Anthropomorphic Figurines

It was a February afternoon in 2009, in the prehistoric
antiquities room of the Archaeological Museum of Naxos,
when I first talked with Colin Renfrew about the publication
of all the Early Cycladic figurines found in excavations.
Our conversation took place among the cases in which
the antiquities from Keros, and all the large figurines
from Aplomata, Phiondas, and other sites are exhibited.
Renfrew, as the excavator of Keros, where a large number
of marble figurine fragments and vases have been recently
found, wanted to look for comparanda in the excavated
material. The author, as the then Ephor of the Ephorate
of Antiquities for the Cyclades but also the excavator of
Skarkos, wished to see all the excavated material published.
Thus we joined forces and after a long collaboration our
efforts materialized in the form of a symposium entitled
Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context, held at the Athens
Archaeological Society on 27–29 May 2014.

The results of this symposium are presented here.
The current volume aims to publish a very important
class of material, partly unknown to scholarship. At the
same time, it constitutes a break from the usual way of
treating and publishing Early Cycladic sculptures...

When JRB Stewart and his team excavated at the Early Cypriot necropolis at Bellapais-Vounous they uncovered a wealth of material which shaped our understanding of this formative stage of the island’s Bronze Age. Amongst this material was a curious collection of figurative objects, including elaborate vessels decorated with animal and object protomes and life-size clay models of inanimate objects. These generally well-preserved and visually attractive objects have since become emblematic of Early Cypriot art and religion and, since many forms are still known exclusively from this influential context, of the site of Vounous itself. This paper draws on a comprehensive programme of iconographical and contextual analyses to offer a new interpretation of this fascinating yet enigmatic corpus. Calling on a diverse range of evidence, including spatial analysis within the cemetery, contemporary faunal data and analysis of Early Cypriot figurative material from elsewhere on the island, this paper will present a re-evaluation of the function and significance of Vounous’ figurative material. The paper will conclude by presenting the implications of these new interpretations for our understanding of the changing nature of burial ritual at Vounous and the manifestation of individual and group identities within the cemetery.

Drawing upon multiple lines of archaeological evidence, including mortuary ritual, faunal bone, ceramic effigy vessels, and rock art, I argue that birds were an important component of Fremont ideology. This " bird cult " was situated within a larger framework of Fremont ritual practice which incorporated a variety of worn or carried objects identifiable in the archaeological record. I place Fremont ritual use of birds in the context of sympathetic magic, fetishism, totemism, shamanism, and the impersonation of supernaturals. Fremont ideology and ritual practice requires additional research; however, this investigation suggests a ritual life as rich and varied as the elaborate rock art and figurines for which the Fremont are so well-known.

Bodies make space speak. This graduate seminar investigates the relationship between bodily practice, social performance, and the production of architectural space. Critical literature on the human body, its gender and sexuality, its materiality, and everyday life have flourished in the recent decades, while discussions of architectural space, place and landscape came to the foreground. Drawing on this corpus of recent scholarship in the social sciences and humanities, we will work closely with architectural, art historical and archaeological case studies drawn from the ancient Near Eastern world, and consider the impact of such new paradigms on the field. Neolithic figurines, megalithic monuments, rock reliefs, cave paintings, funerary rituals, urban festivals and festive spaces with visual narrative programs will constitute some of the case studies. Discussions of embodiment, embodied subjectivity, agency of objects, animism of architectural spaces and landscapes, gendered representation of the body, gender performance, multi-sensorial experience of the everyday world, spectacles of the state and biopolitics will play a central role in the seminar. While reading theoretical scholarship on body, performance and space, we will also be studying closely select case studies of archaeological sites, bodies of material evidence drawn from athe ancient Middle Eastern world from prehistory to the late Iron Age.

*Most of the pieces from Acemhöyük are presented in this article for the first time. The interested reader can find C14 dates of the EBA levels of Acemhöyük as well.

This study investigates the faience and frit artefacts of Acemhöyük (Aksaray, Turkey) dated to the Early Bronze Age and Assyrian Trading Colonies Period, when vitreous materials were among the rare materials within Anatolia and its neighbouring regions. The chemical compositions and use of colourants are determined with the aid of portable X-ray fluorescence (p-XRF). Archaeometric analysis demonstrates the use of copper and manganese for blue and black colours, respectively. The results of the elemental analysis suggest at least two different workshops for the Acemhöyük vitreous materials. The archaeological and archaeometric data strongly support the existence of an Anatolian workshop for vitreous materials in the early Second Millennium BC.

--

Bu makalede Acemhöyük’te bulunmuş Eski Tunç Çağı ve Asur Ticaret Kolonileri Çağı’na tarihlenen fayans ve frit buluntular ele alınmıştır. Anadolu ve yakın komşularındaki benzerleri ile arkeolojik olarak karşılaştırılan eserlerin, kimyasal içerikleri ve renklendirici kullanımları taşınabilir X-ışını floresansı (p-XRF) yöntemiyle tespit edilmiştir. Bu analizler, Acemhöyük’te bulunmuş vitrifiye mallarının renklendirilmesinde mavi renk için bakır, siyah renk için ise manganez kullanıldığını ortaya koymuştur. Buluntuların elementel analiz sonuçları, Acemhöyük’te vitrifiye objelerin en az iki farklı üretim merkezinden geldiğine işaret etmektedir. Arkeolojik ve arkeometrik verilerin beraber değerlendirilmesi ile ortaya konan veriler, MÖ İkinci Binyıl’ın erken dönemlerinde vitrifiye malzemeler için Anadolu’da bir üretim atölyesinin varlığı ihtimalini güçlendirmektedir.

This paper deals with humanoid figures on gold foils from the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia. Interpreted as figures wearing masks, an effort is made to show the complexity, importance and significance of masking practices. The single Bornholm figures from the 6'" century are interpreted as shamans performing rituals. Further, it is proposed that a restriction of masked appearances and performances to certain people (shamans) and places in the long run created stricter and more rigid gender roles in everyday life. The later gold-foil couples are seen as signs of divine communication, cosmological movement and seasonality, making up a mythology that legitimised political domination —the sacred lineage of rulers pivoting around an apical, ancestral cross-sex pair.

"El presente trabajo se basa sobre todo en el hallazgo de los ídolos aparecidos en la Pijotilla (Badajoz), con una generalización de los mismos relacionados con otros del occidente de la península Ibérica. Los ídolos de La Pijotilla han sido publicados en el número de Zephyrus (Salamanca) dedicado al Centenario de Sautuola (1979) y a él nos remitimos para una concretización del tema. Dentro del complejo ajuar que acompaña al difunto en los se-pulcros megalíticos o que se encuentran en los poblados del periodo calcolítico, quizás sea el ídolo el elemento más espectacular, tanto por lo que conlleva como pieza religiosa, adentrándonos así en las creencias de un pueblo prehistórico-como por su plástica, la cual, a veces rebasa los esquemas que en un principio podíamos presuponer para tal cultura. Estas piezas, además, plantean una problemática mayor al tratar su dispersión geográfica y su origen-cronología. Es a través de estas manifestaciones externas como podemos indagar en el sentimiento religioso del hombre prehistórico, cuyo sentido total se nos escapa al igual que muchos significados de los que nunca podremos estar completamente seguros y que aceptamos de acuerdo con nuestros propios esquemas."

Judean pillar figurines are one of the most common ritual objects from Iron II Israel. These small terracotta females have received a great deal of scholarly attention, appearing in
discussions about Israelite religion, monotheism, and women's practice. Yet the figurines are still poorly understood. Modern interpreters connect the figurines with goddesses, popular
religion, and females but often base their arguments on the presumed significance of the figurines' breasts and the Hebrew Bible. In contrast, archaeological context is frequently
overshadowed or oversimplified. In an attempt to address these problems and to understand figurine rituals in Jerusalem, Erin Darby evaluates relevant Near Eastern texts, archaeological
context, biblical texts, and Near Eastern iconography. She also explores changes in figurine iconography, the function of the figurines in rituals of healing and protection and the gender of
figurine users.

The Tollense valley in northeast Germany is well known for its substantial evidence indicating a violent conflict dated to the early 13th century BC (Period III of the Nordic Bronze Age). This article presents a significant new find from a later Bronze Age context, found in the river at a known Bronze Age valley crossing (site Weltzin 13) by Ronald Borgwardt in 2020. The small bronze figurine (14.7 cm tall) has an egg-shaped head with a prominent nose, looped arms, a neckring, two knobs signifying breasts, a belt, an indication of a female sex and two slightly differently shaped legs. In the 19th century a similar female statuette was found near the village of Klein Zastrow, just a few kilometres from the valley crossing, but mostly these figurines are known from Zealand and Scania. Belts are only present on the statuettes from Zealand and northern Germany, and their presence suggests a close connection between the figures from these areas. Typological evidence places the figure fro...

Sormás – Török-földek lelőhely kisplasztikája
különösen gazdag, de a Mántai-dûlõben is szép számmal
kerültek elõ idoltöredékek, állatszobrocskák, oltárok,
stb… Jelen dolgozatban a lengyeli kultúra azon
leleteit közlöm, melyeken viseleti elemeket ábrázoltak.
A 19 db lelet egy kivételével a Sormás – Törökföldekről
származik, 1. – 18. számú idoltöredékek (2–
11. kép; 12. kép 1–2; 13. kép 1–2), a Mántai-dűlőből
mindössze 1 db, a19. sz. ( 12. kép 3; 13. kép 3). Ez az
arány megfelel a korai lengyeli kultúra eltérõ arányú
jelenlétének a két lelõhelyen. Ezek a változatos, szépen
díszített idolok jól elemezhetõ forráscsoportot alkotnak.
A tanulmányban bemutatott és elemzett sormási
kisplasztikákon felismerhetõ viseleti elemek nagy
része, azaz a felsõruha (ing vagy tunika, ruha, ill.
szoknya), kötény, ékszerek (nyaklánc és nyakék), testfestés,
tetoválás és választékkal tagolt frizura szakirodalmi
adatok alapján jól ismert. Az itt közölt
leletek két új adattal gyarapítják eddigi ismereteinket:
1. A csizma-modell alapján egy újkőkori környezetből
korábban nem ismert lábbeli rekonstruálható szinte
teljes pontossággal. 2. Az összesen nyolc idol
töredéken megfigyelt több soros, tagolt öv a női
viselet, s ezen belül is nagy valószínűséggel a szertartási
öltözet része. Ábrázolása csak idolokról (Sé –
Malomi dûlõ, KALICZ 1995: Abb. 32, 4, 6–9),
valamint egy séi anthropomorf edényről ismert
(KÁROLYI 2003: 208); használata is valószínûleg a
szakrális szférához kapcsolódott, istennői (papnői)
attribútum lehetett.

English Summary:


This remarkable book is the fruit of 30 years of investigations of two archaeologists, husband and wife, Maria Magdalena and Andrzej Antczak, on the pre-Hispanic archaeology of the majestic Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela. The uniqueness of the Los Roques Archipelago within the panorama of insular pre-colonial archaeology in the Americas centers on the discovery of more than 400 human clay figurines on one small island, Dos Mosquises, along with elaborate primary ritual contexts and the remains of a gargantuan queen conch (lobatus gigas) exploitation enterprise. This book is the winner of two of the highest scientific publication awards in Venezuela (2006 & 2009).


Resumen en Español:


Desde el título de este volumen de indiscutible valor, la palabra “prometidas” aplica oportunamente a nuestro maravilloso archipiélago venezolano de Los Roques la alegoría bíblica que coloca al final de un exigente camino hermosas tierras, donde corren ríos de leche y miel. Hacia estas islas con abundantes recursos marinos, entre los cuales destaca el gran caracol marino llamado ‘botuto’, se dirigían las canoas indígenas durante al menos cuatro siglos antes de la conquista europea. Las campañas de explotación de los recursos en las islas dependían del éxito de la actividad ceremonial, testimoniada por centenares de figurinas humanas, incensarios, ocarinas y pipas cerámicas, flautas de hueso y silbatos de concha, recuperados por los arqueólogos en complejos contextos primarios.

La presencia de esta diversidad de objetos en los campamentos temporales de las pequeñas islas oceánicas es un fenómeno excepcional en la arqueología del Caribe. En este sentido, la publicación de esta monografía es el cumplimiento de un prolongado esfuerzo y de un caro anhelo por proporcionar al lector una explicación sólida y coherente de este fenómeno arqueológico único. Es también el final de una importante etapa de ese camino verdaderamente exigente de la investigación arqueológica. A través de sus páginas, con un soporte teórico documental de inusual solidez y pertinencia, se difunde el fruto de muchos años de perseverante dedicación para sus autores, María Magdalena Mackowiak de Antczak y Andrzej Antczak, arqueólogos y antropólogos vinculados desde hace tiempo con la Universidad Simón Bolívar.

Se trata, sin duda, de una obra mayor, enriquecida por 1500 ilustraciones y más de 200 tablas, que describe hallazgos arqueológicos excepcionales recuperados de manera sistemática durante más de 60 campañas de trabajo de campo, y desarrolla propuestas verdaderamente seminales para el entendimiento del significado y la valoración del legado prehispánico en Venezuela y, en especial, en sus territorios insulares.

Este volumen ha sido concebido no solamente como lectura referencial para profesionales y estudiantes de arqueología y antropología, sino también esta dirigido al lector no especializado que puede sentirse atraído por el vibrante, colorido y desconocido pasado prehispánico presentado en estas páginas. También, a través de esta monografía los autores aspiran a infundir El Orgullo por el Pasado, el lema que orienta sus trabajos de investigación y docencia.

Este vasto y complejo proyecto editorial ha sido posible gracias a la concertación de un gran equipo profesional y una venturosa alianza de nuestra Universidad con Banesco y Petrozuata, confluencias que celebramos también como promesas felizmente cumplidas.

El libro ha recibido numerosos premios nacionales incluyendo:

IV Premio Nacional del Libro 2006, Mejor Libro Científico otorgado por el Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Cultura.

2009 Premio Alterno por Mejor Investigación en Ciencias Sociales, otorgado por la ASOVAC (Asociación Venezolana para el Avance de la Ciencia).

2007 Premio Andrés Bello para la Mejor Investigación en Ciencias Sociales otorgado por la Universidad Simón Bolívar.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui peranan antropomorfisme maskot terhadap pencitraan merek, yang pada hal ini adalah peranan Lucy sebagai antropomorfisme maskot untuk pencitraan band Cranial Incisored. Teknik pengambilan subjek penelitian atau informan yang digunakan adalah purposive sampling, dengan kriteria: 1) Informan merupakan fans atau penggemar band Cranial Incisored, 2) Informan mempunyai CD dan atau merchandise dari band Cranial Incisored yang terdapat Lucy didalamnya, 3) Berusia 18 tahun keatas. Lebih spesifik, kriteria informan yang dipilih sebanyak tiga orang yang berlatar belakang mahasiswa dan pekerja, hal itu dimaksudkan agar informan mempunyai sudut pandang dan keunikan tersendiri. Dengan teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah wawancara, serta teknik analisa data yang digunakan adalah deskriptif kualitatif dengan metode perbandingan tetap atau constant comparative method. Pada akhirnya, pemeriksaan keabsahan data yang digunakan adalah triangulasi sumber, yaitu dari personil Cranial Incisored sendiri. Dari ketiga informan, diketahui bahwa match strategy sangat ditonjolkan dalam penciptaan Lucy jika dihubungkan dengan Cranial Incisored. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, didapatkan bahwa dengan menggunakan match strategy untuk maskot Lucy, Cranial Incisored mengkomunikasikan brand image yang terdiri dari karakter Jepang, genre musik, lirik lagu, dan ketidaklaziman. Namun demikian, ditemukan juga reputasi dari penggemar yang menghubungkan Lucy dengan Cranial Incisored, yaitu karakter personel di panggung.

Avatars are growing in popularity and present in many interfaces used for computer-mediated communication (CMC) including social media; e-commerce; and education. Communication researchers have been investigating avatars for over twenty years; and an examination of this literature reveals similarities but also notable discrepancies in conceptual definitions. The goal of this review is to provide a general overview of current debates; methodological approaches; and trends in findings. Our review synthesizes previous research in four areas. First; we examine how scholars have conceptualized the term “avatar;” identify similarities and differences across these definitions; and recommend that scholars use the term consistently. Next; we review theoretical perspectives relevant to avatar perception (e.g.; the computers as social actors framework). Then; we examine avatar characteristics that communicators use to discern the humanity and social potential of an avatar (anthropomorphism; form realism; behavioral realism; and perceived agency) and discuss implications for attributions and communication outcomes. We also review findings on the social categorization of avatars; such as when people apply categories like sex; gender; race; and ethnicity to their evaluations of digital representations. Finally; we examine research on avatar selection and design relevant to communication outcomes. Here; we review both motivations in CMC contexts (such as self-presentation and identity expression) and potential effects (e.g.; persuasion). We conclude with a discussion of future directions for avatar research and propose that communication researchers consider avatars not just as a topic of study; but also as a tool for testing theories and understanding critical elements of human communication. Avatar mediated environments provide researchers with a number of advantageous technological affordances that can enable manipulations that may be difficult or inadvisable to execute in natural environments. We conclude by discussing the use of avatar research to extend communication theory and our understanding of communication processes.

This thesis reports on the 2010 excavations of the North Group and Eastern Court at the ancient Lowland Maya site of Pacbitun. It provides a construction history of the architecture and an analysis of associated artifacts, burials, and caches. The archaeological investigations demonstrate that the seven structures (Strs. 34-40) of this restricted access plazuela group were built in the Early Classic period, and renewed in the Late Classic period. Based on analyses of artifacts (ceramics and lithics), skeletal and faunal remains, and intra- and inter-site comparisons, the North Group functioned as a secondary elite domestic residential group. Reconstruction suggests that the inhabitants here were not commoners; instead, the occupants probably were related to the ruling elite of Pacbitun. Some of the evidence includes the central location and elevation of the North Group, the presence of red painted plaster surfacing, a burial with multiple ceramic musical instruments, and multiple dedicatory caches with exotic goods (e.g., marine shell, jadeite, "Charlie Chaplin" figures).

ABSTRACT: This lecture (Part-2) continues the examination of Old Kingdom elite tombs, looking at (1) other types of middle-upper class tombs that emerge in Old Kingdom Egypt (i.e., rock-cut tombs; rock-cut mastaba tombs); (2) various reasons why such apparently “different” tombs emerge and whether they really are so different (i.e., identical components; non-structural elements); (3) ancient tomb robbing, robbers, and how some tomb builders/owners try to combat robbery (e.g., decoy chambers); (4) a brief discussion of changes in tomb design during the ED-Old Kingdom; (5) the sorts of texts and decoration (genres) found in middle-upper class tombs; (6) the artists and various techniques applied in decorating elite tombs (e.g., training; painting; relief work; stages; etc.); (7) the various ways in which Ancient Egyptian artists portrayed things (e.g., twisted profile; architecture); (8) the various types of decorative themes that emerged in Old Kingdom elite tombs; (9) the significance of the various decoration (genres) found throughout elite tombs (e.g., essential/key funerary elements [e.g., banquet scene] versus less crucial/non-essential things [e.g., daily life and other scenes]); (10) other things we can say about the elite tomb architecture, decoration, and their significance (e.g., nullifying potential dangers in decoration [depicting snakes without heads]; superstitions regarding completing funeral procession scenes); (11) the different types of elite burial chambers and examples of and changes in  decorated ones (versus mostly non-decorated ones); (12) some examples of non-royal sarcophagi (i.e., “stone coffins”: rectilinear boxes); (13) selected examples of non-royal, elite coffins (i.e., wooden, rectilinear boxes); (14) some "typical" mortuary furnishings (burial goods) found in elite tombs; and (15) the forms of and furnishings in middle class and lower class tombs and graves (only a brief summary to illustrate the burial practices of the bulk of Egypt's Old Kingdom populace).  The lecture ends with a series of text slides summarizing the main points from both parts 1-2 of the lectures on elite Old Kingdom tombs.  UPDATED: March 13, 2023. Much editing/formatting, plus some new images, and adding a selected set of sources (end slides)

This paper investigates two types of terracotta figurine, both from East African cultures, which are unusual in their resemblance to ceramic statuettes from pre-Indo-European south-eastern Europe (Old Europe) and the Ancient Near East (6th-1st millennium BCE).  The first type consists of a “phallic female” style of fertility doll from the Samburu or Turkana peoples of northern Kenya, in which an obviously phallic body-shape is given unmistakably female attributes such as breasts (“Gudza doll;” Section 1). The result resembles the well-known Amlash idols from Iran of the early 1st millennium BCE. The second type consists of figurines that look like Neolithic to Iron Age fertility statuettes of Eurasian provenance and includes an Astarte-like bird-headed goddess nursing an infant (Section 2). These were made by Beta Israel (Falasha) women from the Gondar region of Ethiopia. In recent years, most of this Jewish community has relocated to Israel. Many surprises are encountered in unravelling the origins, creation, use and appreciation of these two groups of curious and challenging artifacts. Ranging from Australopithecus to Zimbabwe, from Baba Yaga to Beta Israel and from Yemen to semen, the over-arching narrative could equally well have been titled "The Sex-Lives of Statuettes."

The spiritual life of Neolithic Bulgaria has been extremely rich and various. The cult for fertility and the female role in it is reflected in the anropomorphic figurines represented in this publication by a number of unique examples published here for the first time. Less representative are the zoomorphic figurines which are impossible to interprete as pieces of art. But the zoomorphic and antropomorphic pottery is true art. There is a large variety of Late Neolithic figurines, among which a number of Early Eneolithic prototypes could be mentioned. Richly decorated, they most probably were altars because on such a find from Hotnitsa legs from a figurine that had originally been attached to the altar can be seen. These altars were called „small cuit tables“ and are an important component of the Neolithic art complex. The development of the burial rites during the Neolithic is of special interest. From the period of the Early Neolithic we know a few burials intra murum laid in a hoker position, while from the Late Neolithic we already have information about some extra mural burials. Among these the burials in Durankulak are entirely studied. Here the dead were buried bi-ritually; the women in a hoker position with the head to the North and the men stretched on their backs with their heads also to the North. Certain differences in social status between the individuals buried can be noticed. During the Early Neolithic there appeared the sign system. It can be found in the incised ornaments of ceramics or is independantly met on pintaderas and lids or bottoms of pots. The latter are especially characteristic of the Late Neolithic.

Recently three anthropomorphic male figurine heads were excavated from the sites of Khirbet Qeiyafa and Moẓa, located in the Kingdom of Judah. Two similar male heads from the antiquities market found their way to the Moshe Dayan Collection, amassed by Israel’s former legendary ministry of defense, and now appear in the Israel Museum. Together the five objects create a new type of male figurine, with three of them seeming to represent a rider on a horse. The figurines date to the tenth and ninth centuries B.C.E., the earlier period of the Kingdom of Judah. The combination of archaeological contexts, time periods, geographic distribution, iconography, Ugaritic texts, and the biblical tradition indicates that these figurines represent a male god—but which god?

Figürin kategorisinin tanımı değişken olup, figürinler bölgesel, geleneksel ve kronolojik bağlamda farklılıklar gösterir. Figürinler, taşınabilirliği ve üç boyutlu imalı biçimleriyle öncelikle olarak heykelcik formlarına sahiptirler. İnsan yapımı bu malzemeler çeşitli formlarda görülebilir (insan biçimli, hayvan, tanrı ve tanrıça, belirsiz). Süreç olarak figürin kavramı bir figürinin oluşumundaki her aşamasından söz edilebilir. Figürinlerin formu benzer öğeler üzerinde değişik açılarda görülen farklı unsurların (tunç, mermer, kireçtaşı vb.) tanımına da yardımcı olurlar. Tarih öncesi figürinler aynı zamanda cinsiyet (erkek ve kadın) aracılığıyla ideal cinsiyeti yaratma ortamını sunmuş olabilirler.

The definition of the category of figurine is variable and differs based on regional, traditional and chronological context. Figurines primacy should be given to statuette forms, hintingly portability and three dimensionality. Figurines can be of varied forms (anthropomorphic, animal, god and goddess, ambiguous forms). The notion of figurine as process can refer to almost every stage in the life of a figurine. The figurine form can lend itself to the depiction of different elements on the same item, (bronze, marble, limestone and so on.) perhaps as viewed form different angles. Figurines should also have offered the medium for creating an ideal of gender or sex through the elision of male via androgynous representation, or via the duality of male and female figures composing the same figurine.

Since the inception of the discipline of archaeology, figurines have been considered as the basis for research into the praehistoric social order and religious ideas. In spite of the numerous critiques, the idea that they are the reflection of adoration of Mother Goddess and fertility cults, has persevered even to the present day, mainly thanks to the work of Maria Gimbutas. Her simplified approach to praehistory, apart from giving rise to pseudo-archaeological narratives, has induced severe criticism and polemics inside archaeology. The concept of the Goddess has migrated during the recent period from the academic writing to the realm of pseudo-science, daily politics and activism. In our country, the ideas
of the Golden Past, considered to be the origin of the European civilization, are particularly present in the „grey zone“: the public sphere, facilitated through media. All these narratives are based upon the preconception that in the Neolithic collections the representations of women dominate. The results of the preliminary analyses of gender representation in Neolithic assemblages have proven that the claims of women’s dominance are ill-founded, and emphasized
once more the significant presence, or even dominance of asexual figurines. On the other hand, the criteria for identification have shown to be unreliable, raising the question of usefulness of such attempts, as well as a number of new questions. Primarily, the role and meaning of the presence/absence of secondary sex attributes, their correlation to age, as well as possible regional differences in meaning and function of figurines are discussed.

Anthropomorphic figurines resemble people, very often the people who created them. Thus, these figurines stand to provide insight into their cultures perhaps from the perspective of the original members of the culture. Researchers in figurine studies often speculate on the purposes of figurines and attempt to interpret their meanings. This study attempts to examine anthropomorphic figurines of the Neolithic in Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe through cataloged and compared physical characteristics of the figurines themselves gathered from published data into a relational database. Figurine data are then imported into statistical software for analysis. The data produced in this study support the early hypothesis that a disproportionate number of figurines are representative of the female sex compared to male. The data also strengthen newer hypotheses that asexual figurines are equally disproportionate. The results reveal trends in representations of sex and suggest perhaps figurine creators may not always have been end users.

The present study investigates questions of religious syncretism and household cult through an interdisciplinary study of terracotta figurines of Egyptian deities found at Delos, an important Hellenistic Greek port of trade. A comparison of the figurines’ iconography to parallels in Egyptian religious texts, temple reliefs, and ritual objects reveals that many of the figurines depict deities or rituals associated with the festival of the Inundation. Furthermore, an analysis of the figurines’ clay fabrics and manufacturing techniques suggests that the vast majority of the Egyptianizing terracottas on Delos were locally made, so the figurines’ allusions to Egyptian religion accurately reflect the theological knowledge of craftsmen on Delos. Finally, the use of unpublished excavation notes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries enables a reconstruction of the figurines’ previously-lost archaeological contexts, shedding light on their roles and significance in both domestic and temple cults.

This monograph investigates the spread of Egyptian religion into the Greek world through an interdisciplinary study of the iconography, archaeological contexts, clay fabric, and manufacturing techniques of terracotta figurines of Egyptian deities found at the important Hellenistic Greek trading port of Delos. Extant studies of Hellenistic terracotta figurines often take an art-historical approach, rather than considering the webs of social relations and practices surrounding these artifacts. However, when examined in their proper archaeological context, these figurines can shed light on many issues important to anthropologists as well as Classicists and Egyptologists. In particular, the presence of themes from so-called “official” religion in mass-produced, widely accessible objects such as terracotta figurines suggests a closer, more complex relationship between “popular” and “official” cults than is often acknowledged.