Mother Goddess. Tell Halaf, Syria, 6th millennium BC.
Polychrome terracotta.
Provenance:
- Collection of Michel Vinaver, French writer and playwright (Paris 1927-2022).
- To his children, Anouk, Barbara, Delphine and Ivan Vinaver, 2022.
- French art market, 2022.
Restored left leg.
Measurements: 8,3 cm.
Statuette of a Mother Goddess seated, naked and holding her breasts with her arms, showing them as a symbol of fertility. It belongs to the Halaf culture, an archaeological period in the history of Mesopotamia with its main site at Tell Halaf. The figurines of the Mother Goddess are one of its most identifiable artistic manifestations.
Tell Halaf is an archaeological site near the city of Ra's al-'Ayn in the fertile valley of the Khabur River in the province of al-Hasakah in northeastern Syria. The settlement dates to the 6th millennium BC. Some five millennia later, the Aramean city-state of Guzana or Gozan was established at the site in the 1st millennium BC. This was the first known discovery of a Neolithic culture, later known as the Halaf culture, characterised mainly by pottery painted with geometric and animal designs. Painted pottery flourished in the area, with vessels depicting decorative motifs, both figurative and geometric, possibly with religious content: humans, buckram, reptiles, scorpions, panthers, birds, painted in black and red.