Anthropomorphic female figurine
1900-1800 BCE
Description
This handmade terracotta figurine depicts a anthropomorphic female figure. She is naked except for a necklace or collar around her neck and a belt or sash around her waist. Four rounded projections, perforated (pierced all the way through), create a comb structure that frames her face, indicating a headdress, an elaborate coiffure, or ears. Eyes are large and round, formed of applied circular pellets which were indented by a circular tool; another perforated pellet was applied at the center of her forehead. Her forehead and nose are formed by a thin, tall rectangular piece of clay, giving her face a beak-like appearance (the basis of the “bird-like” descriptor often applied to figurines like this). Her necklace is formed out of a roll of clay decorated with two lines of rouletting. Her arms project as short stumps to either side of her body. Her breasts are indicated by applied circular pellets indented by a circular tool. Her navel is formed in the same way. A belt or sash is formed on the front of her body by an applied roll of clay that runs below her navel; two ends dangle down onto her legs. Fine rouletted piercings in horizontal lines decorate the belt/sash. Her hips widen in a diamond-like shape. Her legs, which taper, are delineated on front and back by a vertical line, likely a result of their formation by two rolls of clay. Her back is flat, save the line separating her legs; this is also indicative of the forming process, in which the clay was pressed against a flat surface. While her pose is a “standing” posture, the figurine would not have been able to stand upright on its own: her feet point downward and do not provide a flat, stable resting surface. Two rouletted lines decorate the top of her feet, apparently indicating toes. A break (mended) runs from the middle of the proper right leg across through the proper left leg, as a slight upward diagonal; there is a small loss from the front surface on the proper right leg. Another break, running from the proper left shoulder below the proper right arm, has also been mended.
Dimensions
H. 16 × W. 5.5 × D. 3.5 cm (6 5/16 × 2 3/16 × 1 3/8 in.)
Provenance
William A. Koshland, New York (by 1997), bequest; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1998.
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