Edited by Annie Caubet the Power of Images

edited by Annie Caubet The Power of Images

Venice, Palazzo Loredan / Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Campo Santo Stefano 15 September 2018 – 20 January 2019

Cover, Back Cover, page 4 Exhibition curated by Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue With the Patronage of “Oxus Lady” called “Ligabue Venus” Eastern Iran, Central Asia Annie Caubet Inti Ligabue President Oxus Culture (ca. 2200–1800 BC) General Coordination Ligabue Collection, Venice Secretariat for Management, Massimo Casarin (cat. 86) Administrative and Public and Private Loans Executive Vice President Secretariat Shipping and Insurance Design Lucia Berti Claudia Ghedin Marcello Francone Coordination and Communication Lucia Berti Editorial Coordination Claudia Ghedin Eva Vanzella Public Lenders Management of Public and Private Loans, Promotor Copy Editor Transport and Insurance Emily Ligniti Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Zürich Petra Lanza Layout (Zurich, Switzerland) Archive and Iconography Serena Parini Platinum Sponsor Translations Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology Marta Dal Martello Lauren Sunstein for Scriptum, Rome University of Oxford Archive and Installation (Oxford, United Kingdom) Iconographical Research Communicative Layout Paola Lamanna Badisches Landesmuseum Federico Dei Rossi Main Sponsor (Karlsruhe, Germany) Ubis Three

First published in Italy in 2018 by Congregazione Armena Mechitarista Photography Skira editore S.p.A. (Venice, Italy) Hughes Dubois Palazzo Casati Stampa Caroline Leloup Department of Antiquities Cyprus Via Torino 61 Archivi FGL 20123 Milano (Nicosia, Republic of Cyprus) Exhibition Design Italy Musée d’Archéologie nationale www.skira.net Luca Facchini Saint-Germain-en-Laye www.fondazioneligabue.it Ubis Three (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France) © 2018 Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue, Multimedia Projects Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire Venice Marco Morbiato © 2018 Skira editore, Milan (Brussels, Belgium) Simone Tasselli All rights reserved under international Musei Civici di Padova – Sergio Pingenti copyright conventions. Museo Archeologico (Padua, Italy) No part of this book may be reproduced Installation or utilized in any form or by any means, Museo Arqueológico Nacional ABS Group electronic or mechanical, including (Madrid, Spain) File Fornasier impianti photocopying, recording, or any Fiorotto Design Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo information storage and retrieval system, Interlinea Srl Archeologico Nazionale (Cagliari, Italy) without permission in writing from the Mobilifcio Vimar Gold publisher. Sartori group Printed and bound in Italy. First edition Private Lenders Simplex ISBN: 978-88-572-3885-2 Collection Jon Aisbitt, UK Exhibition Text Panels Distributed in USA, Canada, Central & Collection Bernard Dulon, Paris Roberta Menegazzi South America by ARTBOOK | D.A.P. 75 Ligabue Collection, Venice Broad Street Suite 630, New York, Press Offce George Ortiz Collection NY 10004, USA. Villaggio Globale International Distributed elsewhere in the world by Collection David Sofer, London Thames and Hudson Ltd., 181A High Insurance Technical Sponsors Holborn, London WC1V 7QX, United Steffano Assicuratori Kingdom. Transport and Logistics Gondrand International Ligabue Spa Catalogue edited by Ruth Maicas Ramos (M.R.R.) Acknowledgements It is our great pleasure to thank the lenders United Kingdom Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid and private individuals from the following Salomon Aaron Annie Caubet For their generous loans, we express our countries, whose help, knowledge and Jon Aisbitt Fabio Martini (M.F.) deepest gratitude to the directors of the Editorial Offce - Fondazione Giancarlo infuence have made this exhibition possible: Aisha Burtenshaw Università di Firenze, Florence museums and institutions from the following Ligabue Maggie Crosland countries: Lucia Berti, Publications Coordination Natacha Massar (M.N.) Belgium John Curtis Petra Lanza, Archive and Iconography Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Vincent Gerling Giuseppe Eskenazi Belgium Marta Dal Martello, Archive Brussels Eric Gubel Anna Garnett Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels Valérie Goodacre Liam McNamara (McN.L.) Cyprus Contributors to the Catalogue Cyprus Susie Greene Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology Jacqueline and Vassos Karageorghis Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia Oliver Hoare Eftymia Alphas (A.E.) University of Oxford, Oxford Despo Pilides Noriyoshi Horiuchi Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia France Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou Daniele Morandi Bonacossi (M.B.D.) John Kasmin Musée d’Archéologie nationale, Joan Aruz (A.J.) Università di Udine, Udine France Petra Korpivaara Saint-Germain-en-Laye Emerita, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hélène Astruc Molly Limmer George Ortiz (O.G.†) New York Germany Nora Belkebla Nasser and Mansour Moktarzadeh Collector Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe Nicolas Benoit Maria Ragan Pedro Azara (A.P.) Catherine Perlès (P.C.) Marianne Cotty Charlotte Reeves Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Italy Université Paris-X Nanterre Victoire d’Amécourt Susan Richardson Barcelona Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo Bernard Dulon Sir Paul Ruddock Elena Rova (R.E.) Archeologico Nazionale, Cagliari Martin Bürge (B.M.) Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert Ina Sandeman-Sarikhani Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice Musei Civici di Padova – Museo Archeologico, Universität Zürich, Zurich Dominique Fourcade Ali Sarikhani Padua Lucia Sarti (S.L.) David Ghezelbash David Sofer Annie Caubet (C.A.) Ligabue Collection, Venice Università di Siena, Siena Clémentine Gustin-Gomez Alice Stevenson Emerita, Musée du Louvre, Paris Congregazione Armena Mechitarista, Venice Annie Kevorkian Rupert Wace Eftychia Zachariou (Z.E.) Stefano De Martino (DeM.S.) Spain Rémy Labrusse Moe Ward Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia Università di Torino, Turin Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid Hélène Le Meaux United States Marielle Pic Jean-Paul Demoule (D.J-P.) Artefact Photos Switzerland Robert Haber Jacques Polge Université Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue Archives Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Emily Leonardo Pierre Rouillard Paris Hughes Dubois Zürich Joan Mertens Catherine Thieck Caroline Leloup Laura Siegel Claudia Gambino (G.C.) United Kingdom Germany Michael Steinhardt Università di Padova, Padua Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology Jörg Rumpf Michael Ward University of Oxford Pat Getz-Gentle (G-G.P.) Severin Schwan Independent researcher Gordian Weber We also wish to express our gratitude to all the lenders who prefer to remain anonymous. Katharina Horst (H.K.) Italy Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe Fulvia Lo Schiavo Dirke Huyge (H.D.) Spain Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Carmen Cacho Quesada Brussels Jorge A. Soler Díaz Bo Lawergren (L.B.) Switzerland Hunter College, New York Brenno Bottini Jean-Claude Gandour Christine Lorre (L.C.) Michael Haedquist Musée d’Archéologie nationale, Caroline Kasper Nebel Saint-Germain-en-Laye Laurence Mattet Anne-Joelle Nardin Christoph Reusser Isabelle Tassignon IDOLS: THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUL

“The theory that God the Father of all monotheistic religions was originally a Mother Goddess began to emerge after the discovery of the frst Paleolithic Venuses, where the female form embodied a centre of divine power. It is believed that, right in that moment, between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, certain changes occurred in the structure of the psyche in the spirit and consciousness of humankind. The phase of unawareness was superseded by a sort of urge that specialists today attribute to a rapid evolution of consciousness. Thus the concept of religion was born as man discovered that he had a soul.”

hese words were written by Giancarlo Ligabue, my father, in one of his last essays. The dawn of anthropomorphic fgurative culture, the founding myths T of humanity and the representation of power, whether inseminated by gods or heroes – all these concerns are addressed and embodied in the Idols exhibition. Idols offers a unique journey to the very origins of fgurations of the human body, from the frst ambiguous images of the Neolithic era, which still to this day have no defnitive interpretation, to their evolution during the Bronze Age. It is a journey that climbs mountains, treks through steppes and deserts and braves oceans and seas to reveal networks of connections, a commonality of perception, and contacts between remote lands. The exhibition also marks the crowning of an important initial phase of our Foundation’s activity, a maturation process and a major step forward. Each of the exhibitions realized so far has been an adventure, in terms of skills, organisation and conception, but especially on a human, personal level. Sharing precious artefacts from the Ligabue Collection with the public has led me – inspired by new objectives and under a new light – to retrace the history of collecting in our family and the research conducted by my father for all those years. With the Centro Studi he founded and the help of prestigious curators and scientifc committees, we have deepened and updated that research, reliving the emotions of his countless missions, while also acquiring new skills and exploring new ways to “know and make known”. So far, in three years, there have been three major exhibitions, each with its own distinct focus on the scientifc activity and archaeological, paleontological and anthropological knowledge amassed by Giancarlo and the many scholars and institutions working with him. With the exhibition The World That Wasn’t There on Pre-Columbian art, we indirectly paid tribute to the numerous expeditions in Central with major institutions. I take this moment to thank those institutions for their faith and South America and the cultures and peoples still waiting to be acknowledged in us and their recognition of the mission we believe so strongly in and will continue and repaid by history and the Western world. In Before the Alphabet. Journey to to carry forward, seeking always to embrace the new challenges of knowledge. Mesopotamia at the Origins of Writing, we recreated one of the most intriguing ep- I also want to thank the prestigious European museums that participated in this isodes in the history of man, shedding light on the enormous cultural value of those unrepeatable project, including the Archäologische Sammlung der Universität of countless signs printed on clay tablets or on small seals that my father collected with Zurich, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology University of Oxford, Badisches such enthusiasm and that I used to see as a child, though I understood none of it. Landesmuseum of Karlsruhe, Monastero Abbaziale Mechitarista dell’Isola di San Now, with this exhibition going still further back in time, we are stepping into Lazzaro degli Armeni of Venice, Department of Antiquities Cyprus in Nicosia, Musée another of mankind’s “Damascene moments”, retracing the extraordinary human d’Archéologie nationale of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musées Royaux d’Art et d’His- enterprise of visually translating metaphysical concepts into remarkable works of toire of Brussels, Musei Civici of Padua, Museo Arqueológico Nacional of Madrid, and sculpture, all during an epoch of enormous transition and astounding social evolution. Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Cagliari, as well as From 4000 to 2000 BC, in parallel with the emergence of writing and the urban and every individual lender who has allowed us to provide this illuminating overview of technological revolution, new and different aesthetic visions developed and spread in a subject I hold particularly dear. the three-dimensional and anthropomorphic representations of ideas, which often I am indebted and above all sincerely grateful to those at the Fondazione Ligabue travelled unimaginable distances across the planet. It was indeed a true revolution. who have made this important project possible. Thank you Lucia, Claudia, Marta There is one iconic work in the Collection well known to experts that has been and Petra. given my family name – the so-called “Ligabue Venus”. This Bactrian statuette from Thanks to Massimo Casarin, Executive Vice President of the Foundation, for his the third millennium BC was acquired by my father in the early 1970s and became precious, precise and decisive support in the challenge of the complex organization famous largely thanks to his infuential studies in the area of Afghan Turkestan of this exhibition. presently identifed as Bactriana – the ancient name of a place and a civilisation that And fnally, thanks to all those in various capacities who have made this project my father was among the frst to describe, in a book that remains a milestone in the possible – a project that carries us back to the dawn of our consciousness, when, literature in this feld (Bactria, Erizzo 1988). Indeed, Sabatino Moscati, one of Italy’s “naked” before the mysteries of life and the cosmos, we began to ask questions about greatest archaeologists, did not hesitate to say that Giancarlo Ligabue’s Bactrian ourselves and to understand that we have a soul. discoveries and studies were so revolutionary that scholars now had to “rewrite a part of the history of ancient Near East archaeology”. Inti Ligabue The “Ligabue Venus” is just one of the many fascinating artefacts in this exhibition, President, Giancarlo Ligabue Foundation masterfully curated by Annie Caubet – she being a great archaeologist herself and Emerita of the Louvre – who honoured us by accepting our invitation to determine the exhibition’s scientifc project. This time, however, the fewer than ffteen works from the Ligabue Collection comprise only a minimal part of the overall corpus of the exhibition, with its one hundred works on loan from ten museums and private collections throughout Europe. All in all, the Giancarlo Ligabue Foundation has grown through this experience – through the organisational efforts, the non-unilateral proposal and the interaction CONTENTS

17 ART OF HUMAN FIGURES 59 A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME 159 EGYPT 267 EPILOGUE from the Iberian Peninsula AND SPACE 161 Egypt, A World Apart 269 Rhythm, Variation, Creation to the Indus Annie Caubet Annie Caubet 4000–2000 BC 61 IBERIA

21 A World in Transition: 63 The Eye Was in the Tomb 173 ARABIA 275 GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 4000–2000 BC and Was Looking . . . 175 Anthropomorphic Figures Annie Caubet Pedro Azara from Prehistoric Arabia 69 A Look into the Past: Idols of the Annie Caubet 29 SETTING THE SCENE Iberian Peninsula 31 The Birth of Figuration Ruth Maicas Ramos 189 SYRIA Jean-Paul Demoule MESOPOTAMIA 83 SARDINIA 35 Transcultural Routes across 191 Eye Idols in Western Asia the Mediterranean 85 Early Human Figures from Sardinia Annie Caubet Catherine Perlès Lucia Sarti, Fabio Martini 201 The Goddess and the Ruler 41 From the Heart of Anatolia Elena Rova 97 CYCLADES to Mesopotamia Stefano De Martino 99 An Overview of Cycladic Figures 219 FROM IRAN TO THE OXUS Pat Getz-Gentle 47 Transcultural Routes between 221 Art from the Oxus the Mediterranean and the Indus Annie Caubet 121 CYPRUS Joan Aruz 225 Clay Figures from Southern 123 Chalcolithic Cyprus 53 Sounds of the Ancient World: Turkmenistan Eftymia Alphas Harps across Time and Space Annie Caubet Bo Lawergren 129 Early and Middle Bronze Age Cyprus Eftychia Zachariou 257 INDUS

259 Figures from Balochistan 145 ANATOLIA and the Indus 147 Schematic Figures from Anatolia Annie Caubet Annie Caubet ART OF HUMAN FIGURES from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indus 4000–2000 BC From the Atlantic to the Indus: major geographic areas and cultures mentioned in the catalogue

016-027 01_00000_Caubet_aog.indd 18-19 27/08/18 13:33 A WORLD IN TRANSITION: 4000–2000 BC

he exhibition Idols, from the Greek eidolon, or image, invites the visitor to embark on an aesthetic journey across time and space, to discover how art- T ists who lived and worked around 4000–2000 BC created three-dimensional images of the human body. The vast geographic area extends from West to East, from the Iberian peninsula to the Indus valley, from the gates of the Atlantic to the confnes of the Far East. A tribute to the late Giancarlo Ligabue, whose multicultural interests are refect- ed in the exhibition, the journey will reveal a surprising number of common traits, shared by distant people and regions, and compare local variants. The date in focus is a period of transition, when late Neolithic farming villages were evolving into the urban societies of the Bronze Age. Familial and tribal societies changed into state-controlled societies. Economic mutations accompanied new technologies, the development of metallurgy, the invention of writing. Trade networks, established for the circulation of exotic raw materials, connected distant people, over land and sea routes; itinerant craftsmen propagated technologies, goods and ideas. STANDING STEATOPYGEOUS FIGURE Metaphysical concepts were expressed through the visual media of anthropomorphic fgures – the idols in the show. Considered here from an aesthetic angle, these idols Southwest Arabia IV millennium BC are discussed on a consolidated archaeological and historical basis. Recent research Private Collection, London is presented in the catalogue by specialists of international standing. (cat. 48, detail) The confrontation is about invariants, and variables, seen from the double angle of anthropology and aesthetics. Paramount among the invariants or common factors is the artistic quality. The individuals who created those sculptures were highly skilled artists, who traced their own narrow way, between respect for traditional models and innovative creation. Because of the destructive action of time, we are left with only a few examples of what must have been a much larger number of trial objects, failures and success, working on specifc materials – clay, ivory (fg. 1) and bone, wood, stone and, later, metal. In the exhibition, preference has been given to pieces carved in stone, a more demanding medium than pliable clay and better displaying the artist’s individual genius. Another common factor is the “life” these fgurines had before and during their last deposition, in the funerary or cultic context where they have been found. Traces of repeated handling, such as weathering of the surface and the addition of marks or reparations of breakage, are evidence that they were made use of and were given a part to play in the course of recurrent social or religious events, linked to birth

21 and death, or the cycle of nature; there is evidence that they were necessary to the owner(s), even though their meaning and function escape us. A corollary to the necessity of these fgures is the repetition of apparently similar fgures, classifable into types that answer to similar iconographic codes. Each fgure, however, is entirely novel and individual. The cylindrical eye fgures and the slate plaques of Iberia; the Cycladic reclining fgures of the Spedos type; the “eye or spectacle” idols type, distributed over a vast area encompassing Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia; the “Oxus Lady” (the so-called “Bactrian Princess”): each of these types is known in many examples, up to hundreds in the case of the Asiatic eye idols. The typology is the same; nevertheless, each fgure is unique in its proportions, details and charisma, through the personal action of the artist and creator. Such musical, poetic variation on one theme introduces the visitor to the aesthetic appreciation of a selection of iconographic types. The earliest in the show is the ubiquitous steatopygous type, the so-called Mother Goddess, inherited from a long Neolithic tradition. Nude and sumptuously voluptu- ous, she stood alone in the iconography of most of the ancient world until the arrival of new visions at the end of the fourth millennium. Comparable examples from far away regions – Sardinia, the Cyclades islands, Cyprus or Arabia – are also present in the exhibition. The carefully balanced volumes of the different parts of the body, emphasized here and abbreviated there, result in a dynamic and powerful whole. PREGNANT RECLINING FIGURE

Early Spedos type Cyclades With the coming of the age of the frst cities, ca. 3300–3000 BC, when an urban revo- Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) lution took place in most of the Old World, with the accompaniment of profound social Collection Jon Aisbitt, UK and economic mutations, drastic changes occurred in the visual media. Metaphysical (cat. 14, detail) concepts continued to be embodied in three-dimensional images, but the previous steatopygous ideal was abandoned in favour of entirely new visions. The contrast between the two phases is particularly striking in the areas where it has been possible to present examples of the two successive periods, as in Sardinia and the Cyclades islands. Two opposed and complementary aesthetic avenues were then opened, one tending towards abstraction and extreme schematization; the other realistic, tempered by idealization. Both aesthetics were often adopted simultaneously. Abstract images, constructed in bold and geometric volumes, are not abstract in the twentieth-century aesthetic sense. They are the abbreviated vision of the body, leaving out parts of it, emphasizing others, principally the eyes and the feminine sexual triangle, in a visual synecdoche (pars pro toto). Eyes, the seat of life and identity, were in a different setting the focus of statuettes from Iberia, Egypt, Cyprus, Anatolia, Syria, Mesopotamia. The sexual triangle may appear discreetly, at the hem of a completely abstract disk as in the Kültepe disk-idols or in the Cycladic Violin. Or it may take over the whole body, as in the terracotta triangular idols from Central Asia, a triangle endowed with eyes and breasts. Generally speaking, our abstract images belong to the feminine genre, albeit ambiguously: they may integrate another visual synecdoche: in phallic female image, whole or parts of a female body, the head or the arms, are made in the shape of an erect penis. Cyprus and Anatolia created masterpieces of this androgynous ideal: an impossibly complete nature?

22 1 In contrast with the abstract aesthetic, a natural but idealized rendition of the Bearded ﬁgure carved human body appeared about the same period, the end of the fourth millennium. from hippopotamus ivory Egypt One major centre of this aesthetic was in Southern Mesopotamia. The Uruk culture V–IV millennium BC and its successors, named from the city of Gilgamesh, where writing was invented, Museo Egizio, Turin extended its cultural domination, over most of Western Asia. It marked signifcantly the development of Egypt at the birth of Pharaonic civilisation. Mesopotamian artists created masterpieces of idealized beauty, like the “Lady of Warka” (Baghdad). A type of idealized nude female fgure created in the mid-third millennium spread to the Levant and Egypt, and remained immensely popular until the end of Antiquity. They were deposited in tombs and temples and may also have been part of domestic cults. Most of these gracious fgures were made of baked clay, with a few exceptions in ivory or stone.

The comparison between the idealized aesthetic of Mesopotamia and that of the Cyclades islands, in the Aegean, has not been often attempted: it opens new vistas about the art of the Bronze Age in the third millennium. Artists in the Cyclades made the best use of the quality of their local marble, as would their successors of the classic Greek period. The iconographic types they created (ca. 2800 BC) endured and evolved for several centuries: a nude body, arms crossed over the waist protecting the belly, often shown distinctly pregnant (cat. 14–15). Although museums exhibit them standing, these fgures were originally reclining on the ground, their legs slightly bent, their feet pendent, their head tilted back, looking at heaven. Within the constraint of the type, individual sculptors like the prolifc Goulandris Sculptor or the Sutton Place Master (cat. 18) introduced infnite variations of proportions and style. The Cycladic statuettes were deposited in tombs, possibly after having served in public cultic places at the occasion of recurrent rituals: these involved their repeated manipulations which left traces of usage and breakage on the pieces, which were often carefully repaired. Cycladic fgures were imported and imitated in Crete and Anatolia.

EGYPT: A WORLD APART

Egypt had its own original approach to the Neolithic revolution. A small number of graceful fgures in painted clay survive; both male and female were represented with explicit sex organs during the Badari (4400–3700 BC) and Naqada (3700–3000 BC) periods. They never were quite as ubiquitous and quite as integral a part of ritual practices, as in the cultures of the Mediterranean and Western Asia. Variously interpreted as dancers, triumphant or bird fgures, these uniquely expressive images elude us as to their signifcance, social function and usage in the course of funerary rituals (cat. 43–44). They tend to disappear at the end of the Predynastic period. Then, around 3000– 2900 BC, at the dawn of History, when the state-controlled organisation that was to become the Pharaonic civilisation was in construction, the broadening of the social and economic network encouraged ties with the Levant and Mesopotamia. A nude

24 25 statuette from Hierakonpolis (cat. 45), carved in lapis lazuli, a stone imported from TORSO OF FEMALE VOTIVE Afghanistan, illustrates the extent of the far-reaching network of exchange and con- FIGURE tacts between Egypt and Asia. Mesopotamia Early Dynastic II period The development of subsequent Pharaonic iconography introduced portraits of the (ca. 2500 BC) worshippers, of the deceased and his family, at the time when Mesopotamia was also Private Collection, Paris opening the world of eternal images to simple mortal beings. The strongly original (cat. 73, detail) aesthetic of the Egyptian artists infuenced the Levant, a neighbouring region over which Pharaohs ruled for centuries, but otherwise the Egyptian art of the human fgure followed an entirely different path from that chosen for this present exhibition. One single portrait of a slender, naked and idealized man (cat. 46) has been selected as an example of Egyptian accomplishment.

INTRODUCING IMAGES OF MORTALS FACING THEIR GODS

The identity of the early anthropomorphic fgures remained at best ambiguous. There is a general consensus to understand the female images as expressing cosmic and metaphysical concepts related to Life, Death or the Cycle of Nature. Early images of warriors armed with daggers and baldrics from Arabia (cat. 52) or the Cyclades were also ambiguous in their identity; it is unclear whether they represented real men in power or supra human beings, perhaps the male counterparts of the nude female fgure.

With the development of urban societies in Mesopotamia and Egypt, in the late fourth millennium profound change introduced the images of simple mortals, unambiguous human beings. They are there, alive, as worshippers, humbly devoted to their gods. They are men, and also women, women as themselves, no longer as the incarnation of feminine divine principles (cat. 73–74). The clothes and ornaments they wear are the mark of their status, of their standing in society. Their identity may be emphasized 67) symbolized the wild forces of the mountains as opposed to the rich valleys, the by a dedicatory inscription that preserves their name for eternity. cities and civilisation. The Dragon genie of the Oxus (cat. 93–94), his skin covered As a corollary to the entrance of mortal humans in the world of images, new with serpentine scales, was the savage counterpart of the protective Oxus goddess gods appear. They were created in the image of man, in a reversal of the Biblical (cat. 75–90). saying. Distinct deities, each with their individual personality and area of compe- Narrative scenes would depict warfare and triumph, hunting, religious ceremo- tence, emerged to take their place in fully organised pantheons. The development nies, social gatherings like the banquet feasts accompanied with music and dance. of literacy fxed in writing the mythology of these pantheons and the actions of The exhibition presents elements of such narrative scenes, statuettes of female and these gods. To ensure that divine images would not be confused with those of the male worshippers, gods, heroes and genies, focusing on the parallels between the mortal worshippers, distinct costumes, emblems and attributes were assigned to fgures from Syria-Mesopotamia and those from Central Asia at the time of the Oxus the gods. In Egypt, iconographic rules established at the dawn of the Pharaonic era civilisation. To conclude the journey in space and time, a haunting terracotta statuette remained almost unchanged until the end of Antiquity. In Western Asia, gods and from Balochistan (cat. 100) materializes the obscure communication between the goddesses, who ruled over Heaven and the Underworld, were distinguished from Indus and Sumerian art at the end of the third millennium. humans by a special crown in the shape of a horned tiara and various attributes. Over the longue durée, across an immense space, people and artists – different Next to the higher gods, heroes took part in the age-old cosmic confrontation that and at the same time linked by fruitful networks of contacts – expressed through ensured the perpetual cycle of Nature. They interacted with hybrid genies who enduring masterpieces their anxiety, their hopes and their faith. combined in their body a double animal and human identity: the Bull-man (cat. C.A.

26 27 SETTING THE SCENE THE BIRTH OF FIGURATION

here does fguration come from? Homo sapiens is in effect the only one in the evolutionary line of humans that feels the need to “represent”, that W is, to depict something that no longer exists, that is absent. However, the appearance of lines with no practical utility dates to long before that. As far back as 500,000 years ago, in Trinil on the island of Java, a male or female Homo erectus carefully etched a zigzag line on a shell valve. Around 50,000 years ago, Neander- thal Man, who evolved 300,000 years ago from the African Erectus who migrated to Europe, left perpendicular lines etched on the walls of Gorham’s Cave in Gilbraltar. More or less at the same time, slightly further north, abstract motifs were painted with red ochre on the walls of Spanish caves in La Pasiega, Maltravieso, Ardales and perhaps El Castillo, as well as in the prehistoric cave des Merveilles in Rocamadour, France. The Neanderthal were also the frst to adorn themselves with pendants or necklaces of perforated teeth and to bury their dead. Meanwhile, the Erectus who remained in Africa had continued to evolve, leading to SEATED FEMALE FIGURE the modern Homo sapiens between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago. About 80,0000 WITH CROSSED LEGS years ago, Sapiens traced perpendicular lines on small blocks of red ochre, found Cyclades, said to be from Amorgos in Blombos Cave in South Africa. It would be another 40,0000 years, however – the Late Neolithic period (V–IV millennia BC) time required for their mental faculties to become more complex – before men cre- Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, ated the frst fgurative representations. This was accomplished at the two extremes Brussels of Eurasia – in Western Europe on one end and Indonesia on the other. The most (cat. 9, detail) ancient paintings of all were found in Indonesia, with depictions of animals – a pig- deer and local non-ruminants – and hands printed on the walls. The theme of the hand, in both positive and negative, would be found later in all areas of the world. No doubt, this represented a way for human beings to leave their trace, using a part of themselves from which they were able to take some distance.

WOMEN AND ANIMALS

In Western Europe, fgurative art makes its frst appearance in Chauvet Cave in France and the caves of the Swabian Jura, such as Hohle Fels and Hohlenstein in Germany, in the form of stone or ivory sculptures depicting animals or in some cases female fgures. Chauvet Cave harbours four hundred painted animals and only one human fgure, represented by a pubic triangle with the head of a bison. For 30,000 years, animals and naked women with exaggerated sexual attributes would continue

31 to be the preferred subjects of prehistoric art; tens of thousands of animal depictions 2 have been found and hundreds of women (versus the extremely rare representations Nude steatopygous ﬁgure seated on a throne ﬂanked by felines of men). Southern Anatolia, Çatalhöyük What is the motive for these representations? On the one hand, Paleolithic hunt- VI millennium BC er-gatherers, whose minds were almost identical to ours, considered themselves an Painted clay Anadolu Medeniyetler Müzesi, Ankara animal species like the others and certainly not the most dangerous. Consequently, they maintained a close bond with animals, as do many traditional populations that practice totemism, believing that each clan descended from a mythic ancestor with an animal nature. Furthermore, Sapiens were the frst and only species of primates (or mammals) with a continuous sexuality, uninterrupted by regular intervals of infertility. This resulted in a state of permanent social tension, as testifed in ancient texts such as The Iliad, full of sexual transgressions, or the Roman myth of the Rape of the Sa- bines. This condition is also expressed in iconography, with, for example, the rape of the Lapiths by the Centaurs or battles with Amazons, women who wanted to do without men. As recent events remind us, this constant tension between the sexes has persisted in all societies right up to our day. Thus it is reasonable to think that, rather than evoking “fertility”, these prehistoric statuettes of nude female fgures express a particular conception of sexuality. Beyond that, not much more can be said.

FROM THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION TO THE FIRST STATES

While these themes persist, they are transformed with the Neolithic revolution and the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry, introduced 12,000 years ago in the Near East and independently in other areas of the world. Animals are still represented, but now mostly wild animals, like the urus of Çatalhöyük depicted 8,000 years ago in frescoes and in authentic ornaments made of clay. This would continue into historical epochs, as in the hunting scenes on Assyrian bas-reliefs. In Egypt, however, some divinities had a half-human, half-animal body (falcon, cow, crocodile, etc.), just as they did in India. The exhibition at the Giancarlo Ligabue Foundation gathers numerous objects testifying to the ongoing representation of the female body with manifest sexual attributes during the Neolithic period, from Sardinia and India to Greece and Ara- bia. The Neolithic revolution was quickly superseded, however, during the fourth typically with weapons. War became a constant concern that was constantly por- millennium, by a new, even more radical revolution – the urban revolution and its trayed, and so it remains. In effect, statues of “great men” or monuments to the dead far-reaching consequences. Thus the world’s frst states formed in a succession of with victorious warriors or wounded soldiers in the centre of squares only perpet- civilisations, beginning with Egypt, passing through Mesopotamia, Iran and Central uate this tradition, in democracies as well as authoritarian regimes. Meanwhile, Asia to reach India, followed shortly thereafter by China and the Americas. the female body continues to be profusely represented, only now in an art that has In these societies with their organisation increasingly hierarchical, their cities become “secular” and commercial, in billboards and magazines. The long story that planned from above and resources centralized, the visible power became defnitively began 40,000 years ago has not ended yet. male. While love and sexuality remained relevant and continued as the prerogative of D.J-P. particular divinities, such as Inanna in Mesopotamia and later Aphrodite in Greece, the majority of fgural representations were of male divinities and male sovereigns, Bibliography: Demoule 2017.

32 33 TRANSCULTURAL ROUTES ACROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN

he history of seafaring in the Mediterranean goes back to the hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic times. Middle Paleolithic stone tools, dating to more T than 50,000 years, have been found on some Aegean islands, and there are claims for even earlier navigation. Seafaring seemingly intensifed around 10,000 BC, with groups of hunter-gatherer-fshermen conducting hunting expeditions on Cyprus, exploiting obsidian, a natural glass of volcanic origins from Milos in the Cy- clades and Giali in the Dodecanese, settling on Crete and on several Aegean islands. This long-standing familiarity with the sea explains why, when the frst farmers of the Levant and Anatolia started expanding out of their initial homes, the Mediter- ranean immediately became a major route of expansion. Travels by sea offer major advantages compared to land travels, not so much in terms of speed but because, at a time when wheels and carts were not yet in use, they permitted to carry heavier loads and avoided repeated negotiations or conficts with the locals along the route. No craft of this period has been preserved, but sturdy reed boats – such as the Pa- FEMALE GEOMETRIC FIGURE pyrella (fg. 3, “papyrus boat”) that was experimented from Attica to Milos, or long

Sardinia, Turriga (Senorbì) dug-outs carved in massive tree-trunks, as the canoe ten metres long excavated at Late Neolithic La Marmotta (5450 BC) near Rome – can be envisioned. They were large and reliable (passage V–IV millennia BC) to transport not only families of farmers, but also their crops and domestic animals, Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Cagliari sometimes even wild ones. (cat. 7, detail) Cyprus was the frst island colonised by farmers, in the ninth millennium BC. Continental Greece and Crete were reached at the beginning of the seventh millennium. The dynamics of expansion accelerated in the early sixth millennium along the northern shores of the Mediterranean, reaching Spain around 5700 BC. The expansion was rapid but not continuous: in a process of “leap-frogging”, these farmers targeted selected alluvial plains and basins, often far one from the other, and neglected hilly or mountainous stretches. They did not initially expand along the African shores, except for a small enclave around Tangier settled by groups coming from Spain around 5600 BC. Archaeogenetic studies confrm the Near Eastern or Anatolian origin of the groups that settled in Greece, Italy, France and Spain, even if these – probably small – groups of colonists sometimes intermarried with local hunter-gatherers. The expansion of the Neolithic profoundly transformed the coastal landscapes and ways of life: sedentary villages were built on fertile alluvial soils; domestic sheep, goats, pigs and cattle were introduced into Europe; the soil was tilled and crops of

35 3 trade networks were soon established, the long-distance transfer of goods during Papyrus reed boat of a type used this early period was still in part linked to the high mobility of the group of farmers by Neolithic seafarers across the Mediterranean that expanded across the Mediterranean basin. These long-distance movements of population ceased in the mid-sixth millennium, when most of the coasts were colonised. The obsidian trade became mainly regional and its long-distance transfers no longer reached the French coasts. Corsica, devoid of good fakeable raw materials, provided itself in fint and obsidian from nearby Sardinia, with which it exchanged serpentinite bracelets. Symmetrically, rare artefacts from highly valued continental raw materials started to reach the islands: alpine jades (jadeitite, omphacite and eclogite) arrived in Southern Italy as pebbles and polished blades, and from there in Sicily and even Malta. Land and sea routes expanded again during the ffth millennium, which witnessed an important development of specialised productions and long-distance trade. The obsidians from Lipari and from Sardinia were distributed from the Adriatic to Provence, and a blade from Monte Arci in Sardinia was found in a burial from the Gava variscite mine in Catalogna. Contrary to what we observed in the Aegean, obsidian does not seem to have been distributed by itinerant specialists. Instead, grains and pulses were grown; and a whole range of new techniques were brought regional groups controlled the sources and distributed in quantity blocks of obsidian along, such as pottery, weaving, stone polishing, etc. to “central places”, which then redistributed it. The same holds true in Southern Italy By 5500 BC farming groups had settled along all the Northern Mediterranean and Sardinia for the miniature blades in alpine jadeitite, mostly deposited in ritual coasts and all the major islands were colonised: Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Crete and of caves and exceptional burials, sometimes covered with ochre. Trade to the islands course Cyprus. Although most of the smaller islands remained uninhabited, several was equally intense: the community that had by then settled on Lipari received min- were exploited for their mineral resources and became nodes in long-ranging trade iature polished alpine blades, high-quality painted pottery and copper ore that was networks that connected groups of different cultural traditions. The earliest network, locally smelted. Further away from their sources, the obsidian blades and bladelets already established by 6500 BC, was centred around the obsidian from Milos and had acquired some symbolic value and were often found in burials. certainly beneftted from the knowledge of the sources by local Mesolithic groups. It The fourth millennium witnessed shifts and probable competition in interaction encompassed the Anatolian coast to the northwest, Thessaly to the north, and Crete networks. The Ozieri groups that controlled the Sardinian sources exported painted to the south, where obsidian was distributed and worked by highly skilled itinerant pottery to the continent and took over the exclusive long-distance trade in obsidian specialists. During their excursions to the Cyclades they also occasionally provisioned to Provence, while the Lipari network markedly extended north to the Po valley and continental farmers with marble from Naxos and jadeitite from Syros. Settlements Liguria. During the same period, Pantelleria continued to provide obsidian to the from both sides of the Aegean thus shared the same sources of obsidian, and some North African Coast, to Malta and at least in one occasion to Southern France. Many of the techniques to produce the blades and bladelets. This did not lead, however, to continental resources were also traded: Malta, devoid of mineral resources, also cultural homogenisation, probably because the contacts were indirect. On the other obtained fint, basalt axes and ochre from Sicily, obsidian from Lipari, nephrite and hand, the striking similarities between anthropomorphic fgurines from Greece and quartzite axes from Calabria, nephrite and serpentinites from Lucania and miniature the Levant raises the possibility of repeated contacts between early settlers and their celts in alpine jadeitite. homeland, even if this example remains isolated. No similar competition can be perceived in the Aegean, where there is no evi- When migrant farmers reached the Western Mediterranean basin, in the early dence that the mineral sources were controlled. The ffth millennium witnessed an sixth millennium, they again actively searched for obsidian sources, even on unin- intensifcation and diversifcation of regional trade once the smaller islands were habited islands. colonised. The colonisation of the Cycladic islands offered the possibility of direct As soon as they settled in Southern Italy, the sources from Lipari and Pantelleria procurement at the source and subsequent redistribution by nearby islanders, sub- provided abundant obsidian to Southern Italy, Sicily and the Eastern Maghreb. Soon stantially increasing the quantity of obsidian in circulation in a wide “direct pro- after, Palmarollan obsidian reached Liguria and the Languedoc, in the latter case curement zone”. Itinerant specialists continued to provision more distant regions, in seemingly brought by colonists coming respectively from Latium and Liguria, and lesser quantity. Despite its poorer quality, the obsidian from Giali, in the Dodecanese, some obsidian bladelets travelled all the way from Lipari to Provence. If regional was modestly exploited in the surrounding islands, and a few fakes were found in

36 37 Western Anatolian, the Cyclades and Crete. Emeri, polished metabauxite and jadeitite celts from Naxos and Syros circulated in nearby Cycladic islands, and also reached Keos, Euboeia and Lesbos. Handsome conical marble beakers were found on Keos, Samos, Naxos and as far north as Varna in Bulgaria. The raw materials have not been analysed and their source(s) is unknown, but their similarity with the beakers produced at Kulakzızlar in Aegean Turkey (where later Kilia marble fgurines would be produced) minimally demonstrates contacts, if not exchange. Schematic marble fgurines and marble fgurine heads also became abundant. Unfortunately, their origin is unknown. It is also possible that the Cycladic copper, silver and lead ores were locally worked and traded in the late ffth and fourth millennium. Smelting copper is attested in the fourth millennium on the small island of Giali in the Dodecanese, and the copper and silver ores from Lavrion were smelted, possibly earlier, at Kephala on Keos and Kitsos in Attica. However, the golden strip found at the Zas cave on Naxos must be an import from the Balkans. During the fourth millennium, Western Anatolia, so far actively involved in Aege- an trade, seems to have favoured inland contacts with the East. Further south, the Northern Levant was also looking East towards Mesopotamia, while the Southern Levant maintained contacts with Egypt. Nevertheless, many goods must have trav- SEATED FIGURE elled by coastal routes between the southern coast of Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt WITH HEAD ORNAMENT (in particular metal ores and Anatolian obsidian). However, since none of these re- Sardinia, Cuccuru s’Arriu, Cabras Tomb 386 sources are insular, inland trade routes cannot be ruled out. Indeed, during all these Neolithic period (V millennium BC) millennia, Cyprus, despite being the frst island colonised by farmers from the Levant, Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo remained “reticent”, as termed by Cyprian Broodbank, to external contacts and trade. Archeologico Nazionale, Cagliari Cyprus’s isolation came to an end later in the Bronze Age and the picture of (cat. 6, detail) seafaring, long-range interaction and trade in the Eastern Mediterranean became profoundly altered. The contrast between the Neolithic and Bronze Age in fact holds true for the whole Mediterranean basin. After the seventh and early sixth millennium, when seafaring colonists scouted the Mediterranean from East to West and linked its two extremities, the Mediterranean sea as such no longer existed in the Neolithic. Multiple invisible but impassable frontiers were created that segmented the Mediterranean into multiple smaller basins. The Eastern and Western Mediter- ranean became isolated from one another and there was little contact between the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic, or the Aegean and the Levant. The reopening of these frontiers would be achieved in the Bronze Age, probably helped by important innovations in boat craftsmanship. P.C.

Bibliography: Perlès 1992, pp. 115–164; Guilaine Pétrequin 2012; Ammerman, Davies 2013; Broodbank 1994; Broodbank 2000; Borrell, Borrell, Bosch, Clop, 2013; Bindre 2015, pp. 369–386; Pétrequin, Gauthier, Molist 2012; Pétrequin, Cassen, Errera, Sheridan, Pétrequin 2017.

38 FROM THE HEART OF ANATOLIA TO MESOPOTAMIA

ANATOLIAN FEMALE IDOLS

mages of nude women are well documented among the artefacts found in many Anatolian Neolithic sites. The best known example is the statuette depicting a Imature woman sitting naked on a leopard throne found at Çatalhöyük. She was thought to represent either a goddess, the so-called “Mistress of Animals” (fg. 2, p. 33), or a member of the élite in Çatalhöyük society; in fact, her corpulence is seen combined with an elaborate seat and hence would suggest that she held a high social position. Female statuettes continued to be made in Anatolia during the fourth and third millennia BC. The so-called “Kilia statuettes” are made of marble, with large heads and fat bodies; a marked incision stresses the pubic triangle. Although the vast majority of the Kilia statuettes come from sites in the region of Western Anatolia, some exemplars were discovered also at Kirs¸ehir in Central Anatolia. However, these were not made locally, but presumably reached Kirs¸ehir as a consequence of the trade EYE IDOL WITH INNER SMALL IDOL relations between Central Anatolian villages and other sites farther west.

Western Asia Several anthropomorphic fgurines were brought to light at Alacahöyük in burials 3300–3000 BC datable to the Early Bronze Age. They are reproductions of nude women made of clay Ligabue Collection, Venice or metal. Some of these images have naturalistic features, whereas others are simply (cat. 53, detail) schematic fgures (fg. 5). A contemporary metal fgurine found at Hasanog˘lan comes complete with a golden mask and golden jewels (fg. 4). The naturalistic aspect of such images is also a characteristic of the metal statuette that represents a woman with a child at her breast, which was found at Horozetepe. These fgurines have a particular Anatolian character that distinguishes them from other, more abstract contemporary statuettes coming from Mesopotamian and Aegean sites. Alabaster fgurines datable to the Early Bronze Age come from the Anatolian site of Kültepe, and almost all the stone fgurines were discovered in a grave. Circular in shape, the fgurines echo the violin-shaped ones from Kilia, although there is no direct connection between the two groups of statuettes. The Early Bronze Age metal and stone statuettes are usually associated with burials (like those found at Alacahöyük, Demircihüyük, Kültepe, etc.), whereas the clay fgurines mostly come from domestic contexts, such as houses and courtyards. The diffusion of idols made of stone or metal can be connected to the emergence of leading individuals, who controlled the circulation of these precious materials. Both

41 the residential megara buildings at Kültepe and the élite burials, such as those found “eye idols” refer to, is diffcult to ascertain, and we do not know whether they repre- at Alacahöyük, support the assumption that even the metal fgurines were prestigious sented a specifc goddess. In spite of this, the eye idols have attracted the attention display objects. The naturalistic aspect of some of these images, which distinguishes of researchers for decades and also had a certain “hypnotic effect” over people who them from the more abstract clay fgurines, could also be a distinctive trait of the made of the eye idols a universal female symbol diffused all over the ancient world. objects belonging to members of the elite. Later, the interpretation of the eye idols as cult images was challenged by Catherine Statuettes were also found at Kültepe in the levels of the frst centuries of the Breniquet (1996) and Annie Caubet (2006), who suggested that these objects might second millennium BC. They are made of ivory or metal and reproduce naked god- have had a practical function, used perhaps as textile tools, like those seen on some desses depicted with hands under their breasts. The fgurines discovered in the Uruk seals. phase Kültepe Ib, which corresponds to the Assyrian Colony period, show specifc The site of Habuba Kabira in Western Syria was once a Uruk “colony”, briefy iconographic characters, which can also be found in the Hittite plastic artefacts, such occupied during the Late Uruk period. It was eventually abandoned as a consequence as the round face, a big nose and an enigmatic smile. of the collapse of Uruk society. In spite of this, a post-Uruk occupation is documented in the area north of the older settlement. Several workshops devoted to pottery THE INTENTIONAL BREAKAGE production were unearthed there. Among the artefacts produced in said workshops, there are many clay statuettes representing nude women. They can be dated to the Female fgurines made of clay were unearthed in the excavations in the Anatolian twenty-ffth century BC and refect some features of Mesopotamian female clay stat- third millennium site of Koçumbeli. The fat body shape of these fgurines is similar uettes from the ffth millennium BC. These statuettes are multiple images of a nude to that of the Kilia violin statuettes; in fact, it is fat with a semi-circular lower body woman, whose body is rendered schematically and her breasts are marked by the on which the neck and the head are placed. The other body parts are only abstractly application of clay pellets and only her face is modelled more accurately. represented, such as the arms, which are seen simply as short protrusions, and the A nude feminine fgurine was found at Mari together with other precious arte- breasts, which are depicted as holes. facts in the so-called “Treasure of Ur”. The statuette is made of a copper alloy, with An in-depth analysis of the Koçumbeli statuettes demonstrated that many of them gold inlays, and is generally dated to the Protodynastic IIIB. The horned headdress had been broken intentionally at the neck. The deposition of broken heads of clay on the head of this statuette supports the assumption that it represents a goddess. statuettes is also documented at the aforementioned Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük.

Acts of intentional breakage were also noticed on some of the fgurines found at the 5 Syrian site of Tell Halawa, which can be dated to the late Early Bronze Age. Some of Double schematic female ﬁgure the broken heads seem to have been carefully buried. Central Anatolia, Alacahöyük Late IV millennium BC The head breakage might be linked to magic rituals, such as the rites of passage, Gold and could refer to events such as adolescence and marriage, when a young woman Anadolu Medeniyetler Müzesi, Ankara 4 would cut her previous ties with her family and enter a new phase of life. Naked female with crossed arms Anatolia, Hasanog˘ lan Ca. 2500–2100 BC SYRO-MESOPOTAMIAN CONNECTIONS Silver with gold ornaments Anadolu Medeniyetler Müzesi, Ankara Tell Brak is one the most fascinating archaeological sites in Syria. It was excavated by Max Mallowan, a prominent archaeologist and the husband of Agatha Christie. Tell Brak was an important centre and hosted a huge temple, the so-called “Eye Temple”, under which two older sanctuaries were situated. The oldest one of these is known as the “Gray Temple” and can be dated to the Late Chalcolithic III. It is here that Mallowan unearthed a huge number of fat anthropomorphic fgurines in limestone with geometric bodies and heads represented by two big eyes placed directly onto the neck. Sometimes a smaller fgure was incised directly onto the front of the body. This iconography supported the assumption that the objects represented women and in the latter case a mother and child. These fgurines are generally interpreted as offerings to the deity venerated in the temple, whose precise identity remains unknown. The symbolism, which the

42 43 6 She is endowed with athletic shoulders and the wide hips contrast with the small Naked female ﬁgure breasts and the fne modelling that renders the other body parts. The big eyes are Northeast Syria, Tell Mozan Late III millennium BC inlaid in mother-of-pearl and lapis lazuli, and her lips seem about to open into a smile. Terracotta This statuette was found together with other precious objects including a lapis Directorate-General of Antiquities and lazuli bead bearing the name of Mesanepada, king of Ur. In spite of this, it is not Museums - DGAM, Syria certain whether it was produced at Ur and thus a Syrian origin cannot be excluded.

A FEMININE IDOL FROM TELL MOZAN, THE OLDEST HURRIAN CENTRE

Lastly, we mention a statuette found at Tell Mozan-Urkesh. A Hurrian dynasty ruled the kingdom of Urkesh (Tell Mozan, Northeast Syria, fg. 6) in the second half of the third millennium BC, and a female statuette was found at Tell Mozan in a pit that cuts through the outer wall of the royal palace of Urkesh. The statuette is made of terracotta and dates back to the post Akkadian age (late third millennium BC). The lower part of the body and the base, as well, are not preserved. The statuette represents a nude woman; the female traits of her body are strongly emphasized, such as her big buttocks and the large pubic triangle, which is framed by three impressed lines. Two small applied pellets indicate her breasts. The represented woman wears a necklace and features an elaborate hairstyle. The face is plastically modelled and marked by a big nose, bulging cheeks and a small mouth. A deep slot on the top of the head might have held aromatic substance to be burned. The fnding of several high quality clay sculptures in the third millennium levels at Urkesh supports the assumption that they and also the aforementioned statuette might be the product of a local workshop. The particular shape of the face and the prominent cheeks are features that distinguish this artefact from the other contemporary Syrian clay statuettes, whereas they can be seen in some more recent clay sculptures dated during the Khabur-Ware period, such as a female clay head from Tell Mozan and some fgurines discovered at Tell Arbid as well. DeM.S.

Bibliography: Strommenger 1980; Seeher 1992, pp. 2006; Daems 2007, pp. 77–117; Nakamura, Meskell 153–170; Margueron 1995, pp. 42–53; Breniquet 2009, pp. 205–230; Makowski 2010, pp. 617–626; 1996, pp. 31–53; Kelly-Buccellati 1998, pp. 35–50; Hodder 2011, pp. 934–949; Kulakog˘ lu 2011, pp. Buccellati, Kelly-Buccellati 2000, pp. 3–39; Assante 1012–1030; Pinnock 2013, pp. 199–214; Buccellati 2006, pp. 177–207; Caubet 2006, pp. 177–181; Cooper 2014; Atakuman 2017, pp. 85–108.

44 45 TRANSCULTURAL ROUTES BETWEEN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE INDUS

ith the rise of complex centres of civilisation – Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Harappan – found in the great river valleys of the Tigris and Eu- W phrates, the Nile and the Indus during the late fourth and third millennia BC – humanity witnessed an unprecedented fowering of the arts, its emergent iconography largely expressing divine power and heroic royal prowess. The materials, form, technique and imagery of objects such as sculpture, jewellery and both stamp and cylinder seals, not to mention architecture, provide visual manifestations of essential cultural differences that developed among these frst urban societies. However, such features also reveal interactions that extended across vast distances from the Mediterranean eastward, crossing another great river system, comprising the Amu Darya and Syr Darya (Oxus and Jaxartes Rivers), which watered the oasis towns of Central Asia. Certain raw materials and artefacts demonstrate the entire breadth of intercultural exchange; others are confned to circuits within the vast network of cultural centres, which together formed the precursors of the overland Silk Road that linked to maritime routes from the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. Cultural SEATED “OXUS LADY” convergences within these regions have been the subject of much research, incor- Eastern Iran, Central Asia porating new archaeological discoveries with art historical interpretations, technical Oxus Culture (ca. 2200–1800 BC) analyses and studies of Mesopotamian texts that reveal the impetus to obtain exotic Collection Jon Aisbitt, UK (cat. 84, detail) materials from distant lands and identify regions such as Dilmun (Bahrain), Magan (Oman), Marhashi (Southeastern Iran) and Meluhha (the Indus Valley) with coveted materials associated with the latter three: copper, chlorite and carnelian. At times fortunate circumstances provide an intimate glimpse of the nature of interaction across the broad tapestry of an interconnected world during the third and early second millennia BC. A merchant hoard, buried at Ashur, includes seals and beads that represent activities over an area extending from the Indus Valley to Cen- tral Anatolia at a time when the tin and textile trade was underway. “Foreigners and explorers who travel across the lands” deposited an impressive quantity of lapis lazuli and silver in the form of seals and vessels in the temple of Montu at Tôd in Egyptian Thebes, representing an area extending from Bactria-Margiana in Central Asia to the Levant, Anatolia and Minoan Crete. The “Vase à la Cachette” (fg. 7), discovered at Susa, bears witness to interaction from Eastern Iran to the Gulf and the Indus, with evidence of tin bronze metallurgy in the centuries prior to the explosion of the long-distance tin trade in Anatolia. The copper comes from Oman, alabaster vessels are from Eastern Iran and two of the cylinder seals in the hoard reveal contacts with

47 7 “in the mountains where the sun rises”, boasts fabulous wealth in precious stones “Vase à la Cachette”, a pottery jar with abundant lapis lazuli and gold, silver, copper and tin – tin being a commodity and lid containing a hoard of copper alloy artefacts and calcite vessels found in the “Vase à la Cachette”. The unearthing of over 22 kilograms of lapis lazuli Iran, Susa in the Royal Palace of Ebla, gathered possibly for shipment to Egypt; the discovery of Late III millennium BC a lapis lazuli fgure of a nude female at Hierakonpolis; the distribution of fat beads Musée du Louvre, Paris with tubular string hole and quadruple spiral beads, both types made of gold and silver, as well as etched carnelian beads – extending from the Indus to the Aegean – provide us with material evidence for the routes and shared values that are implied in the impetus to acquire such objects. Chlorite vessels and handled weights with relief decoration and distinctive Eastern Iranian features – termed “intercultural” for their widespread appeal – represent a more limited interaction zone extending across Western, Central and South Asia. With production centres identifed in Eastern Iran at Tepe Yahya and probably on the Arabian island of Tarut, some of the most elaborate examples were discovered in temples, palaces and burials in Southern Mesopota- mia, which originally suggested that these works were made for export. However, the masses of such objects, mostly looted from graves in the Halil River basin near Jiroft, with a few excavated examples at Konar Sandal South, have transformed our picture of this corpus of objects, evidently also valued locally in Southeastern Iran, an area identifed by Piotr Steinkeller as the “land of Marhashi”, home to its chlorite material, the “Duhšia stone”. Konar Sandal South also produced stamp and cylinder seal impressions, which have been compared by Holly Pittman to Early Dynastic examples from Southern Mesopotamia. As in the three cases mentioned above, they highlight the importance of glyptic – portable instruments of status and identity that were worn as jewellery, integral to the trade process and refecting the movements of merchants, other travellers and also ideas. By the third millennium, the use of seals in administration had been introduced over an area extending from the Aegean and Eastern Mediter- ranean to the Indus – with regionally distinctive materials, forms and imagery. The the Indus Valley and the Gulf – one depicting a lion confronting a zebu in the posture general preference for stamp rather than cylinder seals, prevalent in the Aegean, of a short-horned bull and another, made of shell, blending Mesopotamian and Gulf Egypt and Anatolia, also occurs at the other end of the geographic spectrum, in the stylistic and iconographic elements. These instances of travelling objects that came Indus Valley, the Gulf and the Oxus – with exceptional instances of cylinder seals together under different circumstances highlight a complexity that is diffcult to grasp with Indus-related images found at Mohenjo Daro as well as in Mesopotamia and in our attempt to understand the nature and signifcance of cultural encounters as Eastern Iran and a Near Eastern-inspired contest scene on a cylinder from Gonur manifested in the material record. Patterns do emerge, however, as we briefy review that Pittman attributes to Southeastern Iran. These seals were created at a time the materials and imagery of interaction, with the intensity of exchange suggested by when Harappan square stamps travelled westward as far as Southern Mesopotamia, the inscription on an Akkadian cylinder seal identifying its owner as an interpreter as did circular seals of Harappan origin, depicting short-horned bulls and Indus or of Meluhha and by tantalizing references to a Meluhha village in Mesopotamia, sit- rarely cuneiform inscriptions – a type that appears to have developed in Bahrain uated in the vicinity of Girsu. as a precursor to Dilmun seals, its imagery possibly a merchant’s mark. One such seal in the Ligabue Collection has a Linear Elamite text (fg. 8), signifying Eastern MATERIALS OF INTERACTION Iranian participation in this trading sphere. The discovery of stamp seals with Indus and Oxus connections at the site of Konar South broadens the picture of presumably The beginnings of trade in the quest for exotic prestige materials and the transfer of overland interaction previously suggested evidence such as an Oxus crenellated seal technologies, such as writing, are poetically alluded to in one of the great works of at Harappa, the impression of a compartmented seal at Mohenjo Daro, a pottery Sumerian literature, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. This mythical distant place impression of a compartmented seal depicting a zebu at Shahr-i Sokhta and another

48 49 8 with a central fgure controlling dangerous beasts – one notable depiction with Stamp seal in Indus style snakes held by a central fgure, while another controls streams of water above two Eastern Iran or Oxus Late III millennium BC Indus-looking zebu, on an “intercultural style” vessel imported to Mesopotamia. Ti- Steatite with modern impression: gers are controlled by a nude hero on Harappan seals, replacing the lions one would a bull, and proto-elamite script expect in Mesopotamia. Composite creatures combining elements of potent animals Ligabue Collection, Venice with each other and with humans – either as a means of visualizing the unseen world or heightening the magical powers of the living – also occur across the ancient world. Oxus divinities in human form are often winged and associated with snakes further west, and rarely have horned headgear. Harappan seals emphasize natural animals, occasionally with bovine horns added to the tiger and the elephant, but basic elements that farther west defne the otherworldly – such as wings – are lacking in the Indus Valley depictions. The most recognizable composite Harappan image melds a human head (and hair) topped by bull horns and ears, a male or female torso, human arms with animal extremities, and bovine hindquarters and tail. Another, depicted both on stamp seals and one zebu seal found at Nausharo in Balochistan. Reinforcing the famous Sargonic text cylinder seal, consists of a human fgure attached to the belly and hind legs of a tiger noting “Ships from Meluhha, Magan, and Dilmun made fast at the dock of Akkad” with horns resembling those of East Iranian divinities. the glyptic connections between Konar Sandal and sites such as Gilund in India have Images of bull capture and acrobatics – familiar from Syria, Anatolia, the Aegean been interpreted by Pittman as evidence for a maritime route connecting to a land and Egypt in the second millennium BC – occur in a Harappan context on seals from corridor into inland Iran. Mohenjo Daro. Here the beast is a water buffalo, but on a cylinder seal from Ur with Indus-related imagery, a zebu is depicted. Another extraordinary stamp seal from IMAGERY OF INTERACTION Gonur, in the form of a Bactrian camel biting its hind legs, also shows a zebu in a Near Eastern version of the “fying gallop”. With the advent of urban centres of civilisation, the visual arts developed culturally There can be no doubt that the peoples of the developing cities and towns in the distinctive features but certain similar forms of expression emerged across the en- varied landscapes of the ancient world, speaking a vast array of languages, were tirety of the ancient world to capture the potency of the divine, supernatural world. greatly enriched by the economics of exchange that provided the path for the transfer Major divinities in the Mesopotamian sphere are represented in human form but of materials, imagery, technologies and ideas over such a vast geographic area. Yet, come to be distinguished from them by their horned crowns, tufted feecy attire as despite the cultural connections that emerged, civilisations from the Mediterranean well as specifc attributes and animals that symbolize their presence. Some of these to the Indus retained a richness of visual expressions that came to defne their own features were transmitted eastward, particularly the tufted garment worn by seated unique identities. females on Eastern Iranian seals, a silver vessel inscribed in Linear Elamite with A.J. the name of Puzur-Inshushinak, a Bactria-Margiana silver pin, as well as seated female composite sculptures made of chlorite and calcite, some from Oxus burials and domestic contexts, with numerous and varied types lacking provenance. The sculptures exhibit elaborate hairstyles but, unlike related images of seated females on some Eastern Iranian seals, lack horns or other headdresses that would certainly identify them as deities. In contrast to the clearly divine females in tufted garments on Bactrian compartmented seals, seated on Bactrian dragons, with caprids or wings emerging from the shoulders, their interpretation remains a mystery. Shared imagery,

particularly the association of divinities with specifc animals and natural elements, Bibliography: Francfort 1982, pp. 179–208; Stein- 69–103; Salvatori 2008, pp. 111–118; Vermaak 2008, may betray a transfer of religious beliefs and mythologies as scholars attempt to keller 1982, pp. 237–265; Sarianidi 1994, pp. 27–36; pp. 454–471; Kaniuth 2010, pp. 3–22; Laursen 2010, decipher the rich visual language on the seals of Eastern Iran and the Oxus region. Harper, Klengel-Brandt, Aruz, Benzel 1995; Collon pp. 96–134; Benoit 2011; Pittman 2012, pp. 79–94; 1996, pp. 209–226; Possehl 1996, pp. 133–208; Sar- Steinkeller 2012; Pittman 2013, pp. 63–89; Pittman One motif that demonstrates a similarity of expression over a wider range, from ianidi 1998; Aruz 1999, pp. 12–30; Aruz Wallenfels 2014, pp. 625–636; Winkelmann 2014, pp. 199–229; the Mediterranean to the Indus, is the symmetrical scene of a “Master of Animals” 2003; Aruz, Graff, Rakic 2005; Madjidzadeh 2008, pp. Vidale, Frenez 2015, pp. 144–154.

50 51 SOUNDS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD: HARPS ACROSS TIME AND SPACE

he harp player from the Cyclades (cat. 21) stands in this exhibition as the symbol of the place taken by ancient music, a vanished world. It is the rep- T resentative of the gentle art of sounds, which we see, darkly, through the few remains of musical instruments that survived across time, together with a larger number of fgurative images. By the forth millennium a range of instruments had spread across parts of the ancient world, including Elam, Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and the Oxus (or Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, BMAC). It includes strings, winds and percussion instruments. Of strings, harps arose frst, followed by lyres and lutes. Such instruments had complex structures: sets of strings, tuning devices and bridg- es which allowed the string to vibrate and be tuned. Their bodies were shaped to amplify the sound. Such details make them easy to recognize on images and identify in archaeological digs. Most were made of wood, a perishable material, but some survived because they were clad in metal foil. There were two kinds of ancient harps: the early arched harps (ca. 3300–2000 HARP PLAYER CYCLADES BC) and the later, angular harp (ca. 2000 BC–300 AD).1 Thera (Santorini) The earliest harps had an arched shape and may, in fact, have been inspired by Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) the hunter’s bow. The musical connection is revealed already in the Odyssey (eighth Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe (cat. 21) century BC) when the hero returns to his wife, Penelope, on Ithaca. He fnds his familiar bow, used twenty years earlier, before his departure,

. . . Odysseus, mastermind in action, once he’d handled the great bow and scanned every inch, then, like an expert singer skilled at lyre and song– who strains a string to a new peg with ease, making the pliant sheep-gut fast at either end– so with his virtuoso ease Odysseus strung his mighty bow. Quickly his right hand plucked the string to test its pitch and under his touch it sang out clear and sharp as a swallow’s cry. Horror swept through the suitors, faces blanching white, and Zeus cracked the sky with a bolt, his blazing sign.2

In Mesopotamia the arched harp was the only type of harp until the second half of the Isin-Larsa period and the Old Babylonian periods when angular harps appeared in

53 great numbers on terracotta plaques. The switch from arched to angular harps was a 9 Egypt Mesopotamia Elam BMAC Indus radical change, not only in design but in the number of strings available on the harp. a. Egypt, arched harp, tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, The angular harps consisted of a narrow, hollow body into which a thick solid rod at Saqqara, fifth Dynasty, reign of had been attached horizontally at the lower end of the near-vertical body. The rod Pharaoh Niuserre Ini (after Manniche was stuck through a hole drilled perpendicularly through the body. Much later, during 1991, p. 21). b. Egypt, vertical angular harp, the Islamic period in Iran, the attachment became more elaborate with supporting tomb at Memphis, Ptolemaic brackets. Short strings occupied the corner-space between the body and the rod. Long (after Manniche 1991, pp. 106–107). c1. Mesopotamia, arched harp strings spanned the space between the end of the rod and the top of the body. Short a c1 c2 e h (3350–3200 BC). Rashid 1984, fig. 27. strings were easily accessible to the player, but long ones were harder to reach. It was c2. Mesopotamia, arched harp, conceived in 1900–1600 BC. Its shape differed from arched harps and there were other consecration plaque from Khafaja, d1 f1 differences. Importantly, angular harps had more strings than arched ones.3 Iraq (2600 BC), University of Chicago, Oriental Institute, A 12417. Rashid In this short overview of the history of harps, arched and angular, in the ancient 1984, fig. 35. world, we will frst present the case for Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Cyclades, then, d1. Mesopotamia, vertical angular turning towards the East, look at Elam, the Oxus and the Indus civilisations. harp, Old Babylonian terracotta In Mesopotamia (3300–2000 BC), harps seem to have appeared before the lyre. plaque, Iraq Museum, Baghdad, IM 21 359. Rashid 1984, fig. 62. They were all arched harps. The image of such an early harp was used as a pic- d2. Mesopotamia, horizontal angular tograph (balag) on nineteen clay tablets from Uruk. They are dated to the Uruk IV harp, Old Babylonian terracotta and III periods. Such tablets formed the basis of analytic discussions of the earliest plaque, Louvre, AO 12455. Rashid b d2 f2 g 1984, fig. 71. 4 writing in Mesopotamia. The signs show a 3-stringed arched harp similar to the e. Elam, arched harp, terracotta extant Queen’s harp, dated 2450 BC, excavated at Ur, where it has 13 strings. The impression of a stamp seal, Chogha numerous attestations indicate that arched shapes, indeed, existed in early Mesopo- Mish (3200 BC). Lawergren 2018. f1. Elam, vertical angular harp tamia. Such arched harps also appeared on Mesopotamian seals and on consecration from Madaktu, wall relief (646 BC). plaques (2600–2400 BC). Lawergren 2018. strings can be counted. Extant Egyptian arched harps have typically less than 10 Angular harps are shown on several terracotta plaques dated to the Old Baby- f2. Elam, horizontal angular harp from strings (occasionally as few as 3). On the other hand, extant angular harps typically lonian period. They are also shown on terracotta plaques found at Ishchali, a site Susa, terracotta plaque (2000–1500 had 21 strings and sometimes as many as 29. Harp strings give normally only one BC), Louvre, Sb 6574. Spycket 1992, excavated by The Oriental Institute of Chicago University in the 1930s. There they p. 187, fig. 36. pitch. So, arched harp could play few pitches, whereas angular harps could play were dated “late Isin-Larsa period”. The two periods comprise a three century span g. BMAC, horizontal angular harp more than 20. In Mesopotamia, angular harps were accepted during a period of (1900–1600 BC), during which angular harps were invented. on a silver cup from Northern 300 years. But Egypt resisted them for 600 to 200 years while keeping the tradition Afghanistan. Francfort 2003. of arched harps. In Egypt, arched harps (“shovel-shaped” harps) were introduced early in the Old h. Indus Valley Civilisation, writing Kingdom, the IV Dynasty (ca. 2500 BC). For fve centuries, it was the only type, but sign thought to show an arched harp The slow acceptance of angular harps implies a reluctance to expand the pitch after the Middle Kingdom, new types of arched shapes arose. Unlike other parts of (2600–1900 BC). Flora 1988, p. 215; range of harp music. By Near Eastern standards, Egypt was a conservative music Parpola 1996, fig. 167, no. 180. the ancient world, arched harps lasted in Egypt into the Hellenistic world. Because culture. This observation confrms Plato’s assertion that Egyptians “forbade any of the longevity, one might consider ancient Egypt a prominent “harp culture”, just innovations or inventions in music”. as ancient Greece was a “lyre” culture. In the Cyclades, arched harps appeared during the mid-third millennium: sever- Angular harps were not imported to Egypt until the New Kingdom: the frst such al marble statuettes of musicians were discovered in Thera (today, Santorini); they harp is shown in a Theban tomb from the reign of Amenophis II. They continued to are contemporaries with the examples known from Mesopotamia and the Levant. be shown in to the Roman period. Their shapes, however, are quite distinct from other arched harps. Although it seems The Roman fascination with Egypt also brought harps to Italy. Athenaeus (160– probable that the technique of musical instruments and that musical practices cir- 230 AD), living in Alexandria, Egypt, has a story about it. In The Deipnosophists, culated over great distances, the precise means of such a circulation escapes us. It he recounts a series of dinner conversations, and one guest says: “My fellow-citizen is probable that instruments were adapted to local usages and that several types Alexander gave a public recital on the harp [trigonon], and sent all Rome into such may have coexisted. a state of music-madness that most Romans can repeat his tunes.” Looking now towards the East, we observe that from Elam, situated across the The most signifcant difference between arched and angular harps was their western part of present Iran, comes the frst image of an arched harp, dated 3200 sets of strings. Since harps survived well in the dry sand of Egypt, the amount of BC. It was excavated at Chogha Mish. It is a composite of fve sealing fragments

54 55 10 Trumpets were common in the Oxus civilisation. These were not used as musi- Harp players of the royal court of cal or signal instruments, but could imitate animal sounds, especially that of deer. Elam (Southwest Iran) – part of an Assyrian wall relief from the palace of The hunter used his trumpet to call the female deer during rut. The animal would Ashurbanipal II depicting his conquest approach and be quickly killed. of Elam In the Indus valley, at a time when arched harps were well attested in Mesopota- Northern Iraq, Nineveh, Kuyunjik, Southwest Palace mia, the situation is less clear during the development of the Harappan civilisation. 660–650 BC Only one representation is known (fg. 9h). It is on a square seal from Mohenjo Daro, Gypsum alabaster with an upper and lower part. The former shows a row of three symbols, and the British Museum, London latter an image of a zebu animal. The rightmost symbol looks like a pictograph of an arched harp with three vertical strings. However, the writing from the Indus civilisation has not yet been deciphered, and we do not know the pronunciation of the harp symbol, as we do in Mesopotamia (balag). Of course, the paucity of Indus instruments creates concern, but the similarity to the balag-sign in Mesopotamia creates some assurance. Several earlier scholars have also proposed it is an Indus harp. Generally, the Indus script was used during the “Mature Harappan Period” and we consider it an Indus harp limited to that period. There are no musical instruments after 1900 BC. In conclusion, we know the shape of harps in the cultures examined here: Indus, Oxus, Elam, Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Mediterranean. In many cases, information is documented from 2500 to 1500 BC. In the earliest phase, before ca. 2000 BC, harps were which constituted a large scene. The fragments shared one pictorial element: a jar arched. Between 1900 and 1600 BC arched harps were replaced by angular ones. The (or a fsh),5 and the whole scene could be reconstructed. The complete scene shows Near East and Egypt adopted angular harps at different rates, and this fact may imply a dinner entertained by four musicians. Besides the arched harp player, there is a that Egyptian music was more conservative than that of its Near Eastern neighbours. drummer, a player of animal horns.6 The fourth musician holds his right hand on The angular harp had many more strings than the earlier arched shape, and it is the cheek, a posture well known from singers in ancient and modern Near East. In tempting to give it musical signifcance. But, since we don’t know the music, further a nutshell, the little dinner ensemble looks universal: there is a string, a percussion thoughts will be mostly speculation. This arched/angular transformation occurred and a wind instrument. The ensemble is the frst known representation of a union universally and is an intercultural phenomenon. Even when we have no tunes, as of music and feasting. But there seems to be no religious objects on display, but, of here, the study of ancient instruments may lead to insights that add to a preliminary course, one cannot know if the feast had a hidden religious purpose. At any rate, it music history of the fve cultures during the forth to second millennia BC. is no ordinary meal. The presence of music elevates its purpose. L.B. The angular harps appeared in Elam (fg. 10), simultaneously with Mesopotamia (ca. 1900–1600 BC), and there are many examples. 1 The dates are the “conventional” ones given by Roaf 7 Lawergren 2018. Vertical harps are shown with 24, (1990, pp. 110–111), but the absolute dates are still 24 and 29 strings; horizontal ones with 8, 9 and 10. The Oxus civilisation, or Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a Bronze Age under discussion. civilisation in Central Asia, developed around 2200–1800 BC and covered North- 2 Homer ed. 1996, p. 437, lines 451–460. Bibliography: Plato ed. 1926; Marshall 1931; Woolley ern Afghanistan, Eastern Turkmenistan, Southern Uzbekistan, Western Tajikistan and 3 To evaluate the number of strings, one needs extant 1934, p. 62; Gelb 1952, p. 62; Rashid 1984, pp. 52–88; instruments, which are mostly available in Egypt be- Lawergren, Gurney 1987, pp. 37–52; Flora 1988, p. the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River). There was also substantial borrowing from Iran. cause the dry sand prevented wood decay. Representa- 215; Roaf 1990, pp. 110–111; Auerbach 1994, p. 380, There were no arched harps in BMAC. The Oxus harp is a horizontal angular tions rarely give accurate string counts. fg. 16a; Delougaz, Kantor 1996; Homer ed. 1996, pp. model, similar to horizontal models in Mesopotamia (fg. 9d2). It looks like a vertical 4 I am indebted to Dr Robert K. Englund for checking 451–460; Parpola 1996, pp. 165–171; Kenoyer 1998, harp turned 90o. Both orientations were present already during the Old Babylonian balag signs on tablets in ATU (= Archaische Texte aus pp. 69–79; Farmer, Henderson, Witzel 2000, p. 80; Uruk). Possehl 2002, pp. 127–139; Glassner 2003, p. 122; period, and the strings can easily be counted on the Madaktu orchestra shown on 5 Delougaz, Kantor 1996, pp. 147–148; feld number Wright 2010, p. 163; Emerit, Guichard, Jeammet, Per- an Assyrian wall relief in the British Museum.7 At the front end the strings were tied III-913a-e from square Q18. Dr A. Alizadeh (private rot, Thomas, Vendries, Vincent, Ziegler 2017, p. 105; to the vertical rod and allowed to hang down freely as “tassels” in front of the harp comm.) considers it an image of a jar rather than a Lawergren 2018, pp. 41–118. fsh, cf. ibid., p. 147, no. 68. (fg. 9d2). However, the Oxus harp differs: its tassels cling to the front and follow 6 The narrow ends were cut open, allowing the player tightly the bottom of the front. to blow the horn.

56 57 A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND SPACE IBERIA THE EYE WAS IN THE TOMB AND WAS LOOKING . . .

L’œil était dans la tombe et regardait… Victor Hugo, La Conscience, La légende des Siècles, 1859

e, she or it is on my desk while I am writing this text. His, her or its eyes – drilled, black and profound – are “looking” at me: eyes or whatever these Hsharp deep holes are or mean. I cannot write without a certain uneasiness near He, she or it . . . He, she or it is embodied in an incised white stone short cylinder. This may have been broken: the cylinder may have been longer, maybe 20 centimetres high, more or less. Is it – was it – considered an object or an image? Is he or she a living, mortal or immortal being? A male or female being? Can we answer these questions? Are they really important? Can we look and judge this item or being as people from Antiquity – related to it, she or he – did? Until the mid-1950s the answer was clear and always PLAQUE-IDOL the same: the item was the image of a mother goddess. Is “it”? Iberian peninsula, Vega de Guadancil, This small sculpted and engraved cylinder is an “eye idol” from the Iberian pen- Garrovillas de Alconétar, Cáceres insula, present-day Spain and Portugal, at the western end of the Mediterranean, the Late Neolithic period 1 (IV millennium BC) gate to the Atlantic. It is dated between the fourth and the third millennia BC. These Museo Arqueológico Nacional, “idols” are shaped like elongated stone or marble cylinders with engravings (cat. 1). Madrid Among them, drilled holes surrounded by incised rays and sometimes circles at the (cat. 3, detail) head of the cylinder and profoundly incised zigzag horizontal or vertical lines – as if suggesting long hair in a simplifed way. Most of the “eyes” have small eyebrows over them, and sometimes curved vertical lines on each side that frame the hypnotic gaze, due especially to the so small and round “eyes”: it seems that they will never close. I am using words appropriate to name parts of a living being: eyes, eyebrows, hair; sometimes, even arms. Are they correct? Are they really “idols”? The “eyes” that look like eyes of owls, and the fact that owls were the symbol of a Greek goddess, Athena, has been a clue to interpreting them as images or embodiments of female divinities. The design of the circular eyes with rays or sun-eyes appears also in small thin gold plaques – we can presume that the quality of the metal may have been associated with the radiance of the sun – deposited near the cylindrical idols. Gods and goddesses never sleep, contrary to human beings. So these items have been considered divine fgurines. Could they have been or could they have represented other mortal or immortal beings?

63 11 A recent archaeological fnd has shed some light on these objects. Until now, Male ﬁgure they had come to light without any study of the site where they had been found. Iberian peninsula, Rena, Badajoz III millennium BC The provenance was unknown as they came from illegal or undocumented exca- Marble vations. The Museum of Huelva exhibits a stunning collection of cylindrical “idols”, Museo Arqueológico Provincial, presented in well-lit showcases as in a minimal contemporary installation. They Badajoz were all discovered in the archaeological site of La Orden-Seminario, located around the city of Huelva. Twenty-nine idols, from two tombs, were found. They constitute the most important fnd on the Iberian peninsula. Dated from the very early fourth millennium BC, they were in perfect condition. Even though they were found lying on the ground – due to the fall of the vault – it seems that they were originally standing and that they were not moved. The collection may tell us about what they may have signifed. These “idols” were not deposited alone. They were not intended to be appreciated or used alone. They belong to a group, standing on a tomb. Their function and their meaning were related to the Netherworld, whatever this may have been. They were not lying on the ground, as a dead being or an offering, but, despite the narrowness of their base, they were standing up – as a living being? They were not alone in the tomb. Ceramics were also deposited. They belonged to a burial offering. But their function was not utilitarian. They did not contain goods. They might express the wealth of the living – their shape needed a complex and articulate working, possibly by different artisans – or they were there to “look” after the dead. In the frst case, they symbolise richness and generosity; in the second case, they express ties between living and dead people, anguish or fear, and their function may be to put into contact both the living and the dead and to maintain these ties. They were representing the living, as being in touch with the dead forever. They may represent not a supernatural being, but the living who were trying to be near their dead relatives – and at the same time keeping them in the Netherworld. The idols or fgurines from the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic on the Iberian peninsula are, as in any other culture, of very different shapes, depending on their epoch and their location. Among some of the most outstanding fgurines are the Chillarón idol (Cuenca Museum), a spherical double “idol” – a male and female semi-spherical fgure united by the circular base, maybe twins or an hermaphrodite, a sign of singularity – from the third–second millennia BC; or the “eye idol” in the shape of a tri-dimensional “X”, perhaps a fgure with wide opened legs or two fgures united by the belly (Provincial Archaeological Museum, Badajoz). They are quite different from the “idols” found in the Mediterranean area, like the Rena white marble male fgurine from the third millennium BC (Museo Arqueológico Provincial, Badajoz, fg. 11), so surprisingly similar to Sardinian fgurines, in the way the hair is carved. Others are comparable to Mediterranean fgurines. The raised pointed short “arms” of the large Artana “idol” (third millennium BC, Museo Arqueológico, Burriana, fg. 12), 52 cm high, sculpted in sandstone but quite eroded, are similar to the “arms” of some of the slate plaque- idols – infra – but the Artana fgurine raises questions: it was discovered in the 1920s in a Muslim cemetery, and may have come from the decoration of an Islamic building – having not been interpreted then as a fgurine but as an abstract motif, maybe a sort of sacred stone.

64 65 12 ing”. They may have measured the passing of time. And they certainly constituted Anthropomorphic ﬁgure (?) identifcation symbols of a group. In spite of the difference of work implied between Iberian peninsula, Artana III millennium BC (?) incising a plaque and weaving wool thread, these functions may be the same. Plaques Sandstone and textiles were signs: they embodied values shared by a group composed of living Museo Arqueológico, Burriana and dead beings, ancestors and human beings, values materialised in graphic signs (Castellón) and transferred from one generation to another. These plaques have been found in funerary contexts. The buried dead were considered still part of a community, therefore, these signs might even be heraldic motifs, as professor Katina L. Lillios has suggested. They may have been identifying signs and at the same time be the registers of past events or of the passing of events. They might represent a protective divinity (as they have been interpreted for years), and they also acted as transmit- ters of values – expressed through graphic motifs that could be easily recognised as belonging to a group – in order to strengthen the ties between past and present members of the community. Protective fgures? Certainly: they would have preserved the memory of a community, being testimony of the legacy and validity of shared values. For these possible reasons they were far more important than just “divinities”. A.P. The cylindrical idols do look quite different from other fgurines from the rest of the Mediterranean. Another type, the grey plaque-idols, made of slate (cat. 4–5), constitute a large group of almost two thousand fgurines – if there are indeed fgurines – found all in the south of the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal). What are they and what do they represent, if we can fnd an answer? The plaque-idols, also from the third millennium BC, found, as the cylindrical fgurines, in several sites in the south of the peninsula, have traditionally been interpreted as divine images: images of a mother goddess, the same protective and pacifc Mediterranean goddess supposedly followed by all prehistoric cultures. This conventional interpretation may or must be questioned for different reasons. The frst one is that not all plaques have anthropomorphic features (features that are drilled or incised eyes and sometimes eyebrows and sculpted raised arms on both sides of the plaque. Incised “eyes” and one or two drilled holes at the “top” can cohabitate, suggesting that, when edges are worn-out, the plaque may have been used or reused as a pendant). So they may not even be anthropomorphic fgurines at all. Except for some larger plaques (as in the Museo Arqueológico de Sevilla), most have a similar size. They ft in a hand. They can be held, as a blade or a fint, for instance. They are always covered with incised geometric patterns: triangles – interpreted as prominent vulvae, which is strange as these triangles are incised on the whole body – squares, vertical, horizontal or curved lines. Sometimes, horizontal lines divide the plaque in two, suggesting an articulate anthropomorphic body. Most of the time they are adapted to the trapeze shape (with round corners), a shape vaguely evocative of a fint stone. The motifs do not seem to be representative. They are not or they cannot be associated with any anthropomorphic feature. However, the patterns are similar to textile ones. Do 1 The best collections of prehistoric Iberian “idols” Madrid, and in Portuguese museums (Museu Nacional (cylindrical and plaque-idols, of different sizes) are de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Lisbon, Museo Lapidar they represent clothes? Textile patterns were not just decorative. They were ways of in the archaeological museums of the Spanish cities Infante D. Henrique, Faro). recording important data in the life of a community. They were a kind of “pre-writ- of Sevilla – perhaps the best – Huelva, Badajoz and Bibliography: Lillios 2008.

66 67 A LOOK INTO THE PAST: IDOLS OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

he dearth of images from our prehistoric ancestors leads us to pay particular attention to the few representations that bring us closer to those distant T epochs: the idols we are dealing with here, parietal art (cave and megalithic) and some ceramic decorations. The word “idols” here refers to a heterogeneous set of small anthropomorphic statuettes. More strictly speaking, the term “idol” refers to a cult object, for example, a representation of a divinity. We scholars of prehistory, however, are still far from being able to associate these images from the past with a specifc function. In fact, we cannot even be sure that all these statuettes have a similar meaning. For this reason, many scholars prefer to speak of ideomorphs, ideo- technical objects, idol-like pieces or symbolic productions – all terms are complicated. Therefore, it seems to us more correct to use the term “idol”, a conventional use that does not imply acceptance of the aforementioned academic defnition. In the Iberian peninsula, we have a large set of idols spanning a chronological range that greatly exceeds two millennia. They are concentrated in the south of the CYLINDRICAL EYE FIGURE peninsula and made of diverse materials in a wide variety of typologies. Despite this

Iberian peninsula, Cuenca del heterogeneity, it is reasonable to say that they generally communicate the same idea Guadalquivir through their styles which, though different, share a particular importance of the eyes Chalcolithic period (III millennium BC) and simplifcation of the bodies, rendered through the geometric base element of a Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid triangle. As in other felds, the collection of idols of the Museo Arqueológico Nacion- (cat. 1, detail) al (MAN) in Madrid can be considered representative of this production, especially because it conserves some of the most emblematic pieces, including those selected for this exhibition. The production of this genre of symbolic representations probably began in the ffth millennium BC in the post-Cardial horizon and ended in the late third millennium BC. More recent idols, from the campaniform period, have distinct anthropomorphic traits, but in many cases maintain the same style of representing the parts of the body to which they refer (eyes, hair, tattoos). Late depictions are clearly masculine or feminine, refecting the ideological shift that, along with many others, marked the transition from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age. Often we ignore the contexts to which these statuettes belong since many of them come from ancient excavations; nonetheless, we can suppose that they were found in both funerary and residential contexts. Their presence in burial sites makes it possible at times to identify some kind of correlation between those buried there and the symbolic representations (a given idol for a given individual), while in others, there

69 13 The majority of idols of the Iberian peninsula are made of bone or stone. The bone Footed bowl with incised eyes idols are among the most interesting, subdivided into idols created from long bones, Iberian peninsula, Los Millares III millennium BC phalange-idols, spatula-idols and fat idols. The frst group are known as the “Pasto- Pottery ra-Almizaraque” type (fg. 16), which express a complex iconography noteworthy for Ashmolean Museum of Art and the attention to the eyes, enhanced with what are most probably eyebrows and tat- Archaeology University of Oxford, Oxford toos. These idols are concentrated in the southeast quadrant of the peninsula, though examples can also be found in other areas, as in the case of fnds from Extremadura and the Madrid area. This type dates to the frst half of the third millennium BC. Another particularly interesting type of bone statuette is one known as the phalange-idol (fg. 15). This category, however, includes a widely varying collection of objects that probably had a variety of uses. Their “idol” nature (in the sense that we are attributing to it here) is evident in the objects with incised or painted decoration; a substantial number of others, however, have no surface decoration but are nonetheless the result of an intentional process. This second group may have had their own distinct practical function, or they could be artefacts that have lost their painted decoration or whose function was defned through the application of perishable ele- is no such clear relationship. In recent years, ritual deposits have been identifed ments since lost. Generally, these idols are created from the frst phalange of horses in silos and tombs that allow us to reconsider this direct relationship between idols or deer, whose natural forms can acquire a specifc value due to their relationship and individuals. Regardless, we believe that there were spaces in settlement contexts to the human fgure. devoted to production that we identify as simple workshops of a rudimentary form Another type, especially interesting for its great age, is the spatula-idol (San of craftwork, produced only part time and in conjunction with everyday survival ac- Martín-El Miradero type), typical of the north of the Meseta and dating between the tivities. Although there is still scant information in this regard, the presence of these ffth millennium BC and the beginning of the fourth. Finally, there are idols made statuettes in metallurgical contexts should also not be forgotten. of bone lamina, distinguished by their fat surface though they also exhibit profles As mentioned before, the idols of the Iberian peninsula are distributed in the (straight, cruciform, triangular, etc.) and diverse forms of workmanship. Most of these southern part of the region, concentrated primarily in certain deposits such as those date to the fourth millennium BC. at Almizaraque, La Pijotilla and Valencina. Although each area shows a degree of A category that is not strictly defned by its material support is that of the an- preference for a given typology, as Victor Hurtado Pérez pointed out, there are no thropomorphic idols. The recent idols (second half of the third millennium BC) most sharp delimitations and connections can be observed between the different zones. resemble the human fgure, but even examples from previous epochs have visible We see, for example, that the funnel idols, typical of the southeast of the peninsula, sexual connotations in the various typologies. For example, there are representa- extend as far as Sevilla (Valencina) and Portugal (Perdigões). On the other hand, cy- tions of breasts in the betilos or baetyls and in the funnel idols, pubic triangles in the lindrical idols, while concentrated in the southwest, occasionally appear in Almería phalange-idols, etc. By the end of the Chalcolithic, the statuettes are more natural, and Granada and, in at least one well-known case, in the south of France. In fact, closer to the human fgure of reference. Concentrated in the Guadiana valley, the large deposits like that of Valencina have yielded virtually the entire range of known best-conserved examples of these idols have stylized forms and well-defned faces. typologies. Some are holding what seems to be a symbol of power, an element that has been The statuettes are made of bone, clay, stone, wood and even gold. Beyond the associated with the emergence of an elite in which men were gradually assuming material, however, it is also important to consider the use of pigments to colour them. a dominant role. In the case of plaques, for example, the incised decoration is highlighted by flling the Much rarer are the ceramic idols, although they include examples such as those incisions with a white paste, probably ground calcite, in order to give greater visibility of La Pijotilla or Valencina de la Concepción. Rarer still are wooden idols and idols to the features. Other types of dyes are also commonly used, including minerals ge- made with gold leaf, probably mounted on a core of wood or leather. Wooden idols nerically referred to as ochre. These can be made of clays with various types of iron have been found in Cueva Sagrada di Lorca (Murcia), while gold leaf idols were oxides (for example, oligisto) or of cinnabar, and sometimes different components will discovered in the tholos tombs of Gandul and Montelirio (both in Sevilla) and in the be found in a single context. The use of colour was intended to intensify the visual Grand Dolmen of Zambujeiro near Évora, in Portugal. impact of these fgurines. It is important to know, however, that some of these dyes The other major subset of Iberian idols are those made of stone, most frequently had a corrosive effect that compromises our present-day interpretation of the object. of slate, schist or marble, or occasionally of alabaster or steatite.

70 71 14 large eyes, whereas the cat. 5 idol is an example of pieces of an essentially geomet- Anthropomorphic ﬁgure ric nature. These idols have been documented primarily in funerary contexts (in with raised arms Iberian peninsula, Fines (Almería), well-conserved cases, one can see them placed on the chest of the buried individual) Llano de la Media Legua in large megalithic structures. These structures became the most distinctive element IV millennium BC of a territory that was increasingly structured in the fourth millennium BC and with Soapstone Museo Arqueológico Nacional, which a bond had to be demonstrated, that is, a right to claim ownership of the land. Madrid The cylindrical eye idols are another of the most common typologies of the southeastern region of the peninsula. As in the previous case, stylistic differences range from the simpler examples of Estremadura in Portugal to the more “Baroque” examples found mostly along the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir. Despite their fat support, the fat stone examples with eyes, such as our cat. 2, are categorized as another variant of the cylindrical type, with very similar characteristics. This type is concentrated in the present-day province of Badajoz. Unlike what is seen in plaque- idols, most of those with eyes have been associated with residential structures. Ac- cording to some authors, by the third millennium BC, a territory’s most important contexts were its large villages, and no longer its megalithic funerary structures. The appearance of these idols in such settlements refects regional differences of a shared idea, as happens in structured territories. Nonetheless, the Chalcolithic Among the simplest types are the so-called “almeriense”, either cruciform or vio- megaliths continue to be our principal source of information about the beliefs of lin-shaped. Their shape basically corresponds to a cross or double triangle with “arms” these populations. (fg. 14). The presence of these arms has given rise to a variety of interpretations, As for the techniques used to produce these objects, without entering into too including the theory that they are praying. However, it should be pointed out that much detail, it is worth noting that the idols made of long bone are the most com- the orientation of the statuette is unclear in many cases. Considering only the most plex. Interest in these has focused at different times on the incisions, the painting unambiguous pieces, the arms of some do indeed seem to be raised in a praying ges- (short-term or long-term corrosion), the pyrography and the lost wax manufacture. ture, while others are clearly pointing down or even have their hands on their hips. Also, these stone idols have incisions and abrasions of varying intensities, implying Baetyls and funnel fgurines are also less well-defned, generally smooth pieces enough technical complexity to theorize the need for specialized artisans. of varying sizes, from small funnels just over 1 centimetre tall (some made of bone) Concerning the interpretation of the formal attributes, it is easily observed that to the large baetyls measuring substantially more than 30 centimetres. They usually circles and triangles are the most frequent basic graphic motifs. Circles are used have only vaguely sketched eyes (with straight lines) and breasts. The baetyls have essentially to represent the eyes, whether radial (as in idols cat. 1, 2, 4) or simple (as a strong funerary connotation, with a documented presence in enclosures outside of in plaque-idol cat. 3). Triangles represent the genitals (cat. 3), as well as the head in the large megalithic structures. This positioning has been taken to suggest that they the anthropomorphic and plaque examples (cat. 4). They are also used more generally represent those buried in the architectural complex. Within this typology, the idols to indicate the entire fgure, as in the case of fgures with two or three triangles, of that can be considered most characteristic are the pieces chosen for this exhibition bone, and the exceptional image of an individual incised in the plaque-idol of Lapa by MAN – plaque-idols and eye idols. do Bugio (fg. 17). The plaque-idols are the most common type, with approximately four thousand Triangles and circles are also reproduced with a similar treatment on other sup- known pieces, dated to the fourth millennium BC and concentrated in the Alentejo 15 ports. This is the case of the so-called “symbolic ceramic” in the south of the pen- Phalanx-idol region of Portugal. The simplest examples are “smooth” slabs with very small inci- Iberian peninsula, Gorafe (Granada), insula, where we fnd large eyes like those on vessels from Los Millares (fg. 13), or sions, such as those found in Los Millares and Alicante. (It is likely that the Alicante La Hoya de los Castellones fgures with two triangles like those depicted on the vessel from Cerro de las Canteras examples, devoid of incisions, were not idols at all but had other uses.) III millennium BC (Almería). Similarly, both motifs are found in numerous cave paintings and particu- Bone Plaque-idols, with their varying degrees of stylistic complexity, have been subdi- Museo Arqueológico Nacional, larly in various sites of the southeast quadrant of the peninsula (the provinces of vided by Primitiva Bueno into two large groups according to the presence or absence Madrid Jaén, Almería, Alicante and Murcia). of an anthropomorphic characterization. An example from each category has been The graphic motifs unite to form friezes, such as those seen in the cat. 5 idol. In selected in this exhibition: the cat. 4 plaque-idol belongs to the group with obvious some cases, these friezes are subtle and unadorned. According to some scholars, they anthropomorphic references insofar as they display an effort to delineate a face and should be understood as narrative panels: those representing various pairs of eyes,

72 73 for example, are interpreted – as we will see later – as references to more than one unifed or multiple interpretations. Since it is rather improbable that all the idols person, that is, to more than one ancestor. In rare cases, not all the eyes in these idols correspond to a single pattern, we should not look for exclusive features. In this are part of a pair. Many scholars have stressed the importance of representation of sense, Victor Hurtado Pérez stresses that baetyls, phalange, and slab idols seem to the eyes. According to some theories, the way in which they are reproduced seems have the tightest connection with the funerary world, while the anthropomorphic to suggest masks rather than human faces. Another hypothesis, still focusing on the types and the types with eyes, which often appeared in pits, could have had a ritual interpretation of the eyes, proposes that they represent people in a trance, perhaps function. All or some of the known types of idols may be identity symbols and, as after taking a hallucinogenic substance. such, refer to the group and territory to which they belong. In this sense, they may Other recurring elements of these statuettes are the crosswise lines usually found indicate a link with the ancestors. This reference to an individual who no longer under the eyes (cat. 1–4). These incisions have been interpreted as wings, facial exists but who justifes the claims of a group may acquire a mythic value that leads tattoos, or even signs of suffering. Based on a comparison with preindustrial popu- us into the sphere of beliefs. lations of the modern era, the “facial tattoos” theory seems most likely, especially in We should not forget, however, that these objects also have an artistic value, nor light of the discovery of pieces such as the heads from Los Millares and La Pijotilla should we deny the possibility of more secular interpretations based on current or of the interpretation of traits depicted on the anthropomorphic types. Many of ethnographic examples, documented throughout the world. The verifed existence these statuettes also have hair, whether loose, indicated by zigzag lines, or pulled of similar objects with a recreational value in preindustrial societies offers another back in a pigtail. Cat. 1–2 are good examples of the attention devoted to the depiction possible interpretation, at least for some of these idols. Such an interpretation does of hair in these fgurines. The lower parts of the idol, when they are decorated, are not exclude that these artefacts may be, for example, simultaneously dolls and pro- interpreted as garments with rich geometric ornamentation (cat. 4–5), following the pitiatory female fertility amulets. Indeed recreational use may also involve a sym- hypotheses proposed for other fnds, such as ceramic vessels. bolic and ritual signifcance in a society where all these aspects are not necessarily After this brief overview of the partial interpretation of the elements represented 17 disassociated. in these idols, we conclude with a consideration of the overall meaning that has been Plaque-idol As regards future studies of these objects, there are many interesting facets which Iberian peninsula, Sesimbra, attributed to them. Since these idols were frst studied, specifcally with the work of Lapa do Bugio we cannot discuss here but which give an idea of how much remains to discover Luis Siret (1908), there have been a multitude of interpretations. The frst theories III millennium BC through those eyes that watch us so intently. We are thinking, for example, of the postulate that they were religious objects, for example, protective idols identifed with Slate existence of “cancelled idols”, the apparent use of a scale of proportions in the cre- Museu de Arquelogia e Etnograﬁa those buried in the grave sites. Some scholars, such as Victor S. Gonçalves, continue ation of some groups, such as the funnel idols of Los Millares or the cylinder-idols do Distrito de Setúbal / AMRS to use the term “divinity”; others, such as Primitiva Bueno, assert that a well-pre- of Orden-Seminario, or fnally, of the possible relationship between these fgurative scribed cult had already developed around the megalithic sites, where many of these manifestations to the broader Mediterranean context. There is no doubt that this statuettes were found, although this religion cannot yet have had the controlling role exhibition will provide an excellent opportunity to delve deeper. 16 typically exercised in a society organised as a state. M.R.R. Stick shaped eye idol Iberian peninsula, Cuevas del The theory has been advanced that the idols were associated with ancestors and Almanzora (Almería), Almizaraque thus had a heraldic function. This possible interpretation would justify the discrepan- III millennium BC cy between the number of the buried and the number of funerary symbols since each Bone Museo Arqueológico Nacional, idol could correspond, for example, to several members of one family. Following this Madrid line of interpretation, these images would serve to preserve the memory of mythic characters – whose authority would be reinforced by the use of the sun symbol – and to testify to the existence of an “ancestor cult”. It has also been proposed that these pieces should be understood as territorial symbols. According to this theory, the evolution of the Iberian peninsula idols refects the development of the social organisation: during the Neolithic, they represented a structure centred around small family groups, evolving during the Chalcolithic into a reference to larger groups and the resulting emergence of territorial clans. At the end of the third millennium BC, the idols marked the transition to a social system Bibliography: Siret 1908 [1995]; Bueno Ramírez 1992, pp. 126–127; Vera, Linares, Armenteros, González that had transformed into one in which the individual held power. fg. 19, pl. 1; Pascual Benito 1998, p. 193; Lillios 2002; 2010; Hurtado Pérez 2013, pp. 323, 325; Maret, Sidera Gonçalves 2004, p. 61; Maicas Ramos 2007, pp. 241– 2015; Bueno Ramírez, Balbín Behrmann, Barroso Ber- At this point, it is necessary to determine whether all the objects that we have Following pages 246; Hurtado Pérez 2008; Bueno Ramírez 2010, p. 41; mejo, Carrera Ramírez, Hunt Ortiz 2016, pp. 387–391; combined under the name “idols” actually form a unifed set and, if so, if there is a La Serena, Badajoz, Spain Hurtado Pérez 2010, pp. 149–151; Maicas Ramos 2010, Soler Díaz 2017, p. 338, fg. 7.4, pp. 352–353.

74 75

1 CYLINDRICAL EYE FIGURE Iberian peninsula, Cuenca del Guadalquivir Chalcolithic period (III millennium BC) Marble, H. 12.75 cm, D. 6.10 cm Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, inv. 2002/98/3 Bibliography: Maicas Ramos 2004, p. 15. Although we do not know where they were found, these idols are especially frequent along the lower banks of the Guadalquivir and date to the Chalcolithic period (III millennium BC). M.R.R.

2 STICK EYE FIGURE Iberian peninsula Chalcolithic period (III millennium BC) Limestone “caliza”, H. 21.5 cm, W. 3.5 cm Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, inv. 39557 Bibliography: Almagro Gorbea 1973, pp. 141–142, ﬁg. 24, pl. XXI. Probably recovered from the middle basin of the Guadiana, where this type of idol is concentrated. Chalcolithic (III millennium BC). M.R.R.

78 4 PLAQUE-IDOL Iberian peninsula, Granja de Céspedes, Badajoz Late Neolithic period (IV millennium BC) Slate, H. 20.4 cm, W. 12.9 cm Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, inv. 1959/53/2 Bibliography: Almagro Basch 1963, pp. 2–9; Bueno Ramírez 1992, pp. 580–582; Hurtado Pérez 2010. The idol may represent a bearded ﬁgure or one wearing necklaces. It was held to be part (like cat. 5) of a group of grave goods that yielded twenty- two plaque-idols. However, it has now been ascertained that the idols were discovered in a domestic space, about which no further details are known. M.R.R.

5 3 This idol still shows traces of ochre PLAQUE-IDOL inside the incised decoration, which PLAQUE-IDOL Iberian peninsula, have faded signiﬁcantly since the Granja de Céspedes, Badajoz Iberian peninsula, Vega de Guadancil, moment of discovery. Within the Late Neolithic period Garrovillas de Alconétar, Cáceres “plaque-idol” group, this example (IV millennium BC) Late Neolithic period corresponds to the subtype with Slate, H. 14.30 cm, W. 8.50 cm (IV millennium BC) anthropomorphic traits, less common Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Broken/missing piece at centre, than the trapezoidal plaques with Madrid, inv. 1959/53/3 restored geometric decoration. It was found in Sandstone, H. 16.30 cm, W. 7.9 cm a necropolis comprising about twenty Bibliography: Almagro Basch 1963. Museo Arqueológico Nacional, graves, since vanished. This idol belongs to the most common Madrid, inv. 358 M.R.R. and widespread type of these rare Bibliography: Bueno Ramírez 1992, artefacts. pp. 580–582; Cerrillo 2016, pp. 29–46. M.R.R.

80 81 SARDINIA EARLY HUMAN FIGURES FROM SARDINIA

THE CHRONO-CULTURAL CONTEXT

eolithic female fgurines from Sardinia represent one of the many phenomena of three-dimensional fguration that began to appear in the tenth millenni- Num BC in the Levant, the Balkans and the Mediterranean. New metaphors and symbols took hold in the Northern Levant, in cultures that still lacked ceramic production but were experimenting with and transforming socio-economic systems of production destined to replace the predatory economic system of the last hunter-gatherers. These metaphors and symbols would bring signifcant new infuences into the frst fully productive societies of the European Neolithic and, as regards our discussion, the Mediterranean as well. Sardinia is located in the Tyrrhenian trajectory of the diffusion of the early Tyr- rhenian Neolithic and was involved in the process of inter-relations and cultural homogenization of the Neolithic Cardial (mid-sixth millennium BC). Its develop- FEMALE GEOMETRIC FIGURE ment can be traced to the chrono-cultural sequence of the FIliestru, Bonu Ighinu Sardinia, Porto Ferro (Sassari), and Ozieri macro-phases, as confrmed by sound stratigraphic and other forms of domus de janas necropolis Early Chalcolithic period documentation. (IV millennium BC) In this historical segment, the island represented an active, receptive element Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo in trade and stylistic infuences (if we use ceramics as a factor for assessment), Archeologico Nazionale, Cagliari becoming an interlocutor during the Middle and Late Neolithic in the dialogue (cat. 8, detail) with the peninsular facies of the Tuscany-Latium areas of Central Italy and of the Serra d’Alto/Ripoli group, as well as with the Chassean culture of continental and Provençal Italy. This was an open circuit, extended over large areas during the San Ciriaco timeframe (the transition from Bonu Ighinu to Ozieri) and the successive protracted development of the Ozieri culture, which connected Sardinia by sea ideally with the results of the North-central (particularly the Po Valley) Chas- sey-Lagozza and of the South-central Diana culture at the end of the Neolithic era and continued uninterrupted at the beginning of the fourth millennium with the transition to the Copper Age. The phenomenon of female fgurines, about whose function and meaning much has been written, appears and spreads in the context of these fourishing relations. Widely disseminated both on the islands and the peninsula, fnds from Italy share a number of aspects yet also vary widely, in overall formal structure as well as smaller details (anatomical parts, decorations and ornaments). Nonetheless, there is a

85 consistent iconographic canon, to be understood as a symbolic instrument for ritual 18 communication. The peninsular production of female statuettes is characterized by 1, 5, 12: Cuccuru s’Arriu (Cabras – Oristano); 2: Su Cungiau de Marcu recurring traits, in terms of technique (clay as the predominant raw material), di- (Decimoputzu - Cagliari); 3: Polu mension (small), taphonomy and context (settlement and funerary), and conservation 3 (Meana Sardo - Nuoro); 4: Santa (fragmentation) – all features betraying a widely adopted ideological and metaphor- Mariedda (Olbia); 6: Perfugas-Sos Badulesos (Sassari); 7: Polu 1 ical framework, independently of the diverse formal architectures. (Meana Sardo - Nuoro); 8: Polu 2 (Meana Sardo - Nuoro); 9: Sa Ucca’e FIGURINES FROM SARDINIA su Tintirriolu (Mara - Sassari); 10, 11: Monte Majore (Thiesi - Sassari); 13: Puttu Codinu (Villanova Neolithic fgurines in Sardinia, as in Sicily, diverge from their peninsular counter- Monteleone - Sassari); 14: Su Cruciﬁssu parts, presenting numerous original features, from the raw material (stone, clay, Mannu (Porto Torres - Sassari); 15: Senorbì-Turriga (Cagliari) (after hard animal matter) and heterogeneous dimensions to the typology of the context Lilliu 1999) (graphics by L. Baglioni) (when identifable: domestic, funerary, ceremonial) and the formal structure. The most recent census records over 130 examples attributed to the Middle and Late Neolithic Age. Based on some of the typological, descriptive and interpretive pro- posals, the production under consideration here can be divided into a number of main modules that seem to partially characterize other historical segments as well. However, the diverse formal results all share a distinct rigid iconic formulation of the almost always nude subjects. The so-called volumetric-naturalistic (or volumetric-ellipsoidal or volumetric) module appears in the Middle-Late Neolithic Age, comprising a homogeneous series of approximately ffty artefacts associated with funerary contexts (fg. 18, no. 8), the reference model being Cuccuru s’Arriu (cat. 6). The structure is built with two main Two main variants can be distinguished – the cruciform or full plaque (fg. 18, nos. volumetric masses, one for the lower extremities and the other for the bust and 9–15, cat. 7) and the perforated plaque (fg. 19, nos. 12–15, cat. 8). While varying in arms. The two masses are tightly fused, creating a squat, solid base into which the dimension and pose (standing fgures), the statuettes share not only their well-de- cylindrical mass of the head can be inserted. fned geometric structure but also certain details, including an anonymous basal The fgure is either erect or seated. The arms are extended rigidly along the sides appendage, construction of a central quadrangular geometric module from which (fg. 18, nos. 1, 4, 7) or bent at an angle in front (fg. 18, nos. 2, 6), or exceptionally, emerges the faint relief of the breasts, an occasional slight bulging of the buttocks bent with hands open, resting on the breasts (fg. 18, no. 5). The hands joined on the viewed from the side, and an essential anthropomorphic identity in the schematic breast are a variant seen in the seated fgure of Su Cangiau de Marcu and, without rendering of the face, which is almost devoid of anatomical details other than a the delineation of the hands, in that of Cotte’e Baccasa, with markedly protruding vertical strip to represent the nose. buttocks. On the head sits a more or less defned “pillbox” hat (a crown? a hairstyle?) The head in the plaque examples is almost always realized with a circular or that comes down to cover the ears, at times elaborately decorated. The face remains sub-circular shape, with the exception of the trapezoidal head of the San Salvatore nondescript, with a simple orthogonal “T” design (eyes-nose), the eyes indicated by fgurine (fg. 19, no. 4). Among the variants of the plaque typology, the rare examples thin horizontal slits. This model powerfully communicates the maternal dimension of clothed fgures are of particular interest (fg. 18, no. 12). It should also be men- of women, and explicitly their role as wet-nurses, as suggested by the kourotrophos tioned that the symbolic meaning of these fgurations in small three-dimensional of Perfugas (fg. 18, no. 6). statuary also informs iconographies on ceramic pieces, as in the planar geometric The second dominant model is the fattened geometric (or planar) one, with incision on a bowl from Masainas. parts with perforations, primarily realized with stone support (rarely terracotta) The chrono-cultural relationship of this geometric model is not always certain. It and documented by nearly a hundred examples, some of which mere fragments. is commonly accepted that the cfr. Senorbì variant is related to the Ozieri facies while The recomposition of the anatomical volumes according to a rigidly geometric vision the more recent cfr. Porto Ferro can be associated with the transition to the Copper accentuates, in this repertoire, the iconic signifcance of the female image, here de- Age or to its frst manifestations (sub-Ozieri/Filigosa). According to Giacomo Paglietti prived of any maternal attribute but recognizable thanks to the explicit expression (2012), the repertoire of the so-called fgures with “intertwined arms” or “hands on of gender through the presence of breasts. chest” introduces another distinct model, less common but still formally interesting,

86 87 19 repertoire of small Sardinian and peninsular female statuary, the nurse-mother hold- 1, 2: Cuccuru s’Arriu (Cabras - ing a child in her arms has been found in Balkan, Aegean-Anatolian and continental Oristano); 3: Grotta del Guano (Oliena - Nuoro); 4: San Salvatore (Cabras Greek contexts within a chronological range that extends beyond the Neolithic. - Oristano); 5: S’Eredadu (Mamoiada - The baitylos of Sa Mandara of Samassi also merits discussion even though it falls Nuoro); 6: Su Cruciﬁssu Mannu outside of the repertoire under consideration here. The fgure can be recognized only (Porto Torres - Sassari); 7: Anghelu Ruju, Tomb XII (Alghero - Sassari); by the plastic defnition of the trapezoidal face and by the orthogonal eye-nose pattern, 8: Puisteris (Mogoro - Oristano); while the body mass is identifed by the pseudo-phallic morphology of the granite sup- 9–11: Monte Meana C, B, A (Santadi - port. This artefact belongs within the repertoire of approximately two dozen incised Iglesias); 12: Marinaru (Sassari); bowls dating from the Early Neolithic and the transition to the Eneolithic age. 13: Anghelu Ruju, Tomb XX b (Alghero - Sassari); 14: Monte The theory of direct Aegean and Maltese infuence over Sardinian production, as d’Accoddi, Tomb II (Sassari); 15: Porto proposed in outdated literature on the subject, is now commonly agreed to be ob- Ferro (Sassari) (no. 4, after Paglietti solete. The most authoritative theory today identifes the certain undeniable formal 2008, the others, after Lilliu 1999) (graphics by L. Baglioni) and constructive affnities instead as the result of stylistic and aesthetic convergences generated by the extreme abstraction of the female body, composed through an essential geometric synthesis, in the context of a “precocious appearance of the anthropomorphic fgurative tendency” in the Sardinian Neolithic (Grotta Verde). This theory is corroborated by the chronological gap between the Sardinian and Aege- an-Maltese cultural contexts. The variability of the diverse formal groups of Sardinian female statuettes, each further divisible into subgroups or variants, does not obscure the identity of the female character, who endures through the entire Neolithic era until the dawn of the Copper Age with an irrefutable physiognomic constancy. The three-dimensional exemplifed by the three statuettes from Monte Meana-Santadi (fg. 19, nos. 9–11) images are conceived according to a hieratic vision that the viewer perceives in its and repeated in other sites (Conca Illonis, Anghelu Ruju Tomb XXIII). complete metaphorical abstraction, as also occurs in Mediterranean and Balkan con- This model is characterized by a number of details recalling fgurines of the vol- texts. The more than 130 examples exhibit a conceptual and symbolic unity which umetric-naturalistic type (fattened cap, orthogonal eye-nose design, slit eyes, large ensures that the female body structure (maternal or not) is identifable, regardless of head and pubic triangle), while the position of the arms echoes other right-angle how naturalistic or geometric the language is or which formal solutions are adopted. solutions of the cruciform type. What makes this repertoire unique, perhaps related This confers an ontological constancy to these statuettes which defes their dif- to the bone matter used as support, is its lean, dynamic structure (visible also when ferences and the complex alphabet of the masses and volumes. It also creates an viewed laterally). This quality is accentuated by the notable constriction above the immediately perceptible symbolic substance that overpowers the secondary differ- hips and by some barely visible details (the feet) that clearly express a more natu- ences in stylistic details. Minimising the relative importance of these differences ralistic tendency than the previously described models. and highlighting the shared parameters makes it possible to recognize the symbolic Still other variants (fg. 19, nos. 1–8), erect or seated, can be differentiated by the constancy that managed to endure for centuries until the ideological, economic and overall morphology of the body shape (armless or with triangular arms), head and artistic (in objects and constructions) transformations of the frst Metal Ages. The basal appendage, and by the bulging volumes. presence of a sort of iconographic archetype is confrmed by the recurrence of rep- It is useful here to devote a brief discussion to the kourotrophos of Perfugas, a resentational parameters in diverse languages (geometric, schematic, more or less small calcareous marl fgurine (height 11 cm, width 6.8 cm at the pelvis and 6.6 cm naturalistic), which resulted in the creation of a long-lasting iconic symbolic system. at the shoulders) belonging to the volumetric-naturalistic iconographic repertoire. S.L., M.F. Its distinguishing feature is its explicit maternal function, indicated by the presence of what seems to be an infant resting on his mother’s breast (fg. 18, no. 6). Unfor- tunately, the statuette was found outside of its context and the arms in particular Bibliography Relli 2000; Mussi, Melis 2002; Mussi 2003; Lugliè are fragmentary. Nonetheless, of this hypothetical child, there seems to be a small Following pages Gombrich 1973; Atzeni 1975–1977 (1978); Antona 2004; Paglietti 2008; Pessina, Tiné 2008; Cicilloni Necropolis of Anghelu Ruj, Ruju 1980; Atzeni 1981; Pitzalis 1982; Trump 1983; 2009; Usai, Lo Schiavo 2009; Melis 2012; Pagliet- foot (analogous to the adult’s foot) at the base of the lower part of a mass that can Alghero, Sassari Lilliu 1988; Castaldi 1991; Ferrarese Ceruti 1992; Gui- ti 2012; Soro 2012; Martini 2016; Martini, Sarti, be interpreted as a small bundled body. While this is a unique specimen within the 3200–2800 BC laine 1994; Contu 1997; Antona 1998; Lilliu 1999; Visentini 2017.

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6 artefacts and a nucleus of obsidian, object. The face is nondescript, and and two oyster valves (placed in one all identifying individuality is nullified SEATED FIGURE of the vessels). by the simple “T” design of the face WITH HEAD ORNAMENT The ritual nature of the burial is (the line of the eyes orthogonal to Sardinia, Cuccuru s’Arriu, Cabras highlighted by the use of red ochre. the line of the nose). The head, with Tomb 386 The image expresses the woman’s its flattened top, is adorned with a Neolithic period (V millennium) maternal role; its well-defined, low cylindrical cap created with three Limestone, H. 17 cm, W. 9.7 cm harmonious formal structure comprises horizontal bands. From this polos, two Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo two volumes (lower extremities and fringed bands come down and rest on Archeologico Nazionale, Cagliari, torso+arm) which form a solid mass the shoulders, starting from elegant inv. 180227 denoting a standing pose, on which ear-covers decorated with lozenges and sits the cylindrical volume of the garlands; a third band of equal length Bibliography: Santoni 1999. head. The two legs, identified as reaches the back of the neck and the This statuette belongs to the grave the unusually well-defined, plump top of the back. The flattening may be goods found in the hypogeum thighs, are harmoniously joined with conditioned by an actual typology of burials of Cuccuru s’Arriu (Cabras, the discrete, smaller volume of the hairstyle or cap related to specific roles Oristano), brought to light during buttocks and also with the obese or status (hypotheses that cannot be emergency excavations in a Middle triangle of the pelvis, in a sort of documented archaeologically). In terms Neolithic context, associated with the volumetric and geometric (cylinder- of the form, however, the flattening contemporaneous village with huts. triangle) rhythm that does not serves to give greater emphasis to the The thirteen tombs appear as small interrupt the transition to the rough, head, abruptly ending the volume that artificial caves with a shaft entrance massive volume of the torso. The arms must not project upwards any further so and an oven-shaped burial cell. This extend rigidly along the sides and as not to detract from the solidity of the statuette comes from tomb no. 386 merge with the lower extremities at body mass. In addition to conferring and was found grasped in the right the level of the hands. a sense of abundance, opulence and hand of the deceased, who lay in a The cylindrical volume of the head corpulence to the female image, the huddling position with knees bent. As stands out from the volume of the body, detail of the protruding chinstrap also offers to him were found four vessels, both for the manner of its construction focuses perception more directly on fifty bone assegai, parts of what seems and for its distinct height as compared the face. to be a chlorite necklace, several stone to the maximum dimension of the S.L., M.F.

92 7 the cruciform plaque typology, which formal solutions, and some details. can be identified by the pose (standing Within the repertoire of perforated FEMALE GEOMETRIC FIGURE or sitting), the presence or absence of plaques, this Porto Ferro example Sardinia, Turriga (Senorbì) clothing (a skirt), the morphology of the is best associated with statuettes Late Neolithic period arms (a horizontal or oblique plaque, which differ in their lower extremities (passage V–IV millennia BC) with no expanded lateral projection), (triangular, trapezoidal, rectangular Marble, H. 43 cm, W. 18 cm the overall contour (also rhomboidal), or scoop-shaped). The use of a thin Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo and particular facial features. The stone plaque ensures the verticality Archeologico Nazionale, Cagliari, prestige of this statuette within the of the Porto Ferro figurine, which inv. 135887 context of Sardinian production also is accentuated by the thin neck, derives from the formal balance of the vertical strips of the arms and Bibliography: Thimme 1980, no. 1; the construction generated by the the narrowing above the hips, Lilliu 1999, fig. 31. relationship of the sizes of the three uninterrupted in the lateral view geometric modules. In fact, the by three slight projections (nose, This white marble statuette, one of the mathematical rapport between the breasts and buttocks). The figure has finest in the repertoire of small female length of the upper section (torso a tripartite anatomical structure – statuary of the Neolithic period, was and arm+neck and head) and the the short tapered basal appendage located in the sacred area of the lower one (pelvis+lower limbs) is near including the hips, the torso with the village inside a circular stone structure the value of the Greek phi, equal to arms, and the upward-thrusting head. (presumably, a sort of temenos), and 1.6180339887 . . . (the golden section The expedient of the fretwork in the thus in a probable sacred-ceremonial or golden number, etc.).This irrational central portion of the torso, originally a context. It has been assigned to the number indicates a specific relationship quadrangular shape as in the Senorbì Ozieri facies of the Late Neolithic. of dimensions, which, in Antiquity statuette, makes it possible to develop The figure, which can be taken as an (including pre-Greek) and other the arms, which, bent at right angles, example of the cruciform typology, historical epochs (from the Renaissance frame and direct attention to the thin is distinguished by its formal balance to Fibonacci’s “recursive succession”), triangular torso. The two small conical and by the perfect symmetry of its characterized architectural and breasts are harmoniously proportioned construction. Virtually two-dimensional figurative structures, which were thus with the length of the torso and thus thanks to the use of the plaque- perceived as particularly harmonious. with the available space. In addition support, the structure is perceived S.L., M.F. to the strip nose, the face has two thin in three geometric modules. The circular incisions indicating the eyes. The long basal appendage – a sub-conic neck is flattened from the frontal view volume with an elongated trapezoidal 8 and slightly convex when seen from silhouette – projects the architecture behind. The slight vertical groove on of the statuette longitudinally. It also FEMALE GEOMETRIC FIGURE the back, formally inexplicable, seems anticipates the vertical tension of the Sardinia, Porto Ferro (Sassari), to divide this anatomical part in half. long neck (extended by two shallow, domus de janas necropolis Finally, also on the back, there is a non- oblique, convergent incisions on Early Chalcolithic period invasive decoration with closely spaced the torso) that terminates at the top (IV millennium BC) short notches on the shoulders and part of the head. This tension is further Marble, H. 30 cm, W. 11.5 cm of the arms. Rather than suggesting an emphasized by the elliptical face and Polo Museale della Sardegna – Museo ornamental element of the clothing, it triangular pilaster-type nose. Archeologico Nazionale, Cagliari, seems to be a formal embellishment of The verticality of the figure inv. 62474 the quadrangular structure. is interrupted by the surface Like the Senorbì example, this statuette corresponding to the torso and arms, This marble statuette from Porto Ferro is exceptional for the balance and which are joined in a trapezoidal form was found in the Porto Ferro domus harmony of its proportions, and again jutting out on both sides. On the de janas tombs near Alghero and is like the Senorbì figure, the relationship quadrangular flat surface, the main generically attributed to the passage of its dimensions approximates the focus of the statuette, are two breasts through sub-Ozieri and Filigosa facies, value of the Greek phi. In fact, the (rather large with respect to the overall that is, the transition into the first position of the two breasts divides the repertoire) placed exactly in the Copper Age. Four other figurines structure into two segments, whose middle of the vertical dimension of associated with this one were found lengths (respectively from the breasts the object. The slight protuberance of in the same funerary context. Like to the top of the head and from the the buttocks and two breasts, gender the Senorbì example, this statuette is breasts to the bottom of the figure) attributes, are elegantly cited through considered to be one of the highest have a rapport approaching 1.6. The precise geometry by subtraction, with quality works in the repertoire of sense of equilibrium is created by no emphasis on a maternal function. Sardinian female statuettes and an another dimensional parameter as The abstraction of the female body exemplary model of the perforated well, i.e., the relationship between composed in an extremely essential plaque typology (the crack at the base the height of the perforated central synthesis imbues the figurine with of the neck does not compromise its plaque and the sum of the heights of a great iconic power, in which the integrity). the neck+head and the lower section subject’s female gender, represented Some scholars consider this to be is likewise very close to 1.6. As in the nude, prevails over her appearance as a variant of the cruciform type; in Senorbì figurine, the female gender of a mother. fact, however, although the Porto this Porto Ferro statuette, represented The Senorbì example is one of the few Ferro figurine has a rigid and seemingly nude, predominates over existing intact figures, and thus one of schematic iconic structure similar her appearance as a mother. the few whose original construction can to that of the cfr. Senorbì model, it S.L., M.F. be assessed without any hypothetical differs in its specific physiognomy, reconstruction. It represents a variant of including the general proportions,

94 95 CYCLADES AN OVERVIEW OF CYCLADIC FIGURES

he Cyclades, a group of islands arranged in a circle (hence their name) in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Anatolia, are rich in high quality, Tmainly white, marble. This natural resource was exploited in Antiquity, particularly on Naxos and Paros, and continues to be today. During the Bronze Age, covering most of the third millennium BC (ca. 2800–2200 BC), the Cyclades developed a complex culture with an extraordinary marble-carving tradition specializing in fgures and vessels. The fgures exerted widespread infuence in Crete, Attica, Southwestern Anatolia and other Aegean regions through export and local imitation. The antecedents to the typical Cycladic works occur throughout the Aegean in the Neolithic period, beginning about 5000 BC. The representations are predominantly of women, characterized by exaggerated buttocks and thighs, shown standing or sitting with folded legs. Between about 3000 and 2800 BC, a signifcant innovation occurred in the Cy- STANDING STEATOPYGOUS clades with the appearance of a svelte, relatively more naturalistic form of fgure FIGURE known as the Plastiras type. About a quarter of these are male; seated fgures now Cyclades come to an end. Violin-shaped examples and stone vessels called kandilas, possibly Neolithic period storage vessels containing water for the dead, appear as well. (late V millennium BC) Collection Jon Aisbitt, UK The classic reclining folded-arm fgures, with the proper left over the right, emerge (cat. 10, detail) about 2700 BC. The varieties, conventionally named after signifcant fnd-sites, document a gradual, uneven, stylistic evolution. The major groups during the third millennium BC are called Kapsala, Early Spedos, Late Spedos, Dokathismata and Chalandriani. Careful study has been able to demonstrate that, among the “classic” Cycladic fgures, subgroups can be recognized according to systems of proportions based on subdivisions of a circle. This observation as well as details of articulation underlie the identifcation of individual carvers. Each work remains unique in its own way, within a discernible artistic practice. The Early Spedos reclining fgures are robustly built, some quite large, the head usually lyre-shaped. Their design reveals particular care. The greatest width of the body is often half of the total length; each of the major anatomical units, notably the head and neck as well as the calves and feet, is often a quarter of the length. The phase is also distinguished by the variety of special types – seated male fgures playing a harp-like instrument or holding a vessel, the standing male playing pipes, seated females, groups etc.

99 The Late Spedos fgure can be very large, with a lyre-shaped head, broad sloping shoulders, the leg-cleft unpierced and the profle view quite straight. The Goulandris Sculptor stands out as the most prolifc, over a long career; more than a hundred complete works and fragments have been identifed. His creations epitomize the calm restraint and harmony of proportions that one associates with Cycladic sculpture. With the Dokathismata and its further development, the Chalandriani variety, the straight profle continues, the front and back tend to be fat, with abrupt bulges for breasts, belly, knees and buttocks. The outline contours of the legs are angular, the leg cleft shallow. There is a greater emphasis on the upper torso and the position of the arms, which had remained constant for so long, now can vary. The head often assumes a shield shape. The severity of the Dokathismata fgure is relieved by an elegant rendering of the forearms and the bold audacity of the stylized forms (cat. 22–23). Around 2300–2200 BC, representations of an armed male are introduced. The hunter-warrior wearing a baldric, a belt and a penis sheath suggests the presence of a threat to the islanders. It may therefore be no coincidence that the art of marble-carving, which had fourished over six hundred years, then came to an abrupt end. Signifcantly, the revival of the art, during the late seventh century BC, the Greek Archaic period, originated on the same marble-rich islands. The function(s) of Cycladic fgures cannot be identifed with certainty, but evidence for their repair and abundant remains of polychromy makes clear that they were VIOLIN FIGURE actively used during the lives of their owners before they were placed in tombs. They Cyclades were brightly painted, notably with almond-shaped eyes and a mass of hair across Early Cycladic I period (3300–2700 BC) the forehead and down the back. Red and blue seem to be symbolically important, Ligabue Collection, Venice (cat. 13) and repainting seems to have occurred repeatedly, of the eyes in particular. Some of the repainting may have taken place as part of women’s rituals. One might speculate that the female image represented a protective maternal being with control over such mysterious phenomena as birth, death, disease, the seasons, the bountiful yet treacherous sea, the night sky alive with myriad stars, the rising and setting of the sun. Shamanistic rituals may have been performed on the occasion of events having to do with puberty, marriage, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, illness and death. There are female Cycladic fgures shown as pregnant or with postpartum creases. The folded arms may have been regarded as symbolically shielding the womb, in addition to minimizing damage to the fgure. In the tomb, the position with folded arms would, fnally, have been appropriate for funerary rites. G-G.P.

This text is adapted from Getz-Gentle 2011, with kind Bibliography Following pages permission of Alexandra Lerner, daughter of the author. Getz-Preziosi 1990a; Getz-Preziosi 1990b; Getz-Gentle Naxos Island, Cyclades 2001; Getz-Gentle 2011.

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9 de l’Âge du Bronze (1957). Pat Getz- other crossing it at right angles. This as well as the “Fat Lady” from previous bibliography). The piece appears as Gentle considers that the publication figure has lost its head and right arm Saliagos. The lack of clear dating or Weinberg 1951, no. 4, p. 123 and Weinberg SEATED FEMALE FIGURE in Cahiers d’Art was a favour to and is heavily weathered, considerably provenances for these pieces, and 1976, no. 29, p. 60. WITH CROSSED LEGS 15 Segredakis, giving free publicity to his altering its appearance. Where the the long period when they could have Getz-Preziosi 1990b, no. 8a, pp. 13–15 with previous bibliography (alleged provenance Cyclades, said to be from Amorgos ownership of the piece.7 At any rate, Saliagos statue markedly differs from been made (over 1,000 years), makes is Euboea or the east coast of Attica Late Neolithic period the piece was sold that same year to the Brussels one is in size since it it difficult to take these comparisons opposite, near Porto Raphti). In Thimme 17 (V–IV millennia BC) the Brussels museum. A letter dated measures only 6.7 cm (without the much further. 1976, under catalogue no. 4, it is mentioned Marble, H. 18.5 cm, W. 13.3 cm 13 April 1929, from Segredakis to head). Recent excavations in Greece The sculptures found in the Cyclades as belonging to a Swiss private collection. Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Fernand Mayence, then Senior Keeper have brought more Neolithic figurines were either accidental finds (Naxos) This piece does not appear in Weinberg Brussels, inv. A 3029 of the Antiquities collection, explained to light, mainly terracotta ones. They or were not found in an informative 1976. that he was sending the piece to him show that human representations, in archaeological context (Saliagos).18 16 Although the shape of the upper arm is The Neolithic period saw the earliest so he could decide if he wanted to buy particular female ones, were common Generally speaking, most figurines not so clear on the front of Shelby White no. traces of sculpture in the Greek world. it. In a further letter dated 14 July, he at that time across the Greek world, across the Greek world were found 2, it stands out from the back. Many materials were used, including 17 For a much wider comparison of Neolithic expressed his hopes that the Brussels but also show regional variations in settlements rather than in tombs, terracotta, bone, shell and stone.1 figurines, see Weinberg 1951, pp. 124–133; museum would acquire the piece and in poses and styles.11 In 1976, Saul although there are a few exceptions. Representations vary from extremely Weinberg 1976, pp. 54–58. said that others were also interested Weinberg established a list of all the When accompanying material gives 18 abstract (“pebbles”) to much more The Saliagos “Fat Lady” was found during in it, including the Museum at The stone Neolithic figurines he knew, a some indication as to the use of the realistic.2 This well preserved marble excavations, but in a square beyond the built Hague, the Metropolitan Museum list that has, to my knowledge, not spaces in which they were found, this structures without any significant information sculpture is one of the finest examples of Art, and the modern sculptor been updated.12 Although some were points towards food conservation regarding its context of use. of a very rare class and its simple lines Lipschitz. The acquisition of the piece found all over the Greek world, from or processing (cooking) or towards 19 On these questions, see Marangou 1996a. and clear geometric shapes found was accepted a few days later. The Thessaly to Crete and the islands, wool working (loom weights). As a For an overview of Neolithic sites and surprising echoes in twentieth-century Royal Museums of Art and History few of them are seated. Indeed, the result, these objects may have been artefacts from the Cyclades, Renfrew 1972, art. It represents a seated female pp. 507–509; for a brief presentation of the had already bought some pieces from position with the legs crossed, or associated with domestic economy figure with her legs crossed in front of Neolithic culture in the Greek world, Lichter Segredakis in 1914, but nothing since seemingly crossed, is attested mainly but we do not have any real indication her, one above the other, rather than 2011, pp. 32–40 with bibliography. then. From 1929 until his death in in the Cyclades (Saliagos, Naxos) about how they were regarded or actually crossing. The head and neck 1948, however, the museum regularly and possibly Attica, which would used.19 References: Hogarth 1927, pp. 56, 59–60 and form a single column, separated from acquired objects from him, including tend to confirm that the Brussels M.N. fig. VIIa, IXc.; Verhoogen 1930; Weinberg the body only by a groove, and with 1951, p. 123, no. 5.; Renfrew 1972, p. 509; several Mycenaean items. sculpture does indeed come from a protruding nose and an engraved 1 Wood was probably also used although Thimme 1976, cat. 2, p. 419 and p. 210, fig. Provenance: In a letter dated 6 July the islands. Of the dozens of known line for the mouth or chin. The upper no sculpture in this material has been 2; Weinberg 1976, p. 58 and list no. 19, p. 59; 1929, Segredakis referred to the stone figurines, three are very close body is a broad, flat and rectangular preserved. Getz-Gentle 2011, p. 13, fig. 3. statue as: “la statuette pré-hellénique to the Brussels sculpture not just 2 See the examples from Saliagos. shape, leaning backwards from the en marbre des îles grecques”. In typologically, but also stylistically: 3 See most recently on this important figure lower body. The shoulder line is very her publication of the piece the a statue found fortuitously on the of the antiques art market, Driessen 2016, long, the rounded forms of the upper following year, Violette Verhoogen, island of Naxos, at Sangri,13 and two p. 122. arms visible at front and back. The 4 the curator for Greek antiquities in in the Shelby White collection in New Hogarth 1927, pp. 56–60, pl. VIIa (front) arms are bent at right angles, while Brussels, described it as Cycladic or York; for clarity’s sake, I will call the and IXc (back). the fingers, separated by grooves, 5 Michon 1929, p. 256 and fig. 6 who from the islands.8 It was apparently bigger one “Shelby White no. 1”14 seem to touch at waist level. The specifies that he includes this piece Saul Weinberg, in 1951, who for the and the smaller one “Shelby White breasts are clearly modelled, as if as Segredakis accepted to have it first time referred to it as “found no. 2”.15 The Brussels and Shelby hanging from either side of the neck. photographed. The caption of the long ago, apparently on Amorgos” White no. 1 sculptures are close in photograph is as follows: “Idole primitive. The lower body is a heavily rounded (p. 123). Since then, this has become size (respectively 18.5 cm and 20.3 Appartient à M. Segredakis”. mass with strongly protruding its alleged provenance. If the author cm) whereas the one found on Naxos 6 Getz-Gentle 2011, pp. 10–11. buttocks, separated by a groove. 7 had a well-founded reason for giving is only about half their size (9.2 cm) Ibid., p. 13. A horizontal bulge below the waist 8 Amorgos as its find place, he did not and the Shelby White no. 2 is 13 cm. Verhoogen 1930, pp. 23, 24, 26. marks the lower part of the stomach. 9 put it in writing. The general geometric shape, the Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art The lower legs are very prominent, and Archaeology, inv. 1895, 166 (AE 148). When this figure was first published, juxtaposition of a somewhat conical knees and toes marked with knobs. Hogarth 1927 indicates in the caption of in 1927, it could be compared to head and neck on a rectangular The left foot of the figure is clearly this piece that it comes from Amorgos. only one other, in the Ashmolean upper body set on a rounded heavy visible. The underside of the figure is Weinberg 1951, p. 122 gave the provenance museum in Oxford.9 Since then, lower body can all be compared. as Patissia (Athens), as is written on the flat and slightly curved. History: The several seated female stone figures The volume of the upper arms is object. See also Weinberg 1976, p. 59 and sculpture was bought from Manolis have come to light. Most notable depicted in a very similar manner on Thimme 1976, no. 5, p. 420. Segredakis (1891–1948) a well-known 10 is the “Fat Lady” of Saliagos, the all examples.16 The position of the Evans, Renfrew 1968, pp. 62–63. Cretan art dealer, based in Paris, in 11 only one of these sculptures found bent arms, with the fingers touching, For examples, see Marangou 1996b; 1929.3 It had been published two years in some sort of context. She was and the way the legs and toes are Orphanidi 1996; Papathanassopoulos earlier by D.G. Hogarth in a volume of 1996b and the section of the catalogue of discovered during excavations on sculpted, all match closely. On the essays in honour of Sir Arthur Evans as Papathanassopoulos 1996a titled “figurines Saliagos, an islet formerly connected Shelby White no. 1 and Naxos pieces, “in private possession”.4 The statue and models”, pp. 293–323. to the nearby island of Antiparos, in the head is separated from the neck, 12 then appeared with a large photo in Weinberg 1976, pp. 59–60; the figurine the Cyclades.10 She is quite similar which is not the case with the Brussels which appears in the same catalogue a 1919 article by Étienne Michon in in general appearance, with a heavy and Shelby White no. 2 examples. The (Thimme 1976) as no. 4 is not in his list. See Cahiers d’Art,5 a journal published by rounded lower body and a thinner, buttocks are often more rounded than already, for seated figurines, Weinberg 1951, Christian Zervos and devoted mainly upright upper body, possibly originally on the Brussels example. The Shelby pp. 121–133. to contemporary art. Zervos himself 13 also close to rectangular in shape White no. 1 statue also presents a First mentioned in Journal of Hellenic was very interested in Cycladic art although the shoulder line appears decorative pattern on the upper arms, Studies, 96, 1946, p. 115 and in Bulletin de and acquired some pieces from, Correspondences Helléniques, 71–72, 1947– more curved. Her legs are actually which is unique. A few other seated amongst others, Segredakis who was 1948, p. 440 with photo. Weinberg 1951, no. crossed and her buttocks more female figures are less close in style a friend.6 Zervos published several 7, p. 124; See Zachos 1990, p. 34 and fig. p. rounded. The underside presents although their general appearance is important books on early Greek art 33; Zachos 1990 and Zachos 1996 (both with two grooves, one a continuation of similar, such as a figurine in Oxford, photo). Weinberg 1976, no. 21, p. 59. and this statue is referred to in his the line separating the buttocks, the said to come from Patissia (Athens), 14 Getz-Preziosi 1990a, no. 2, p. 6 (with L’Art des Cyclades des débuts à la fin

104 105 10 STANDING STEATOPYGOUS FIGURE Cyclades Neolithic period (late V millennium BC) Shell, H. 5.7 cm, W. 3.3 cm Collection Jon Aisbitt, UK Bibliography: Thimme 1977, no. 9; Getz-Gentle 2011, no. 2. Carved from the central axis of a conical sea shell, this exquisite apparition is a perfect example of the standing female figure made in small numbers throughout the Aegean in the fifth millennium, with exaggerated buttocks and thighs, unusually broad shoulders, forearms carved on the body in a symmetrical, opposed arrangement. Typical are the elongated head and the small rudimentary feet separated by an inverted V shape space. Constructed from carefully balanced geometric volumes, this tiny figure achieves a forceful monumentality. Parallel examples were found at Egina. C.A.

11 VIOLIN FIGURE Cyclades Early Cycladic I period (3300–2700 BC) Marble, H. 11 cm Private Foundation, UK (courtesy RWAA), inv. 00001 Bibliography: Thimme 1977, no. 48.

106 107 12 VIOLIN FIGURE Cyclades Early Cycladic I period (3300–2700 BC) Marble, H. 23 cm, W. 10 cm Private Collection, Paris Bibliography: Getz-Gentle 2011, no. 9. The simplified flat figures with long stalk head-neck and body shaped in a figure-of-eight, called violin, were made in great numbers in the beginning of the early Bronze Age of the Cyclades. Violin figures are rarely decorated, but this is an exception: a “V” is incised at the neckline and another, inverted and larger, on the lower part indicates the sexual triangle, complete with a discreet slot. These abstract figures were introduced at the same time as a new, elaborated type called Plastiras, a svelte form that retains some of the realistic rendition of the Neolithic figures, but elongated. C.A.

13 VIOLIN FIGURE Cyclades Early Cycladic I period (3300–2700 BC) Marble, H. 13.8 cm, W. 4.6 cm Ligabue Collection, Venice Bibliography: Thimme 1977, pp. 226, 431, no. 43. A dynamic example, remarkable for the angular figure-of-eight body and elongated neck and waist. The head and neck are schematized and blended together in a single long stalk, similar to the stalk of a number or figures from the Beycesultan type: this is an indication of the relationship between the island and Western Anatolia. The two sides are almost identical, but not quite, one side, probably the back, is slightly flatter than the other (the front?) with a faint swelling at the height of the hips and breasts. Other violin figures shown here are unambiguously sexed and oriented as to front and back, while comparable violin-shaped types from Beycesultan and Kusura in Western Anatolia tend to have identical, un-oriented back and front. This difference may reside in different functions of the figure during their life before deposition. C.A. 14 PREGNANT RECLINING FIGURE Early Spedos type Cyclades Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Marble, H. 19.6 cm, W. 6 cm Collection Jon Aisbitt, UK Bibliography: Getz-Gentle 2011, no. 27.

15 PREGNANT RECLINING FIGURE Late Spedos type Cyclades Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Marble, H. 20.3 cm, W. 6.4 cm Collection David Sofer, London Bibliography: Getz-Gentle 2011, no. 41. Like cat. 14, this figure is unambiguously pregnant, but the belly is more compressed. The very elongated neck, the sloping shoulders, the concave contour of the thighs and ankles give this figure its inspired and dynamic balance. The straighter profile of the legs and the absence of perforation are characteristic of the Late Spedos style. C.A.

16 RECLINING FIGURE Early Spedos type Cyclades Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Marble, H. 19.9 cm Private Collection, UK, (courtesy RWAA), inv. 11563 Bibliography: Thimme 1977, no. 144.

110 111 17 PREGNANT RECLINING FIGURE Late Spedos type Cyclades Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Marble, H. 37.2 cm, W. 8.5 cm Private Collection, Paris

18 RECLINING FEMALE FIGURE Late Spedos type Cyclades Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Marble, H. 47 cm Private Collection, Germany Bibliography: Getz-Gentle 2011, no. 42. This ﬁgure is remarkable for the numerous painted marks, possibly indicative of tattoos: the cross on the chest is so far without parallel. More frequent are the paler marks on the face and arms: three vertical above the neck, three on the right cheek, possibly another series along the forehead, and pale traces on the forearm. The contrasted proportions of the large head and compressed torso, the shortened ankles and elongated feet are distinctively personal, encouraging Pat Gentle to reconstruct the work of an individual master, the Sutton Place Sculptor, around this masterpiece. C.A.

112 19 HEAD OF RECLINING FEMALE 20 FIGURE HEAD OF RECLINING FEMALE Late Spedos type FIGURE Cyclades Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Late Spedos type Marble, H. 14.8 cm, W. 9 cm Cyclades Private Collection, Paris Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Marble, H. 11.5 cm, W. 6.5 cm Softly round cheeks, general contour Private Collection, Paris in the shape of a capital “U”. Note the veining of the marble: the sculptor A graceful face, the softly round cheeks, took advantage of the natural veining the forehead slightly ﬂaring in a lyre on the upper part of the head to shape and the gently curved proﬁle suggest the presence of large, contrast with the straight nose. Very drooping eyes. faint traces of large, drooping eyes. C.A. C.A.

114 115 21 a rare group of figurines of “special real life, in the hereafter or in a divine shapes”, the coroplastic of the early sphere? Unless we have no clearer HARP PLAYER CYCLADES Cycladic period is quantitatively evidence of the use of the figurines, Thera (Santorini) dominated by the upright standing we are not able to give a satisfactory Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) female idols with folded arms (FAF), answer. However, we know for sure: Marble, H. 16.8 cm, W. 5.5 cm of which we count over 1,600 known people of the third millennium BC Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, pieces. Among the groups of special loved good music. inv. 864 forms are musicians, standing figurines H.K. playing flutes and sitting harp players. Bibliography: Buchholz, Karageorghis References: Horst 2011; Mikrakis 2011. Regardless of their body posture the 1973, no. 1210; Thimme 1976, p. 492, musicians follow the “canon” of the no. 255; Thimme 1977, p. 496, no. 255; FAF-group with schematic features. Rehm 1997, p. 84, K 13, fig. 9 left. Particularly significant is the face often At the time Friedrich Maler acquired thrown backwards on the neck – like parts of the collection of the Swedish here – and the small nose as the only diplomat Nils Gustaf Palin in the feature indicated. Many studies have year 1840 he was not interested in shown that the now empty spaces do prehistoric artefacts at all. In fact, he not represent the ancient situation. had no idea what the small idols and The features of the faces and parts cups made of marble were about of the bodies were indicated by anyway. The five items – two Cycladic painting. In the stylistic classification idols and three cups (one lost) – with of the Cycladic idols, the Karlsruhe the indication “from a grave on the harp player belongs to the end of the island of Thera” were part of the so-called Pelos-Grotta-phase, middle “package” Maler bought in Rome. It of the third millennium BC. All known was already Maler’s third journey to harp player figurines sit on a low stool Rome; in the first (1826–1828), he was or “throne” (stool with backrest) – in a student of architecture and got in this case a simple stool – with the contact with the German intelligenzia, same kind of instrument: a closed poets, priests and archaeologists, well- triangle with a rectangular resonance established persons in Roman society. body which lies on the players’ thigh. These good connections were the It has already been established that basis for his second successful journey this kind of instrument comes from in 1837: he was sent by the grand duke the Middle East (see essay in this of Baden in Karlsruhe to acquire Greek catalogue by Bo Lawergren). This vases and terracottas for the recently circumstance is not surprising, since founded Museum called “Kunsthalle” it is known that the inhabitants of the in Karlsruhe. On that journey he Cyclades were in close contact and realized that among the antique commercial exchange with the people findings from the Etruscan tombs not from the coast of the Middle East. The only fine pottery and statuettes were closed form of the instrument creates worth collecting and to be presented exact tones, delicate sounds and a in a museum (with the aim to educate rich volume. It needs professional on crafts and artists), but also musicians to play this instrument Etruscan bronze objects. Maler tried and to achieve satisfactory results. to convince the duke to expand the The qualitative representation of the order to be allowed to buy bronzes, human in a figurine made of the best but the duke showed no interest in material of that time – marble – whose his proposal. Three years later Maler production requires very elaborate came back to Rome for a third visit, skills allows us to assume that the this time for a private shopping tour. player enjoyed high social prestige. He bought a considerable selection The question arises: who is portrayed of bronzes and other collection parts in this figure? A human, a divine in between the already mentioned person or a god himself? While the one of Gustaf Palin. Back in Karlsruhe, interpretation of the folded arm Maler faced his retirement in 1853. At figures has been widely discussed with this particular time the grand duke the result that they have been used fortunately changed his mind and for repeated and different use as an bought his private collection. Since intermediary between the human and then the Badisches Landesmuseum the divine sphere – this identification is able to show an extraordinary fine is based on the different painted collection of antiques with some decoration of the figurines – we do not objects from the Aegean dated to have many interpretation possibilities the Early Bronze Age. The collection concerning the harp players. The brought together by Friedrich Maler association with the banquet relies represents the basis for the later on the fact that there are other sitting broad development of the collection. figurines that represent drinking The sitting harp player belongs to people. But is the banquet based in

116 22 RECLINING FEMALE FIGURE Dokathismata type Cyclades Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Marble, H. 15.4 cm, W. 8.55 cm Collection David Sofer, London Bibliography: Thimme 1977, no. 232; Getz-Gentle 2011, no. 51.

This is a boldly stylized figure of the Dokathismata group, characterized by a profile straighter than in the Late Spedos. Front and rear tend to be flatter, with abrupt bulges for breasts, belly and buttocks, erupting from the main surface. In an attempt to free himself from inert material, the sculptor challenged the difficulty of the marble by cutting out audacious openings between the upper arms and torso, and between the legs almost up to the groin. These openings, in a rather thin depth, certainly account for the breaks. The piece probably comes from what is called the “Keros hoard”. This vast assemblage was looted repeatedly from an enigmatic site, Kavos, on the small island of Keros, which lies between Naxos and Amorgos, in the heart of the Cyclades. C.A.

23 RECLINING FEMALE FIGURE Dokathismata type Cyclades Early Cycladic II period (2700–2300 BC) Marble, H. 7 cm, W. 5.1 cm Ligabue Collection, Venice Bibliography: Azara, Nicolau et al. 2000, p. 174, no. 62; Ligabue, Rossi- Osmida 2006, p. 159. An elegant ﬁgure with all the characteristics of the Dokathismata variety, ﬂat body and bulging buttocks and breasts, without the audacious openings of arms and legs of the previous work. Probably from the “Keros hoard”. C.A.

119 CYPRUS CHALCOLITHIC CYPRUS

he depiction of the human fgure in Cyprus spans many thousands of years and the fgurative material is rich and abundant. Depending on the chron- T ological period, fgurines come in a variety of forms and types of material. Recent research focusing on Cypriot prehistoric fgurines has become increasingly more multidisciplinary, with contributions from a wide range of felds, such as bio- archaeology, anthropology, sociology, gender studies and ethnography. Furthermore, the archaeology of the body, a fairly recent feld in Cypriot archaeology, has enhanced our understanding of prehistoric communities in Cyprus. Prehistoric fgurines would have been symbolically charged objects with an active role in the construction, maintenance and negotiation of personal and social identities of ancient communities. Their various interpretations address a variety of issues, such as ritual behaviour, political power, social identity and gender roles, just to mention a few. Unfortunately, the study and interpretation of Cypriot prehistoric fgurines is often confronted with obstacles, such as lack of information on provenance (a large percentage are products of illicit excavation, for example), or the fact that they are CRUCIFORM FIGURE CYPRUS not often found in the context of their primary usage (they are often discovered as Cyprus grave goods or as part of ritual hoards). Chalcolithic period (IV millennium BC) The earliest anthropomorphic fgurines from Cyprus, two made of stone and one Ligabue Collection, Venice of baked clay, have been unearthed at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) site of Agia (cat. 32) Varvara-Asprokremmos (ca. 9000 BC) (fg. 20). These fgurines seem to be associated with the site’s abandonment episodes, acting perhaps as “gifts” on top of the abandonment fll of structures. From the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period (8400–6400 BC) a plaster anthropomorphic head has been found at the site of Parekklisha-Shillourokambos and from the site of Kritou-Marottou-Ais Giorkis (ca. 7500 BC) comes the lower part of a female fgurine with characteristic incised decoration, possibly representing female genitalia. Human representations next appear in the seventh millennium BC and most come from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Choirokoitia (cat. 25). These very schematic fgurines demonstrate high levels of workmanship. Most are carved in solid igneous stone (andesite, diabase and serpentine) although the site has produced an exceptional human head modelled in clay (fg. 21). The modelling of the body of Late Aceramic Neolithic fgurines is abstract in form, and although no explicit gender characteristics are indicated on most examples, some display an unmistakable phallic-shaped neck and head, a characteristic that continues into the Chalcolithic

123 period. A few examples are ambiguous or dimorphic, traits that also persist until the 22 end of the fourth millennium. Cruciform figure wearing a similar figure as necklace The Ceramic Neolithic period (5500–3900 BC) has yielded a much lower number Cyprus, poss. Pomos of fgurines. The small number that has been unearthed continue to be schematic Ca. 3000 BC and to demonstrate sexual ambiguity or dimorphism. Such ambiguous fgurines have Picrolite Department of Antiquities Cyprus, been found at the Ceramic Neolithic settlements of Sotira-Teppes (cat. 24), Ayios Nicosia Epiktitos-Vrysi, Kantou-Kouphovounos and Sotira-Arkolies. The picture changes quite dramatically in the Early and Middle Chalcolithic period (ca. 3900–2800 BC), a period of social and economic transformation. At this time, there is evidence for a substantial population growth, as well as signs of social ine- qualities and intensifed contact with neighbouring regions. This is also the period when copper was frst used in Cyprus. This resource would later bring great pros- perity to the island and would fnally take its name from Cyprus itself. It is within this general framework that a highly distinctive sculptural tradition developed, suggesting an island-wide symbolic system. In comparison with Late Neolithic anthropomorphs, 20 in the Chalcolithic period, fgurines are greater in number and more stylized. There Schematic female figure Cyprus, Agia Varvara-Asprokremmos is defnitely an increased interest in the depiction of the human form and the use of Ca. 9000 BC clay and painted decoration contributed towards the production of anthropomorphic Limestone fgurines, statuettes and vessels with more detailed features, such as facial charac- Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia teristics, toes and fngers, jewellery, clothing and perhaps body painting and/or tattoos. The painted decoration noted on the clay fgurines is elaborate and resembles that of the pottery vessel repertoire of the period. Figurines now bear a variety of painted designs, such as latticing, vertically hatched panels, wavy and parallel lines. On Chalcolithic fgurines there is also a tendency to indicate or emphasise gender (most of the fgurines that preserve indications of gender are female) and it seems that they address themes related to sexuality, fertility and reproduction. Neverthe- female breasts, genitalia, swollen belly and broad hips greatly contrasting with the less, sexual ambiguity is a characteristic that continues from the Neolithic period. phallic-shaped head. One of the most emblematic sculptures of the Chalcolithic, the famous “Lemba Lady” The hallmark of the Cypriot Chalcolithic is no doubt the very distinctive cruci- (see cat. 27) expresses such an ambiguity or dimorphism, with the fgure’s incised form anthropomorph that is known primarily from sites in Southwest Cyprus (e.g. Erimi-Pamboula, Lemba-Lakkous, Souskiou-Laona, Souskiou-Vathyrkakas, Kisson- 21 erga-Mosphilia and Kissonerga-Mylouthkia). More than 100 examples of this form Human head Cyprus, Choirokoitia are known, predominantly made from picrolite (cat. 28–32) but also of limestone VII–VI millennium BC and clay and discovered in Early and Middle Chalcolithic. Picrolite, a green-blue soft Unbaked clay indigenous stone of the Troodos ophiolithic formation contexts, was already sculpted Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia in the PPNA and PPNB, but in the Chalcolithic its use dramatically increased. Picrolite is seen by researchers as a high status material and therefore the fgurines that were sculpted out of this resource are considered to have been prestige items within the Chalcolithic communities. The bent knees and outstretched arms of cruciform fgurines suggest birthing postures: a parturient mother would have been squatting and probably held from behind by assistants, as seen in later, Cypro-Archaic fgurines. The Chalcolithic picrolite cruciforms vary in style and size, ranging from schematized grooved or pierced pendants that measure only a few centimetres (worn individu- ally or with shell necklaces) to larger examples, such as the famous cruciform from Pomos (15 cm tall, fg. 22) that is depicted on the reverse of the Cyprus one and two

124 125 23 euro coins. This fgure wears a pendant around its neck of a smaller representation was found, containing around ffty objects. These included anthropomorphic fgurines Woman giving birth of itself. (ten of stone and eight of pottery), anthropomorphic vessels, a terracotta model stool, Cyprus, Kissonerga-Mosphilia Ca. 3000 BC The meaning and use of the picrolite anthropomorphic fgurines and pendants a complete triton shell, a bone needle, as well as various groundstone pebbles and Painted clay has been much discussed and interpretations vary. They are seen as fertility deities tools. All the objects were found ceremoniously packed in and around the building Department of Antiquities Cyprus, or birth charms. They have also been interpreted as teaching props for initiation model and several of the fgurines depict women in the act of giving birth. Among Nicosia ceremonies, vehicles for sympathetic magic or symbolic images of fertility and ma- them is a unique pottery fgurine depicting a parturient female: a baby’s head and ternity. It has also been suggested that they would have emphasized the individu- arms are shown, in red paint, emerging between her parted legs (missing, fg. 23). ality of community members, enhancing their social identities. Such fgurines have Originally, the fgurine would have sat on a birthing stool, in a position that is known been found both in Chalcolithic tombs and settlements, such as at the necropolis of in the fgurine assemblage of this period. The woman is wearing a cruciform pen- Souskiou-Vathyrkakas and the settlement of Souskiou-Laona, where there is evidence dant around her neck, confrming the important link between cruciform fgurines/ for the production of picrolite cruciform fgurines. pendants and childbirth. The different types and wear patterns on the Mosphilia Numerous clay fgurines also survive dated to the Chalcolithic period. Most of fgurines suggest that the stone ones would have been clutched in the hand, while these seem to be depicting females involved in activities linked with birthing and the clay ones, which were free-standing, may have been used as teaching aids in rearing children. They are often shown squatting, with swollen bellies and large puberty rituals concerned with pregnancy and birthing. The Kissonerga-Mosphilia hips, sometimes seated on birthing stools, in the act of birthing, with their hands on cache indicates that specifc rituals would have been performed during the flling of their breasts or even extracting milk from their breasts. Their heads are disk-like the pit with objects. Intentional breakages noted on the round-house model and on with facial features that in some cases are abstract and in others naturalistic. Their the fgurines themselves, as well as the application of a secondary coating of clay bodies are often richly decorated with incised or painted decoration indicating body slip used to conceal the model’s painted decoration and the fnal burial of the cache, adornment and anatomical details, in some cases modelled very realistically. The point towards the performance of some kind of closure ceremony. fragmentary condition of these clay birthing fgurines, the abrasion patterns noted There is a notable absence of anthropomorphic fgurines and pendants from Late on them, as well as the fact that they have mainly been found in settlement contexts, Chalcolithic contexts, although picrolite pendants continued to be produced in other, suggest that they were probably handled in daily life during various stages of the non-anthropomorphic forms. These developments in the island’s material culture life cycle. seem to refect social transformations that occurred during the Late Chalcolithic, such A unique deposit of representational art indicating ritual activity was excavated as the intensifed cultural interaction with communities beyond Cyprus. At the end at the Chalcolithic settlement of Kissonerga-Mosphilia, in the Paphos district, where of the third millennium BC, following a 500-year hiatus, fgurative art reappeared in a ceremonial area was unearthed comprising of pits flled with ash, heat-cracked Cyprus, taking however entirely different forms and styles and linked with different stones and clay vessels. In one of the pits, a Red-on-White painted building model ideologies and social conditions. A.E.

Bibliography: Dikaios 1934, pl. VI:1, p. 16; Dikaios Guilaine, Briois 2001, p. 51; Bolger 2003, pp. 101– 1953, fg. 98; Caubet 1974; Vagnetti 1974; Peltenburg 102; Goring 2003; Guilaine 2003, p. 334; Goring 2006, 1975, p. 35, fg. VI right; Vagnetti 1975; Karageorghis p. 75; Peltenburg 2006; McCartney, Manning, Sewell, 1977; Peltenburg 1982b; Swiny, Swiny 1983; Morris Stewart 2007, pp. 35–36; McCartney, Croft, Manning, 1985; Peltenburg 1989, pp. 115–116; Goring 1991a, Rosendahl 2010; Peltenburg 2011; McCartney, Man- p. 158; Goring 1991b; Karageorghis 1991, pp. 1–43, ning, Stewart 2012, p. 81, fg. 2(A); Simmons 2012, fgs. I–XVIII; Peltenburg 1991a; Peltenburg 1991b, p. fg. 6; Knapp 2013, p. 239; Alphas, Zachariou-Kaila 114, fg. 1(C); Peltenburg 1991c; Xenophontos 1991; 2015, pp. 26–35; Bolger 2016, pp. 52–53; Georgious Campo 1994a; Le Brun 1994; Mantzourani 1994, p. 2016; Mina, Triandafyllou, Papadatos 2016; McCart- 32, fg. I, pl. V.2; Goring 1998; Reese 1999, pp. 49–50; ney 2017, p. 53, fg. 9.

126 127 EARLY AND MIDDLE BRONZE AGE CYPRUS

he reappearance of the anthropomorphic representation dates according to our present knowledge to the end of the Early Bronze Age, a period marked T by major innovations and associated with new settlers, who arrived from the Anatolian mainland. These innovations, which modifed social realities, included changes in domestic life, new ways of cooking, spinning and weaving, childcare practices, agricultural techniques and equipment, the reintroduction of cattle, as well as the systematic exploitation of the island’s rich copper resources. From the beginning of the Early Bronze Age the use of extramural necropolises and rock-cut chamber tombs with multiple, sometimes secondary burials, became widespread in Cyprus. The human fgure, along with the animal fgure, appears attached on the shoulders of clay vessels and on models in red polished ware – the pottery fabric par excel- lence of this period – composed of fgured representations connected with religious rituals (fg. 24) as well as everyday life. Additionally, freestanding human fgures, in RED POLISHED PLANK-SHAPED the same pottery fabric, make their appearance, which are referred to in the litera- FIGURINE ture as “plank-shaped”. Stylistically, they are all very similar, in that they have fat Cyprus, Bellapais-Vounous rectangular bodies and long rectangular necks. Apart from the nose, which is shown Early Bronze Age III (2100–2000 BC) in relief, and the perforated ears, the facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) and hair on Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia the back are incised and flled with white paste. Other motifs on the face probably (cat. 33, detail) denote a form of tattoos or paint. Elaborate incised decorative motifs on the torso indicate garments with woven patterns and adornment decorating the neck, arms and fngers, such as multi-stranded beaded necklaces, bracelets and rings. The numerous picrolite and faience beads found in funerary contexts were probably parts of similar ornaments as well as the metal jewellery pieces. Moreover, some plank fgures feature two incised oblique lines running along the fgure’s shoulders to the waist line, which are often described as “arms”, but could also be interpreted as metal pins with plain shaft, or toggle pins with eyelets in the shafts, similar to those found in Cypriote rock-cut chamber tombs throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Since those pins often occur in pairs, it has been suggested that they were used to hold the garment in place. These motifs fnd their parallels in the Near Eastern tudittu in the form of ornamental toggle-pins with a hole through which a material was threaded through. Variants include two or three headed plank fgures (cat. 35) as well as fgures holding infants in cradles (kourotrophoi) and freestanding cradled infant fgures (fg. 25).

129 The majority of the plank-shaped fgurines were found in funerary contexts; the least to us – to engender them. Necklaces and other forms of jewellery, for example, unprovenanced fgures are also undoubtedly from tombs. Some fragmentary exam- according to the archaeological evidence, do not indicate an exclusive association ples have been recovered in settlement deposits at Marki, Alambra and Politiko and a with either sex, but more probably linked to the portraying of social status. complete one was excavated in the doorway of a pottery workshop at Ambelikou. The A closer look at the burial assemblages of Lapithos Vrysi tou Barba offers valu- distribution of provenance of red polished plank shapes shows a large concentration able insightful information: the contextual evidence of the tombs suggests that the on the north coast and in the centre of the island. The excavations at Lapithos Vrysi red polished plank-shaped fgurines were associated with mortuary ritual activity, tou Barba1 necropolis revealed the largest number of these fgures and provided the although there is a lack of evidence that suggests they were exclusively created and full range of anthropomorphic types. This suggests that Lapithos was the production intended for use in funerary practices. A ritual activity is also observed on the terra- centre. Lapithos was an important site of the Early and Middle Bronze Age and was cotta model from Bellapais-Vounous: a circular enclosure with a number of human clearly dominant on the north coast with regards to the distribution and export of fgures apparently engaged in ritual activities, two pens with cattle and bulls’ skulls copper. The other fnd spots – apart from Bellapais-Vounous – are sites like Deneia mounted on the walls of the enclosure. Similar ritual activities are depicted on two and Nicosia-Ayia Paraskevi, with which Lapithos had close contact; villages close to important fnds from recent excavations of the Department of Antiquities at the copper mines such as Marki, Alambra, Politiko and Ambelikou were all within Lapi- necropolis of Ayia Paraskevi in Nicosia. Particularly, model 2 from tomb 50 depicts thos’s copper procurement network range. It is noteworthy that the plank-shaped a plank-shaped fgurine, as the cult idol (Kultbild) offers evidence and confrms the fgures from Lapithos were found in large tombs, associated with metal objects, such involvement of the plank-shaped fgurines in the ritual procedure. as pins, rings, knives, daggers and axes and sometimes accompanied with precious Although, it is not easy to say, who or what these plank-shaped fgurines rep- objects made of gold, silver and faïence materials. resent, the fact that they appeared in the northern part of the island at a time of The identity and function of the red polished plank-shaped fgurines have been signifcant social change, associated with the wealth followed by the expansion of much debated with suggestions ranging among others from representations of a fer- copper production and long-distance trade, cannot be ignored. The elaborate tombs, tility goddess to individual women and men or from ancestors to symbols of fertility, the imported goods and metal objects deposited as burial gifts, along with the mor- group identity, social status or gender. It is obvious that their interpretation is not tuary rituals, may suggest that a social group used these plank-shaped fgurines as an easy straightforward task. The absence of any clear gender-oriented features on symbols of their identity and social status. the fgurines themselves, as it is apparent from the Chalcolithic period, since they With the transition to the Late Bronze Age, this type of plank-shaped fgurine, which are not naked, apart from some fgurines that bear breasts, cannot easily support continued its existence with increasing naturalism, was replaced by a female, nude an interpretation connected to fertility. Additionally, there are no obvious codes – at type with modelled breasts and accentuated genitals, thus emerging as an amalgam 25 of the much older type dating back to the Chalcolithic period and the new concepts 24 Model of infant in cradle that reached the island at that time from the Levant. Model of cult place with celebrants Cyprus in an enclosure Ca. 2000–1600 BC Z.E. Cyprus, Bellapais-Vounous Red polished terracotta Late III millennium BC Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Red polished terracotta Nicosia Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia

1 Archaeological sites mentioned in the text – such Bibliography: Dikaios 1940, pls. VII, VIII; Campo 1994, as Bellapais-Vounous, Lapithos Vrysi tou Barba and p. 145; Talalay, Cullen 2002, pp. 181–195; Keswani Following pages Ambelikou – are in areas that are not currently under 2004, p. 140; Knapp 2013, pp. 337–344; Mina 2016, Aerial view of the excavations the effective control of the government of the Republic pp. 63–70; Webb 2016, pp. 241–254; Georgiou 2017, at Choirokoitia, Southeast Cyprus of Cyprus. p. 84, fgs. 13, 15, 16, 20γ; Webb 2017, pp. 5–21.

130 131

26 ANTHROPOMORPHIC FIGURE Cyprus, Kissonerga-Mylouthkia Chalcolithic period (IV millennium BC) Picrolite, H. 5.7 cm Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia, inv. KMyl 106 Bibliography: Peltenburg 2003, pp. 170–171, 173, pl. 13.7, fig. 61.6. This anthropomorphic figurine has been carved out of pale green picrolite with olive green mottling. It was found in a pit at the multi- period coastal site of Kissonerga- Mylouthkia in the Paphos district. The figurine presents the standard posture of flexed and tucked up legs and outstretched arms, suggesting a birthing posture. The arms however are truncated and have been reworked, possibly following 24 while others, like this figurine from notion that people were made up of human representations and especially damage. The head is triangular and Floor III of House 5 at the Neolithic both male and female elements and facial features do not appear frequently tilted backwards and the figure’s facial ANTHROPOMORPHIC settlement of Sotira-Teppes, have a therefore it could be understood as in the Neolithic period in Cyprus. features are indicated schematically SCHEMATIC FIGURE more accentuated phallic character, an attempt to bridge the differences When they are present, they are with two horizontal incisions for the Cyprus, Sotira-Teppes although the vulvic is also suggested. between the two genders. highly schematic and abstract, lacking eyes and a ridge around the back of Late Neolithic period This figurine has thus been described A.E. decorative elements, although some the head, which could be indicating (V–IV millennia BC) as dimorphic, representing both penis have a characteristic expressiveness. hair or a headdress. Picrolite, which Limestone, H. 16.5 cm and vulva. In whichever way these 25 This is a rare example of a Neolithic is local to Cyprus and is found in Department of Antiquities Cyprus, objects may be viewed, the tendency figurine with facial features (eyes, the Troodos range (in particular the ANTHROPOMORPHIC HEAD Nicosia, inv. Sot. no. 106 to express ambiguous and vague eyebrows and nose) depicted in relief. Kouris and Dhiarizos river valleys), meanings to the body is obvious. This Cyprus, Choirokoitia-Vouni Its disk-shaped head, tilted backwards, is considered to be the hallmark Bibliography: Dikaios 1961, pp. 201– sexual ambiguity can be seen through Pre-Pottery Neolithic period recalls later Chalcolithic birthing material of the Chalcolithic period in 202, pls. 91.106, 102.106; Buchholz, the combination of male and female (VII–VI millennia BC) figurines. The absence of the mouth, Cyprus. Its intensified exploitation and Karageorghis 1973, pp. 160, 465, genitals, through the dual “reading” Andesite, H. 11 cm as is the case with this piece, is a rather distribution suggests that exchange no. 1695; Bolger 2003, p. 85, fig. 4.1; of a figurine as male or female, Department of Antiquities Cyprus, common feature among prehistoric networks between Chalcolithic Knapp 2013, pp. 183, 240, fig. 47. or through the silencing of some Nicosia, inv. Khir. 1404 figurines. It could be that pigments communities existed. Furthermore, a The figurine repertoire of Neolithic anatomical traits and the accentuation (e.g. ochre) were used to depict facial link has been suggested (Peltenburg Bibliography: Dikaios 1953, and Chalcolithic Cyprus includes of others. Sexual ambiguity may features and decoration on stone 1982) between the development p. 391, pl. XCV:iv, CXLIII:iv; Buchholz, a number of objects that express indicate that prehistoric societies figurines at this time. of early metallurgy during the Karageorghis 1973, pp. 160, 465, a characteristic ambiguity in terms were organised on the basis of more A.E. Chalcolithic and the intensification of no. 1697. of gender and symbolism. Some than two genders, or that there was picrolite, since in many cases copper of these combine both vulvic and flexibility for individuals to cross from Stone sculpture has a long tradition in ore sources lie close to picrolite phallic features, such as the famous one gender category to another. prehistoric Cyprus and demonstrates seams. Chalcolithic “Lemba Lady” (cat. 27), Perhaps this ambiguity expressed the high levels of workmanship. However, A.E.

134 135 27 THE “LEMBA LADY”

Cyprus, Lemba-Lakkous 28 Chalcolithic period CRUCIFORM FIGURE (IV millennium BC) Limestone, H. 36 cm Cyprus, Souskiou-Vathyrkakas Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Tomb 85 Nicosia, inv. LL 54 Chalcolithic period (IV millennium BC) Bibliography: Peltenburg 1977; Picrolite, H. 12.5 cm Peltenburg 1985, p. 281, frontispiece Department of Antiquities Cyprus, pl. 45.1, fig. 81; Vagnetti 1991, Nicosia, inv. SK 97.270 (SVP 85/1) pp. 144–147, fig. 10; Knapp & Meskell, 1997, pp. 194–195, fig. 5; Bolger Bibliography: Peltenburg 2006, 2003, fig. 4,4; Karageorghis (J.), pp. 87–88, 98, 220, pl. B 5–6, pl. 27:1; Karageorghis (V.) 2006, p. 74, fig. 1. Knapp 2013, pp. 223–224, fig. 58. The “Lemba Lady” was found in situ This well-polished and excellently in a Middle Chalcolithic building at carved cruciform figurine was found the settlement of Lemba-Lakkous in in a partly looted tomb at the the Paphos district. At 36 cm in height, Chalcolithic necropolis of Souskiou- it is the largest Chalcolithic figurine Vathyrkakas. It is made of high quality found on Cyprus as yet. It has a fiddle- pale green picrolite with extensive shaped form with arms outstretched olive and medium green mottling in cruciform fashion. The limestone and veining. The figurine has an sculpture is incised and modelled to elongated face, bearing no facial emphasise the breasts, hips and pubic characteristics and the head is tilted area. The belly is slightly swollen, backwards. The neck is long and possibly indicating pregnancy. These straight and the arms are outstretched female features are in contrast with the with their ends flat. The body widens figure’s roughly phallic-shaped neck at the hips and the thighs project and head, a characteristic that can be forward and slope downwards, traced back to the Neolithic period. whereas the legs are separated by a This sexual ambiguity and dualism deep division. This posture is typical is characteristic of the Chalcolithic of Chalcolithic anthropomorphic period and can also be seen on figurines on Cyprus and it is widely picrolite anthropomorphic figurines. accepted that it represents a birthing The Lemba figurine was found lying posture. At the necropolis site of between large vessels in a building, Souskiou-Vathyrkakas, the majority of which probably had a ritual and group tombs that included children communal character. Given the contained anthropomorphic figurines unusual nature of the context in as grave goods, whereas only a which it was found, as well as the minority of exclusively adult burials figure’s uniqueness in size and form, contained such objects (Peltenburg the “Lemba Lady” is to date the only 2006, p. 163). It seems therefore, that candidate for the representation of a there is a special association between deity in pre-Bronze Age Cyprus. children and such anthropomorphs. A.E. A.E.

137 29 no. SVP 58/1, pp. 68–69, 81, pl. 17:3), where it was found beneath the skull CRUCIFORM FIGURE of a sub-adult (Peltenburg 2006, p. 20). Cyprus, Salamiou-Anephani A.E. Chalcolithic period (IV millennium BC) 31 Picrolite, H. 10.5 cm CRUCIFORM FIGURE Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia, inv. 1959/XI-3/6 Cyprus, Kissonerga-Mosphilia Chalcolithic period Bibliography: Karageorghis 1960, (IV millennium BC) pp. 244–245, fig. 2; Buchholz, Picrolite, H. 7 cm Karageorghis 1973, pp. 160, 466, Department of Antiquities Cyprus, no. 1700; Campo 1994, p. 189; Nicosia, inv. KM 1052 Karageorghis 2012, p. 41, no. 15. Bibliography: Goring 1998, p. 181, This picrolite figurine belongs to the KM 1052; Peltenburg 1998, pp. double anthropomorphic figurine 152–154, fig. 83, 9, pl. 32, 1; Gamble, category. Instead of two arms there Winckelmann, Fox 2016, pp. 4–5, is a second smaller figurine (its lower fig. 1.1 body has been partly reconstructed), arranged horizontally at the level of This picrolite cruciform figurine the chest of the main figure. The two from Kissonerga-Mosphilia displays faces bear similar facial features. As polydactyly, a condition whereby is the case with many of the double an individual has extra fingers. picrolite figurines, the vertical, larger The figure’s fingers are indicated figure has breasts. Interpretations of by incisions, five on one hand and this imagery vary, including that it is an seven on the other. Considering expression of maternity and continuity that on most Chalcolithic figurines (e.g. mother and daughter) (Goring the rendering of fingers and feet 2006, p. 75) or an attempt to present is not common, the depiction of sexual dualities by blending the sexual supernumerary digits on several characteristics of males and females figurines and figurine fragments has (Knapp 2013, p. 241). led researchers to the conclusion A.E. that polydactyly was deliberately represented and that it was a known anomaly amongst the Chalcolithic 30 population (Gamble, Winckelmann, CRUCIFORM FIGURE Fox 2016). Unfortunately, it is difficult to detect the above condition in Cyprus, Paphos district osteoarchaeological records, due to Chalcolithic period the poor preservation of prehistoric (IV millennium BC) human remains in Cyprus, as well as Picrolite, H. 13.5 cm the fact that, in many cases, burials Department of Antiquities Cyprus, contain the remains of multiple Nicosia, inv. W 290 individuals that are often comingled. Bibliography: Buchholz, Karageorghis Given that a possible function of 1973, pp. 160, 466, cat. 1701; Vagnetti cruciform figurines and pendants was 1974, p. 30, pl. V.2; Flourentzos 1990, to bring good luck (they could have p. 42, no. 31; Vagnetti 1991, pp. 147, acted as charms and talismans for 149, fig. 13; Karageorghis 2012, p. 41, fertility, labour and/or safe delivery), it no. 14. has been suggested that representing an extra digit on them would have This picrolite cruciform figurine is enhanced the good luck they brought. shown in the typical birthing position A.E. of its type, with its arms outstretched and its legs sharply drawn up at the knees. It has a long neck and a flat, wedge-shaped head. Its brow-line and long nose are indicated with incisions and its eyes are irregular and bulbous. The hair is also represented with incisions. The unusual feature on this figurine are the two diagonal latticed bands that adorn the arms and the chest on the figure’s front and back surface. An almost identical, but provenanced example, comes from a tomb at the Chalcolithic necropolis of Souskiou-Vathyrkakas (Goring 2006,

138 139 32 CRUCIFORM FIGURE CYPRUS Cyprus Chalcolithic period (IV millennium BC) Picrolite, H. 9.4 cm, W. 6.5 cm Ligabue Collection, Venice Bibliography: Karageorghis 1998, pp. 62–63; Karageorghis (J.), Karageorghis (V.), in Ligabue, Rossi-Osmida 2006, p. 151. A carefully balanced cruciform figure, built in a composition centered on the breasts, from where the long neck and head soar; the legs are slit with splayed feet and toes. The thighs are marked on the front view by pending adipose folds that join in the back to form the buttocks, low and undivided. The arms are unique in their pointed shapes and grooved decoration. Note the double necklace of circular beads. The globular head, with well indicated eyes, mouth and nose, gives a phallic appearance to the whole silhouette, a feature frequent in Chalcolithic figures from Cyprus. C.A. 33 35 RED POLISHED PLANK-SHAPED RED POLISHED TWO-NECKED FIGURINE PLANK-SHAPED FIGURINE Cyprus, Bellapais-Vounous Cyprus, Deneia, no provenance Early Bronze Age III (2100–2000 BC) Middle Bronze Age I (2000–1850 BC) Terracotta, H. 28 cm Terracotta, H. 29 cm Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Nicosia, inv. 1933/I-17/1 Nicosia, inv. 1943/IV-13/4 Bibliography: Karageorghis 1991, Bibliography: Karageorghis 1991, pp. 59–60, 90, pl. xxv:2; Hadjisawas pp. 73–74, 91, pl. xl:1; Karageorghis 2010, p. 81, cat. 46 (G. Georgiou); 1998, pp. 59–63, fig. 1; Hadjisawas Alphas, Zachariou-Kaila 2015, p. 126, 2010, p. 82, cat. 47 (G. Georgiou); cat. 83 (M. Mina). Karageorghis 2012, p. 49, no. 28. A significant number of the plank- 34 shaped figurines are of the two- RED POLISHED PLANK-SHAPED headed type. Usually, the two necks FIGURINE of these figurines are connected at the top. The figure presented Cyprus here has two tall necks and heads, Early Bronze Age III (2100–2000 BC) independent from one another. The Terracotta, H. 26.2 cm facial features of both heads, as well Department of Antiquities Cyprus, as the incisions all over the face and Nicosia, inv. 1963/IV-20/12 neck, are identical. They share a Bibliography: Karageorghis 1991, rectangular body, which is very richly pp. 59, 90, pl. xxv:1. adorned. The hair at the back is shown by vertical zig-zag lines; there The freestanding plank-shaped also appears to be a “comb” motif figurines belong to the most enigmatic hanging between the necks. group of images in Cypriot prehistory, These two-headed figures have been as their function and meaning are still variously identified as depictions debated by scholars. of sacred marriage or as a double- They bear richly incised geometric faced Great Goddess or as “magical patterns depicting facial features monsters”. Other interpretations (eyes and eyebrows, mouths, noses, associate them with devices used in ears and hair). They are elaborately sympathetic magic for women wanting dressed, with garments fastened by twins or triplets. what appear to be metal pins and Z.E. embellished with woven patterns, as well as with jewellery (earrings and necklaces) and tattooed markings on their faces. They do not have a base and may have been placed upright through the use of some kind of support or suspended (perhaps through the “earholes”?). Although each one is different, they generally display a high degree of uniformity and may thus have been made by specialized craftsmen. The plank-shaped figurines derive principally from tombs of the northern part of the island. They were accompanied by metal goods, such as spearheads, knives, axes, pins and rings, as well as precious imported items of gold, silver and faïence. A range of interpretations have been suggested, most of which are based on the assumption that plank-shaped figurines are representations of females. However, in some cases there are no obvious sexual characteristics, and the sex of the plank-shaped figurines is not always clear. Z.E.

142 143 ANATOLIA SCHEMATIC FIGURES FROM ANATOLIA

natolia had a long tradition of depicting human fgures: if the monumental stone building of the tenth millennium recently discovered at Göbeklitepe A (fg. 27) was sculpted with images of wild animals only, in the Neolithic installations of Haçilar and Catal Hüyük dated to the seventh to ffth millennia, narrative paintings and three-dimensional fgurines associate a dominant steatopygous “Lady”, and a few male fgures, with felines and birds of prey. By the end of the fourth millennium, as in the most of the Near East and the Mediterranean, drastic changes brought the emergence of new social landscapes. New visual perceptions took the appearance of abstract shapes for the depiction of the traditional female fgure. Schematic types appeared all over Anatolia and were distributed from the littoral to the hinterland, making it diffcult to pinpoint the exact origin of each type. The chronological evolution is equally uneasy to follow during the course of the third millennium. Types are conventionally designated by the name of the site where they have been frst discovered or published. Several cultural areas may be KILIA FIGURE recognized: the littoral had close contacts with the eastern islands of the Mediter-

Western Anatolia ranean and the Cyclades; the Troy, Beycesultan and Kusura types were distributed Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia; in the hinterland and Cappadocia, the Kültepe disk-shaped (3300–3000 BC) Private Collection, UK (courtesy RWAA) (cat. 39, detail)

26 Anthropomorphic ﬁgurine Anatolia, Koçumbeli-Ankara III millennium BC METU Archaeological Museum, Ankara

147 27 idols emerged at the end of the third millennium; Eastern Anatolia was in relation Neolithic cultic place with relief wall with Northern Syria, through the upper valley of the Euphrates, probably where decorations, Southeast Anatolia, Göbeklitepe, Sanliurfa the “eye idols” originated (ca. 3300 BC) before migrating through Mesopotamia X millennium BC and Western Iran. Stone fgures were part of a larger production of anthropomorphic images, next to numerous terracotta and a few rare metal fgures, and should be considered in that context. Different materials may have been assigned to different forms, within similar abstraction processes: taking for instance, the body abbreviated in a semi-circular disk, there were variations between the metal pieces (as in the Alacahöyük “twin” idols) and the clay ones (as in Koçumbeli-Ankara, fg. 26). Another variation is found in the formal interplay between the head and the body: both parts are often rendered in a similar shape, disk-like or semi-circular, but inverted and in different proportions and respective size. In the stone fgures, generally left with a plain surface, the play on respective proportions of the different parts of the body is important in the balance and rhythm of the fgure; in the clay pieces, engraved details are often repeated on the head and the body, but upside down, in a mirror image and what is the right way up is left ambiguous. Most Anatolian schematic fgures are ambiguous as to their sex; even the obvi- ously sexed females may be bisexual and present phallic elements, a phenomenon observed also in Cyprus. Repair and breakage patterns suggest that the fgurines were handled, displayed and discarded and that they had a “life” and social status before they were deposited, in public or domestic contexts. C.A.

Following pages Excavations at Kültepe, Anatolia, Bibliography: Thimme 1977; Sharp-Jokowsky 1996; Cappadocia, late III–II millennia BC Takaog˘lu 2005; Duru 2008; Atakuman 2017.

148 149

38 VIOLIN FIGURE Beycesultan type Western Anatolia Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age (3300–3000 BC) 36 37 Marble, H. 16 cm, W. 7 cm Ligabue Collection, Venice ABSTRACT SCHEMATIC FIGURE ABSTRACT SCHEMATIC FIGURE Bibliography: Ligabue, Rossi-Osmida Kusura type Kusura Beycesultan type 2006, p. 119. Western Anatolia Western Anatolia Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age A typical and harmonious example of (3300–3000 BC) (3300–3000 BC) the Beycesultan type, characterized by Marble or calcite, H. 20 cm, W. 14 cm Marble or calcite, H. 11 cm, W. 7.2 cm the long stalk neck and two shortened Private Collection, Germany Private Collection, Germany horizontal arms. The “bag-shaped” body is a feature shared with the This dynamic abstract composition, The composition assembles simple Kusura type. In all these examples, carved from a thin translucent geometric shapes, disk and half disc the two sides of the plaque figure are plaque, is constructed with a disc and divided by a cone constructed with an identical, as opposed to other types two rectangles – one vertical, one attention to rhythm and proportions. like, for instance, the Alacahöyük, Troy horizontal – finely proportioned to It is subtly animated and brought or Kilia, which are oriented: they have each other, in a simplified vision of a to life by the diminutive arms that a back and a front side animated by head, neck and body. Both sides are conclude the semi-lunar body, and eyes, nose and mouth, possibly by plain, but a small circle incised off the suggestions of hair or horn on breasts and sex triangle. The question centre on one side of the body may one side of the disk head breaks the of the orientation of the schematic be a mark added in the course of the symmetry. figures is important for a better “life” of the figure before deposition. C.A. understanding of how they functioned C.A. Reference: Thimme 1977, no. 513. and were handled during their life. Reference: Thimme 1977, no. 488. C.A.

152 39 KILIA FIGURE Western Anatolia Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age (3300–3000 BC) Marble, H. 14 cm, W. 3.7 cm Private Collection, UK (courtesy RWAA), inv. 17481 Named from a site in the Gallipoli peninsula, the Kilia figures (cat. 39–41) were distributed over a large part of Western Anatolia during the third millennium. Recent research at Kulaksizlar brought to light the close relation with the Cyclades in the production of marble vessels and anthropomorphic statuettes by highly skilled and specialized artists. The Kilia are the only Anatolian figures of the Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age I to be distinctly anthropomorphic and female, tending to an idealized but realist vision, as opposed to the abstract schematic aesthetic of the Kusura or Beycesultan types. Like these schematic figures however they were found, often in fragments, in both funerary context and in public domains. Kilia artists created slim figures with sharp contrast between the flat body, contoured in a lozenge, and the often heavy, three-dimensional head, tilted backwards, hence the description of “star gazer”. The joint feet are protruding from the plane of the body and are too small to allow the figure to stand by itself. Like the Cyclades figures, they were probably meant to be reclining on their back. The arms are typically reduced to a sort of triangular wing, sharply cut away from the torso. Within this general type, there are many subtle variants, the work of individual artists who were free to play with the proportions and 40 a number of small details, like the KILIA FIGURE length of the nose, the placement of minute button-like ears and eyes; Western Anatolia in a few instances, realistic forearms Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age are depicted along the torso. These (3300–3000 BC) figures present fragile parts, especially Marble, H. 14.5 cm, W. 6.14 cm the high and thin neck, too thin for Private Collection, Germany the heavy head; and the tiny feet 41 projecting forward. These fragile parts are very often found broken, whether KILIA FIGURE deliberately or not is unclear; the three Western Anatolia exquisite Kilia statuettes presented Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age here are all missing their feet. (3300–3000 BC) C.A. Marble, H. 14 cm References: Thimme 1977; Takaog˘lu 2005. Collection Jon Aisbitt, UK

154 155 42 elongated neck ends in an arrow- where male genitals would be. This shaped head, enlivened by large results in a complex combination, a DISK-IDOL circular eyes, as in the smaller figure pregnant, androgynous and ithyphallic Kültepe type here. Exceptionally, a globular head symbol, to be compared, for example, Anatolia, Cappadocia is modelled with realistic facial traits, with the phallic female idols from Early Bronze Age III (ca. 2300–2000 BC) mouth, ears and nose, the protruding Chalcolithic Cyprus. The emphasis Gypsum alabaster, H. 26.3 cm, eyes retaining the fixed gaze of on the eyes is also a recurrent factor, W. 15.5 cm the former type. The Ligabue idol encountered in Anatolia and Syria Ligabue Collection, Venice combines both styles. The disk bodies Mesopotamia. are finely decorated with rows of C.A. Bibliography: Ligabue, Rossi-Osmida drilled circles and bands in relief. The 2006, pp. 120–121. References: Özgüc 1993; Shoki Goodarzi in lower part of the main figure is now Aruz, Wallenfels 2003, no. 180; Öztürk 2013. This is a good example of disk-shaped broken but would probably show a figures from Cappadocia at the end sexual triangle, which is preserved on of the third millennium. At the site of the smaller disk, giving it a feminine, Kültepe, these figures were deposited “mother and child” or pregnancy in cultic buildings. Some of them character. This reading is deceptive, are double, with two necks on one however: the overall contour of the body; others, like this one, present a disk-idols is distinctly phallic; this is smaller, similar disk figure, enclosed especially evident here in the small on their own body. In most cases, the secondary figure, which is placed

156 EGYPT EGYPT, A WORLD APART

gypt had its own original approach to the development of complex society in the construction of the state-controlled Pharaonic civilisation. Visual media played Ea major role in this construction, notably via the depiction of human fgures over the longue durée. Anthropomorphic fgures of the Predynastic period appeared on a large variety of forms and media, clay, stone and ivory fgures, painted vessels, “tag” fgurines, combs, stone palettes and mural paintings in tombs. In the course of the Badari period (ca. 4400–3700 BC), an enduring tradition began with three-dimensional nude female fgures in realistic fashion. Decorated clay vessels of the period, using a white pigment over a dark brown-red background, depicted groups of human fgures interacting with animals (fg. 28), dominated by one individual of indeterminate sex, his raised arms in a harmonious circle. By the Naqada II period (3450–3300 BC), the raised arms motif appears on the numerous decorated vessels of the new style, painted dark red on a buff background, centred STANDING FEMALE FIGURE around Abydos (fg. 29). The motif is also present on a few, rare clay fgures, generally WITH CROSSED ARMS female: two of these are presented in the show. Egypt, Hierakonpolis, “Main Deposit”, These clay fgures with raised arms are executed in abbreviated style, one of Temple enclosure the two major visual approaches followed by the Naqada II artists when creating Naqada II – Early Dynastic period (3300–3000/2900 BC) anthropomorphic fgurines, in clay or ivory. The realistic style prolongs the tradition Ashmolean Museum of Art and emerged in the previous period, with numerous male fgures in clay, standing on Archaeology University of Oxford, two differentiated legs, their conspicuous genitals either ithyphallic or maintained Oxford (cat. 45, detail) in a sheath. In the abbreviated style statuettes, the legs are joined into one pointed element, the lower body is shaped as a long peg, which may have served to plant the fgure in sand or dirt, an indication of how they may have been used. When the pigments are well preserved, the choice of colours seems to answer to specifc rules, such as the fesh being painted dark red: the red colour would be distinctive of the male fgures in wall paintings in tombs, from the Old Kingdom onwards. Body decoration and tattoos are also detailed. Interaction between humans and animals is characteristic of the tomb paintings of the Naqada II period, the forerunners of the painted tombs of historical Egypt. Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis was covered with images of humans attempting to control the creatures of Nature on land and water, an interpretation comforted by the abundant animal burials at the necropolis of Hierakonpolis. Graywacke stone and ivory were used for a number of artefacts displaying all the characteristics of the Naqada II artists, in both realistic and abbreviated style.

161 The delightful “tag” fgurines in stone and ivory are conspicuous for their round eyes As they are not found solely in wealthy graves, they had in themselves no special carved in a triangular face over a simplifed body. Ivory was a major medium for association to elite social status, power or authority. They were clearly important to Predynastic artists, a material generally taken from the tusks of local hippopotamus, the surviving individuals who arranged the burial and placed the artefacts with care. an awesome creature of the Nile who played a major role in Egyptian iconography In the Naqada III (3300–3000 BC) period, an entirely new narrative style, mixed at all times. In exceptional cases, the ivory was from elephant tusks, imported from with fantastic elements, appeared on new types of artefacts, the monumental stone Africa via the upper Nile. Control of the routes to and from Africa was to be a con- palettes, and the ivory knife handles. The themes of dominance and confict are in stant concern of Egyptian rulers in the future. Ivory was used to carve a variety of evidence on famous artefacts, like the Battlefeld palette (Graywacke stone, British artefacts and anthropomorphic fgures, nude females, ithyphallic statuettes, combs Museum) where vanquished enemies, carefully depicted with the mark of their ethnic topped by a human “ghost” silhouette with large eyes, “tusks-fgures”. These, carved origin, are trampled by the royal lion, their cadaver left to be devoured by vultures. On from either elephant ivory or the straight hippopotamus incisor, were crafted and the Gebel el-Arak ivory handle (Louvre), foreign conquerors come in high sea boats transformed a minima, leaving the natural shape almost untouched, apart from the and overrule the reed-craft used on the Nile. The fantastic elements are apparent drilling of a large pair of eyes, beard and headdress, and leaving out the rest of the in the elongated body parts of some animals, used as a decorative pattern to give body. These tusks-fgures are contemporaries with the eye idols of Western Asia and them a heraldic force (The Two Dogs palette, Oxford), a visual device familiar to the Iberia, a reminder of the quasi-universal fascination of the eye symbol. Unfortunately, Mesopotamian seal carvers. international regulations on the circulation of ivory made it impossible to secure the 29 By this time, the state-controlled organisation that was to become Pharaonic civili- loan of ivory pieces. A ship on the Nile and desert life sation was well in construction. The broadening of the social and economic network Egypt Carefully deposited and placed in the graves, the Naqada II anthropomorphic encouraged ties with the Levant and Mesopotamia. By 2900 BC, the extent of the Ca. 3450–3300 BC objects had a specifc relation with the dead. The clay fgurines were placed close Painted pottery jar far-reaching network of exchange and contacts between Egypt and Asia is illustrated to the body in a personal connection with the deceased. They are found broken Musée Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, by the exquisite nude statuette from Hierakonpolis: it is carved in lapis lazuli, a stone Brussels up, or fragmented in the grave, more than any other type of object, perhaps a sign imported from Afghanistan. of deliberate breakage of a personal object, with pieces distributed for the sake of It is unclear whether the anthropomorphic objects depicted in Predynastic Egyptian memory. Other items like the tusks, tags and combs, part of the numerous ivory ob- art are “real” human beings or represent supra humans, endowed with shamanic jects deposited in graves, were laid out along the arm or tied together with leather powers. The raised arms, often interpreted as a dance movement, is argued by straps. There is no clear association between these objects and luxury or rare items. some scholars as a show of power and dominance, a forerunner to the later royal iconography of triumphant Pharaohs of the Dynastic ages, an iconography already evident in the last phases of the Predynastic period and the narrative scenes on the 28 palettes. The interpretation of the female terracottas, however, remains open. What Figures raising their arms in dance or triumph is certain is the aesthetic concern and artistic achievement and appeal that ruled Egypt the creation of these dynamic and endearing images. Ca. 3700–3450 BC C.A. Painted pottery jar Musée Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels

Following pages Bibliography: Ucko 1968; Patch 2011; Stevenson Banks of the River Nile, Luxor, Egypt 2017; Ordynat 2018.

162 163

43 collection of the Musées Royaux d’Art several others figures of the period, interpreted as mother goddesses, et d’Histoire in Brussels, in prehistoric hence referred to as “bird women”. female fertility idols, concubines for FEMALE FIGURE WITH RAISED Egypt, which was manifested already Both arms, raised above the head, the deceased, dancers, celebrants, ARMS in his pioneering and much acclaimed end in hands turned in towards the wailing women and representations Egypt, no provenance 1904 monograph Débuts de l’art en head, with fingers separately modelled of the ka or life force. However, Late Naqada I or early Naqada II Égypte (translated in English in 1905 (insofar as the reconstruction of most of these interpretations period (ca. 3500–3400 BC) as Primitive Art in Egypt). As the the left arm is more or less correct). reason backwards in time from later, Baked clay, H. 26.5 cm, figurine is unprovenanced and its The breasts are large and pendulous, Pharaonic iconography. The fact that W. 15.1 cm archaeological context unknown, the stomach protruding, the hips figurines of this type do not aim at Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, its age is uncertain. It is, however, wide and the buttocks, divided by imitating human reality, but combine Brussels, inv. E.3006 likely that it originates in the late an incision, firmly pronounced. The human features with avian (the head) Naqada I or early Naqada II period legs, also delineated by a central and bovine (the posture of the arms) Bibliography: Hornemann 1966, pl. (ca. 3500–3400 BC). groove on the front and the back, elements, makes them an integrant 914; Ucko 1968, p. 161, pl. XXXVI; De The figurine, originally incomplete, are vertically extended. The feet are part of Predynastic iconography, Roy, Rammant-Peeters 1985, pp. 4–5; was provided with a substitute left rudimentarily modelled and flexed which evidently had its own specific Hendrickx 1994, pp. 26–27. arm, undoubtedly modelled on the upwards. No trace of any original visual language, supposedly referring This charming Predynastic female basis of the intact right arm. The colour survives. primarily to aspects of power and figurine was acquired by Jean Capart whole restoration was executed in a Few examples of such figurines control over chaos. Their exact (1877–1947) in 1909 from Muhammad rather awkward way, and it is highly have actually been recovered from function remains unknown, but it is Mohassib (1843–1928), a well-known likely that, originally, the posture of controlled excavations. Even though likely that they were used within ritual Egyptian antiquities dealer in Luxor, the arms was much more symmetrical. some have been found in habitation practice, either communal or personal. together with three other, less well The upper part of the body tilts sites, such as Mahasna and Zawaydah H.D. preserved anthropomorphic figures slightly forward and the back is (Naqada), it is highly likely that the References: Patch 2011; Bierbrier 2012, (E.3005, E.3007 and E.3008). It testifies markedly arched. The head of the majority come from tombs. Much pp. 376–377; Hendrickx, Eyckerman 2012; to the great interest of Jean Capart, figurine is provided with a downwardly has been written on their possible Stevenson 2017; Ordynat 2018. the then curator of the Egyptian curved beaklike protuberance, like significance. They have been variously

166 167 44 Therefore, it seems that this piece all the Naqada II period burials have does belong to that lot, although yielded one or more statuettes of this FEMALE FIGURE there is still some room for doubt type, it is possible that they served Egypt, Hierakonpolis (Kôm el-Akhmar) given the lack of precision in the primarily to identify certain individuals or Ma’amariya (Northern Egypt) (?) inventory description. The delayed within a complex social and ritual Naqada II period (ca. 3450–3300 BC) registration makes it impossible to system, much of whose organisation Painted baked clay, H. 18 cm even know whether the figurine comes and meaning continues to escape us. Musée d’Archéologie nationale, from Jacques or Henri de Morgan’s L.C. Saint-Germain-en-Laye, inv. 77740.C collection. The two archaeologists References: Morgan 1896; Petrie 1920, p. 8 (Jacques or Henri de Morgan explored the region of Hierakonpolis and pl. IV, nos. 3, 6; Ucko, Hodges 1963, Collection) several decades apart. Unfortunately, no. 26, pp. 205–222; Relke 2011, no. 41, Jacques makes no mention of any pp. 396–426. Bibliography: Ucko 1968, p. 105, discovery of this type in his 1896 work, no. 83; Archéologie comparée 1982, and a comparison of the information in p. 129. Henri’s excavation notes, conserved at This figurine belongs to one of the the MAN, with the articles published “canonical” types of Predynastic at the end of the two explorations Egypt, which currently comprises carried out on behalf of the Brooklyn almost 250 definitively identified Museum in 1906–1907 and 1907–1908 examples. Made of three fragments provides no definite data on the exact re-joined in ancient times, it has provenance of the figurine. a characteristic head with a bird- It is worth pointing out, however, that like profile. The slightly misaligned the notes report rather cryptically breasts and the curvature are quite that the terrain of the zone of the accentuated while the legs are joined kjökkenmöddings (habitat) of Kôm to form a sort of pivot, which could el-Akhmar was in complete disarray, have served originally to keep the with an “enormous mass of rubble, statuette stable, stuck in the ground terracotta statuettes of animals, or attached to some kind of support. cows . . . and vessels”, among which This lower part of the body is poorly may have been discovered various defined and bears traces of a white fragments of our figurine. While it engobe which some scholars believe has been associated in some cases is meant to suggest a “skirt”. The with figurines found in funerary orientation of the fracture line of the contexts in Ma’amariya during the arms, broken under the shoulder in same explorations, nonetheless there ancient times, indicates that the arms are several notable differences: the originally extended along the torso arms are positioned differently; the or were slightly bent at the height impasto is less fine and has stains due of the stomach or genitals, as some to defective firing, and the overall examples published by W.M.F. Petrie appearance is cruder. P. Ucko has in 1920. On the other hand, it can be suggested that a chemical analysis ruled out that the arms were raised of the white engobe in the lower above the head, as in the renowned part makes it possible to group type of the “dancing figurine”. together figurines from Ma’amariya Many questions arise when studying sites and from Kôm el-Akhmar, only this statuette, one of the prize objects a few kilometres apart, thereby in the Morgan Collection at the Musée circumscribing a possible zone of d’Archéologie nationale (MAN). provenance. The massive quantity of archaeological Although some recent works have material donated to the museum by re-proposed Ucko’s theories, the the brothers Henri and Jacques de meaning of these figurines is still far Morgan in 1909–1910, the outbreak of from clear. They have been associated World War I and, in 1927, the sudden with the figurative decorations of death of Henri Hubert, director of vessels of the same period, sometimes the comparative archaeology room, bearing analogous stylized figures, resulted in a substantial delay and whose raised arms have been a vague entry on the figurine in the interpreted as representing dance museum inventory. In fact, only in 1939 movements or invocations. Since were the “fragments of four glossy grey most of these figurines were found and red terracotta female statuettes” in tombs – although more recently included in a lot of objects whose other fragments have been found in provenance was specifically identified habitats such as ad Adaïma – it has as Kôm el-Akhmar (Hierakonpolis). been theorized that they played a role After careful investigation, it became in accompanying the deceased to clear that presently no other statuette the afterlife, or were actually divinities or fragment in the collection can or “guardians of the dead”. These be attributed to other Predynastic theories, however, have been called Egyptian sites. into question. Regardless, since not

168 45 or the result of damage requiring a replacement head is not clear. Some STANDING FEMALE FIGURE have even suggested the body was WITH CROSSED ARMS made outside Egypt, perhaps in the Egypt, Hierakonpolis, “Main Deposit”, region of the Persian Gulf, and the Temple enclosure head added after its arrival in Egypt. Naqada II – Early Dynastic period The figure’s face is dominated by (ca. 3300–3000/2900 BC) large eyes that are deeply recessed Lapis lazuli and wood, H. 8.9 cm for inlay with another material. Her Ashmolean Museum of Art and arms are bent at the elbows with her Archaeology University of Oxford, hands clasped, right over left, across AN1896–1908 E.1057 (body; Egyptian the abdomen. Her nude body is quite Research Account excavations summarily carved except for the pubic conducted by Quibell and Green, area, which is indicated by a series of 1898) and E.1057a (head; University of small circular depressions. The legs, Liverpool excavations conducted by slightly bent at the knees, terminate in Garstang and Jones, 1906) a straight edge just above the ankles. A drilled hole on the underside (now Bibliography: Porada 1980; Patch obscured by the modern mount) may 2011, no. 172. have served to fasten the figure to a This remarkable little statuette is base, or to attach separately modelled carved from beautiful blue lapis lazuli. feet. It has also been suggested that Egypt’s closest known source for this the figurine was meant to be the semi-precious stone is Badakhshan handle for a spoon. in Afghanistan, a distance of some Debate still rages about the figurine’s 3,600 km, making it one of the most identity and origin. James Quibell exotic and highly prized materials was the first to point out its “non- used by the ancient Egyptians. In Egyptian” appearance, comparing it Dynastic times, the bodies of gods to the marble Cycladic figurines found were described as being made of on the Greek Islands of the Aegean “pure lapis lazuli” and this exquisite Sea dating to around 2500 BC. stone therefore evoked the divine. Others have compared the pose to It first became common in Egypt female figures from Iran dating to the during the Predynastic period when later second millennium BC, several it was imported to create prestigious hundred years after the supposed objects, particularly beads and inlays, date of the lapis lazuli statuette. The included among the grave goods figure’s short, tightly curled hair as well buried with members of the elite. The as the position of her arms and hands statuette from Hierakonpolis is the are unique among the statuettes from largest piece of carved lapis lazuli to the “Main Deposit” at Hierakonpolis have survived from this early time. (the majority carved in ivory) and find The story of the statuette’s discovery few parallels in early Egyptian art. is almost as remarkable as the object Several ivory and bone statuettes itself. The body was discovered by originally in the collection of the James Quibell during excavations Reverend William MacGregor depict 46 at Hierakonpolis (one of the most women with their hands crossed in a significant archaeological sites for similar gesture, but questions surround STANDING NUDE MALE FIGURE the formation of ancient Egyptian their authenticity. The same curled Egypt civilisation) beneath a mud brick wall hairstyle seen, for example, on figures Old Kingdom (ca. 2500 BC) south of the so-called “Main Deposit”. decorating contemporary siltstone Wood, H. 33 cm This large cache of discarded votive cosmetic palettes lends support to Private Collection, Paris objects included some of the most the suggestion that the statuette was iconic works of Predynastic and Early carved in Egypt. Whatever the case, By the IV–V dynasty, not only the Dynastic art that had been gathered the object – whether fully finished, or Pharaoh but also private people of together and ritually deposited within as a block of raw material – travelled a high rank could build themselves the later temple enclosure. considerable distance before arriving a monumental tomb and funerary A small wooden peg was preserved at ancient Hierakonpolis and therefore chapel. Statues in stone or wood at the figure’s neck for the attachment provides valuable evidence of early depicted the deceased and his of the head, which incredibly was Egypt’s place in an increasingly household, as they were in their found eight years later, during interconnected world. lifetime, and received offerings further excavations in the same area McN.L. from the living. This nude, youthful conducted by Harold Jones. While figure is probably an attendant or a the stone used for the body has servant; the deceased would have a mottled appearance (with white been wearing a linen kilt. The slender, and gold flecks of calcite and pyrite elegant body is typical of the aesthetic respectively), the head is of the standard introduced by the Egyptian rarer and “pure” deep blue variety. Old Kingdom, that is, idealized reality. Whether this difference was by design C.A.