- Identification and Creation
-
- Object Number
- 1965.518
- Title
- Female Head from a Votive Statuette
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Work Type
- sculpture, head
- Date
- c. 2600 BCE-2400 BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia
- Period
- Early Dynastic III period
- Culture
- Sumerian
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/289241
- Physical Descriptions
-
- Medium
- Alabaster
- Dimensions
- Height: 4.8 cm (1 7/8 in.)
- Acquisition and Rights
-
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norbert Schimmel
- Accession Year
- 1965
- Object Number
- 1965.518
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Descriptions
-
- Description
- Head broken off at neck. The hair, falling in triple strands on the forehead and sides, is arranged to form a circular roll around the top of the head to the back. The eyes are hollowed for inlay. Nose and chin are damaged and overall there are surface abrasions.
The head is probably from a votive statue, similar to those found as part of the sculpture hoard from the Abu-Temple at Tell Asmar, and is likely to have performed a similar function. Votive statues varied in size and shape and were placed in temples, buried under the floor or built into the shrine. The figures, often shown making a gesture of prayer, were intended to represent the worshipper before the god.
- Publication History
-
David Gordon Mitten and Amy Brauer, Dialogue with Antiquity, The Curatorial Achievement of George M. A. Hanfmann, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 16, no. 64.
- Exhibition History
-
The Art of Sumer and Akkad, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 04/03/1973 - 05/27/1973
Dialogue with Antiquity: The Curatorial Achievement of George M.A. Hanfmann, Fogg Art Museum, 05/07/1982 - 06/26/1982
-
This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu