 Most of the figurines were tapered at the bottom, and it is believed that this was done to enable them to be stuck into the ground or otherwise placed upright.Placed upright, they could have symbolized the spirits of the dead, akin to "spirit dolls" used nearly worldwide, including in Siberia, among contemporary people.The Mal'ta figurines garner interest in the western world because they seem to be of the same basic form as European female figurines of roughly the same time period.