Bollettino dei Monumenti Musei e Gallerie Pontificie 2002 [antikvár]

A FEMALE CLAY FIGURINE FROM TELL AGRAB (IRAQ) IN THE VATICAN MUSEUMS by LORENZO NIGRO Among many artifacts of the Pontifical Biblical Institute deposited in the Vatican Museums (Dept. of Near Eastern Andquities), a Mesopotamian female clay figurine (inv. D738) deserves a special mention, due to its formal quality, and because it exemplifies an early 2'"* millennium BC type, relatively rare in published records. The figurine is told to have been found at Tell Agrab (Iraq) on the surface of the tell.' The naked lady is shown as usual in frontal view, with open arms, broken at their ends (figs. 1-3). The lower part of the body is lost below the exaggerated vulva, and also the breasts and the left part of a necklace are broken. The uppermost of the right couple of earrings and the second button from the left of the five composing the topping of the headdress have fallen down too. The figurine is very well executed in pure pinkish clay (Munsell 10YR8/4, Very Pale Brown). The face of the lady (fig. 4) is framed by the long hairdo - bound on the back by means of a diadem which is enriched on the front with five buttons (possibly imitating precious stones or golden flowers or leaves) -, by two couples of crescentic earrings, carefully decorated with crossing incised lines, and four necklaces made of small vertical incised strokes. The hairstyle is noteworthy (fig. 5), since it is a well known arrangement of the Isin-Larsa Period, descending from a fashion already attested to during the Ur III Period,^ with two plaits folded behind ' It is reported to have been retrieved by Father R. North, s.j., during a trip in tlie '50ies. No other information is available. ^ F. Pinnock, The Iconography of the exita-Priestesses in the Period of the Ur HI Dynasty, in J. Prosecky ed., Intellectual Life of the Ancient Near East. Papers Presented at the 43' Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Prague, July 1-5 1996, Prague 1999, pp. 339-346.