Old Babylonian Terracotta Fertility Figurine

Description

Old Babylonian Terracotta Fertility Figurine

Mesopotamia, ca. 1900–1600 BC

A molded terracotta female figurine dating to the Old Babylonian period. The figure is represented frontally, wearing a long garment and a distinctive headdress or coiffure framing the face, with both arms bent and held across the body.

This type belongs to a well-known tradition of female terracotta figures from southern Mesopotamia, with closely related examples excavated at Ur and nearby Diqdiqqeh. Such figures are generally associated with fertility, femininity and domestic or personal devotion, and were part of the religious and everyday life of Old Babylonian Mesopotamia.

Material: Terracotta
Period: Old Babylonian
Date: ca. 1900–1600 BC
Region: Southern Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq