Tuesday, March 4, 2014

A Goddess Figure From Elam

The woman of the right is an Elamite goddess with an elaborate headdress and costume. She is holding her bare breasts in cupped hands. I took this image with my camera on my recent visit to Museum of Glassware in Iran during Christmas holidays. It seems she was made in mid 2nd millennium BC. A similar item is kept in Shush Museum in Iran [1]. I have also seen few more of such these in University of Pennsylvania's catalog as well as few antique shops. My guess is that she was some sort of fertility goddess and molded in large quantities at the time. So you might ask where Elam was? Ancient Elam was a civilization centered in the Southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Provinces, as well as a small part of southern Iraq.