This attractive ceramic sculpture is a votive figure from the middle of the first millennium BC, and represents a Phoenician deity. It depicts a goddess standing on an integral stepped base, with a small offerings bowl anteriorly. The figure’s profile is defined by the large robe which extends cowl-like over the bowed head and down to the floor, open from the shoulder to the waist. The thick hem of this garment is clearly visible – much of the other drapery detail has been eroded by the piece’s long immersion in the Mediterranean. While her face has lost some of its detail, it – and the rest of the piece – has become a masterwork of clean linear composition. As is usual with sculptures of this sort, she has her right hand raised in benediction; her left hand is brought up to her neck, perhaps explaining her bowed head. This pose is of unknown significance, but it must have been important to the Phoenicians as it was rendered in all manner of pieces from the reductivist to the hyper-realistic. The general rendering is diagnostically Pre-Classical – rather austere and linear composition – and reflects the archaic style of Greek sculpture that the Phoenicians inspired and with which this piece is contemporary. The piece still retains calcareous accretions (which can be removed if required), which attest to its long interment in the Mediterranean. 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