The symbol of Ligabue Foundation is a sigil of the ancient Battrian civilization (3rd millennium B.C.), which embodies the tireless and enthusiastic spirit of the Foundation and has accompanied its missions, discoveries and publications. Distinguished in it is a winged figure, swaddled in a long, tight-fitting robe, with a raptor’s head and scythe-like wings, seated on the coils of a serpent.

 

“The symbol of the Ligabue Research Center is a graphic reconstruction of a seal from the 3rd millennium B.C. from a region known in historical times as Battriana. Its inhabitants maintained close contacts with the Iranian West and the regions beyond the Himalayas, along the ancient trade route later known as the Silk Road. The material culture of this civilization was unusually rich and varied with highly developed metallurgical production, including on the artistic level. Extraordinary was the production of stamped seals, both in variety and elaboration of motifs, and precisely one of these seals, in silver, was chosen as our symbol. […]

Over all dominates the figure of Man, the subject and object of all research (anthropology, in the broadest sense); then the anguiform animal, which evokes the monsters latent in the dreams-fable of human beings (paleontology) and the animal world in general (natural sciences). Finally, the object itself, which invites knowledge of our past (archaeology).”

 

Giancarlo Ligabue, preface of the volume celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Ligabue Research Study Center