Dagenham idol
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| Dagenham idol | |
|---|---|
 Dagenham idol at the Valence House Museum in 2011 | |
| Material | Scots pine wood |
| Height | 46 cm |
| Created | c. 2250 BC |
| Discovered | 1922 London, England, United Kingdom |
The Dagenham idol is a wooden statue of a naked human figure, found in Dagenham, Essex, England in 1922. It it one of only a handful of prehistoric human-shaped wooden sculptures from the British Isles. The statue has been carbon dated to around 2250 BC, during the late Neolithic period or early Bronze Age, making it one of the oldest human representations found in England.
The statue was found in marshland on the north bank of the River Thames to the east of London, south of Ripple Road in Dagenham, during excavation for sewer pipes in 1922, now on the site of Ford Dagenham. It was buried in a layer of peat about 3 metres (9.8 ft) below ground level, near the skeleton of a deer. The statue may have been buried with the deer as a votive fertility sacrifice.