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Back to previous pageNEOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 6TH-4TH MILLENNIUM B.C.
5 7/8 in. (6 1/2 in.) (635 grams, 15 cm (686 grams total, 16.5 cm including stand)).
With rounded profile, stub arms and head without facial detailing, vestigial legs; accompanied by a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]
PROVENANCE:
From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12087-217184.
LITERATURE:
Cf. Morris, D., The Art of Ancient Cyprus, Oxford, 1985, figs.114-115, pp.120-121, for similar idols.
FOOTNOTES:
Most scholars consider these as symbols of the cult of fertility and evidence of the existence of a matriarchal society as a form of organisation of the earliest human society. The people of the Stone Age may have considered figures such as this to represent women and mothers with their life-giving powers, or as depictions of the ancestors.
