The Hirschlanden figure is a life-sized, three-dimensional carving of an icthyphallic (with an erect penis) male human being, carved during the European Iron Age out of a rectangular block of Stuben limestone. The stone was carved used a variety of pointed and flat tools and polished, although much of the polish has been worn away.
The Hirschlanden figure was recovered in 1962 from just outside and adjacent to the Hirschlanden mound, an Iron Age burial mound in the Baden-Wurttemberg region of Germany. The mound contained the skeletal remains of at least 16 people, and it is possible that additional graves were located nearby, where agricultural plowing has damaged the site vicinity. The burials date from the Hallstatt D2 period of the early Iron Age (ca 550-550 BC), based on the recovery of a typical antenna-hilted dagger. A similar dagger is illustrated in the figure. The excavator believed, based on the Hirschlander figure's weathered appearance, that the statue stood above ground for some time, marking the burial for decades or perhaps centuries.
The sculpture is of a nude man, clothed only in a conical hat, an attached neck-piece, a heavy torc, and a distinctive belt around his waist. Suspended from his belt is a short antenna-hilted dagger.
Based on preserved chisel marks and the style of the statue, scholars hypothesize that the carver was an inexperienced sculptor, who none the less had exposure to stone carving practices of the Mediterranean (Greek) sculptural tradition of the time.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to European Iron Age, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Armit I, and Grant P. 2008. Gesture politics and the art of ambiguity: the Iron Age statue from Hirschlanden. Antiquity 82:409-422.