Northern Syria / Upper Euphrates Valley, Middle Bronze Age, ca. 2000 – 1500 B.C.
A hand-modeled terracotta idol depicting a mother goddess or fertility figure, hand-formed from a light buff-tan clay. The figure features the iconic "bird-face" profile with a sharp pinched nose, incised mouth markings, and large applied pellet eyes. Her high-swept coiffure or headdress curves backward and is detailed with fine vertical linear incisions. Around her neck rests a heavy, double-layered twisted rope necklace. Her arms curve inward with delicate hands placed beneath her prominent applied breasts in a classic posture associated with ancient Near Eastern fertility cults. The lower torso extends into a smooth columnar body that flares slightly at the base.
Measures 5-3/4 inches in height. Cleanly repaired across the waist with expected surface wear, earth encrustation, and minor softening to high-relief details consistent with age. Mounted on a modern clear lucite display block.
These small figurines had a varierty of uses. They were produced primarily for domestic worship rather than state religion. The hands cupping or gesturing toward the breasts, along with exaggerated physical traits, directly invoked divine blessings for human fertility, successful pregnancy, safe childbirth, and lactation. They served as physical talismans for women and families within the household.
Beyond fertility, these figures served a protective, apotropaic role in domestic spaces. Placed near doorways, bedchambers, or beneath house floors, they were believed to ward off evil spirits, illness, infant mortality, and harm to the family unit.
Small terracotta idols served as personal votive gifts left at local shrines or temple altars. A worshipper would dedicate the figure to a mother goddess or local deity as a physical prayer, soliciting divine favor for personal health, protection, or agricultural prosperity.
Many of these idols are discovered in grave contexts throughout the Levant and Upper Euphrates. Placed alongside the deceased, they acted as spiritual guardians and symbols of regeneration, rebirth, and eternal protection in the afterlife.
Provenance: Collection of Mr. Sid Hart, Cos Cob, Connecticut, acquired during the 1980s–1990s.
