Dagenham Idol of Scot's pine

The choice of this evergreen wood, the damage to the figure's eye and its ambivaalence could all be significant. In later Norse mythology, for example, the sacred tree Yggrrasil xas an evergreen and provided a framework for the cosmos and a ladder between sky, earth and underworld. The god Odin hung himself on the tree and sacrificed one of his eyes in order to gain wisdom from the springs that flowed from its foot. As a shaman, Odin was also perceived as sexually ambiguous. Viewed in this way, the pubic hole of the much earlier Dagenham figure would also have allowed it to be seen as plausibly female or, with the addition of a wooden peg or penis, as plausibly male. Found at Rainham Marshed in Dagenham, the original is now in the Colchester Museum.