LOT 0350

Large Stone Age Polished Kneeling Pregnant Goddess Idol

NEOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 6TH-4TH MILLENNIUM B.C. OR LATER

6 in. (1.07 kg total, 15.3 cm high including stand).

A carved and polished figurine with rounded head and broad shoulders, folded arms resting on each side of the protruding belly, legs folded beneath the body; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]

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.

Cf. Morris, D., The Art of Ancient Cyprus, Oxford, 1985, figs.108-109, p.119, for similar idols; Various, Idoles, Au commencement etait l’image, A la Reine Margot, 22 Novembre 1990-28 Fevrier 1991, Paris, 1990, figs.10-11, for similar; also see Caldwell, Duncan, The Use of Animals in Birth Protection Rituals and Possible Uses of Stone Figurines from the Central Sahel, 2015 winter issue, vol.48, no.4, Nov., pp.14-25.

Most scholars consider these as symbols of the fertility cult and as 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.