Figure

Art historians have determined this highly abstracted, Anatolian figure represents a woman. This finding is based on similarly shaped fertility icons from this region. The Anatolian Peninsula is located between Western Asia and Europe and has been inhabited by Indo-European peoples throughout history. The Anatolian peoples were among the first groups to migrate to this area around the 3rd millennium BCE.

During this period, Mediterranean figures ranged in style from anthropomorphic and zoomorphic to abstract. All of these styles, including abstract figures, were produced with markings indicative of sex or status. Yet this figure is highly abstracted with no individualized marks. Its U-shaped bottom mirrors the wide hips of female figurines. Other readings suggest the figures are sexless representations of juveniles, since similar abstract figures have been found at youth burial sites.

The majority of ancient Near Eastern female figures emphasize their fertility. Although the three terracotta (baked clay) figures here come from very different times and places, all are nude and two have overlarge, patterned pubic areas. Their faces are rudimentary, with little or no indication of a mouth. The copper figure, though very schematically modeled, suggests a real woman with pulled-back hair and a bulging belly, wearing a knee-length skirt and carrying an infant on her back. In contrast, the marble image, with its circular head, long neck, and U-shaped body, is reduced almost to abstraction.