rays and widely spread fingers. Some of these images, which can also be found on ceramics, represent headgear or masks made from bird feathers. The “sunheaded” figures were often accompanied by horses and chariots. They certainly spring from Indo-European myths of solar deities, especially Mitra, who appears in the Rigveda and Avesta. The geographical distribution of the “sunheaded” figures allows conjectures about the migration of cattle-breeding Indo-Iranian nomads from West to East and from North to South, which was probably caused by the search for new pastures.