Figure of female diety
Medium:Ceramic (earthenware, modelled, with applique)
Geography: Northern Mesopotamia (Syria)
Date: c. 2000-1500 BC
Period: Middle Bronze Age
Object number: 2000.106.349
Credit Line: Gift of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum. Certified by the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act. Attestée par la Commission canadienne d'examen des exportations de biens culturels en vertu de la Loi sur l'exportation et l'importation de biens culturels.
DescriptionIn Syria during the 2nd millenium B.C., several goddesses were worshipped, including a war goddess wearing a kilt and a robed goddess with a square, horned headdress, at times surmounted by a bird. Nude or partially nude females may represent individual aspects of the goddess of war and fertility known in Syria as Ishara (in later Ugaritic as Astarte or Anat) and in Mesopotamia as Ishtar, or they may refer to minor household deities. The Syrian nude goddess is the source for representations in Cyprus, where heads have a birdlike appearance.
