Description:

Ancient Near East, Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, Neolithic Chalcolithic period, ca. 5500 to 3000 BCE. A wonderful hand-built redware pottery head of a miniature size with a tall ovoid form, an elongated neck, coffee-bean-shaped eyes, a perky nose, and an impressed mouth, all beneath a simple coiffure that drapes to the base. Ancient idols like this one, that reduce the human figure to minimalist shapes and lines, are considered some of our oldest abstract art. They fascinate us today in part because they hint at a belief system and cosmology that we can no longer access or understand. Instead, we guess at the meaning - are they fertility charms? Representations of old gods? Were they made to be carried as apotropaic charms, or simply to be placed in tombs? Size: 0.4" W x 1.1" H (1 cm x 2.8 cm); 1.375" H (3.5 cm) on included custom stand.

Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection

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#137636

  • Condition: This is a fragment of a larger pottery figure. Minor nicks to neck base and light softening to some finer details, otherwise intact and very good. Light earthen deposits throughout.

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August 22, 2019 7:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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$300 $999 $50
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$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000