IAA Number: 2015-264
| Object's Name: Body Figurine Semi-Divine/Divine Figure, Female Image, Human Images, Musical instrument (?) Period: Hellenistic Material: Pottery Site: Maresha, T. Wide: 5.7 cm Height: 9.3 cm Description: A figurine of the goddess Cybele, An Anatolian mother goddess.
The seated Cybele is holding in her left hand a round tympanum. To
the left of the goddess is a small female holding a musical
instrument (?). To the right, two figures are depicted embracing or
dancing.
During the Hellenistic peroid Cybele terracottas are rare outside
Asia Minor and Greece.
The figurine might represent the Dea Syria or Atagratis, an important
goddess of north Syria, who borrows Cybele's iconography. Bibliography: Erlich A. 2014. "Terracotta Figurines" in: I. Stern (ed.) The Excavations of Maresha: Subterranean Complex 57: The 'Heliodorus' Cave. BAR (IS) 2652: 39- 70, Fig. 6.36.
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