This graceful ceramic sculpture is a votive figure from the middle of the first millennium BC, and represents a deity in the Phoenician pantheon. It is based upon a goddess standing full-square upon a short oblong integral base, wearing a robe (?) open at the front to expose her protuberant midriff and breasts. She is also fairly broad across the hips, thus boosting the “fertility” aspects of the piece. Her hair is covered with a band of textile that may or may not be part of her gown. The right arm is raised in a gesture of what is usually assumed to be benediction, while the left hand touches the neck – a gesture that is sometimes found in these pieces but which is currently not understood. The head is cast slightly down, with delicate brows, a linear nose and full cheeks. The features are smoothed by the action of sand and water, which serves to produce a more refined, linear sculptural presence. The pose of the personage is characteristic of Phoenician art, and also that of the Archaic period in Greece, which they helped inspire. 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, which is appropriate for figures destined for shrines. The piece has attracted some calcareous encrustation from its long immersion in the Mediterranean.

Antiquities
Ancient Near East