This attractive ceramic sculpture is a votive figure from the middle of the first millennium BC, and represents a Phoenician deity (or perhaps a historically-significant personage). The figure – which is of ambiguous sex – is standing on an integral circular then square (stacked) base, with an offering bowl anterior to the feet. The figure has been worn by its long immersion in the Mediterranean, but the graceful lines of the drapery and the delicacy of the facial features are still visible. The right hand is relaxing on the hip, while the right is raised upwards in a gesture of benediction. The action of sand and water has smoothed the detailing of the drapery, except for a sash-like eminence running across the abdomen. The general appearance of the figure is diagnostically pre-classical or archaic, from the rendering of the facial features to the austere pose. The piece still retains calcareous accretions (which can be removed if required), notably in the lower section of the figure where a piece of coral has become attached to the offerings bowl. The back of the piece is almost completely plain, implying that it was always meant to be viewed from the front rather than in the round: this is usual for figures designed for shrines.

Antiquities
Ancient Near East