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.

Possible Elamite Erotic Art

Possibly Another Elamite Artwork. There is a similar item that is claimed to be Elamite which we posted before. Link [1]
Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany
Source: Flickr [2]

Cylinder seal, with bull and lion

 Stone

Size: 2.6 (length), 1.9 (outside diameter)

ca 4000 BC

Bronze Age; Proto Elamite, Susa

Area of Origin: Northern Mesopotamia (Iraq)

Area of Use: Iraq; Iran, Asia

Royal Ontario Museum [1]

Explicit Elamite Tablets

Elamite period
Circa 1900-1200BC
Found in the ancient city of Susa

pictures in an article in Iranica Antiqua in our library. "The Iconography of Pre-Islamic women in Iran" (Aurelie Daems. Iranica Antiqua. Vol 36, 2001, p1-150) and 
"Eine Kneipe in Susa" (L. Trumpelmann. Iranica Antiqua. Vol 16, 1981, p35-44). There is a section on "erotica" in the 150-page masters thesis. The figurines and tablets in the following pictures are from the Neolithic period (8th millenium) all the way down to Sassanian times. The explicit tablets are mostly from Susa. Only the styles and focus of the art have changed down the ages.
Source: Iranian.com [1]

Ancient Elamite clay figure of Astarte 1350 BC

 An Elamite clay figure of the goddess Astarte, depicted nude with her hands cupped beneath her breasts and with elaborate coiffure, wearing bracelets, earrings and a necklace with pendant hanging between her breasts

Dated from, Middle Elamite period, 1350 BC

Ishtar (Akkadian), Astarte (Phoenician), or Inanna (Sumerian) was the most important female deity in Mesopotamia through the second millennium BC. She was identified with the planet Venus, and the sunrise. She was the goddess of both sexual love and warfare. The Greeks identified her with Aphrodite.

Measurements: Height: 14.5 cm – Width: 5 cm – Height on stand: 16.5 cm

Source: Aweidah Gallery [1]

An Elamite copper zebu

AN ELAMITE COPPER ZEBU 

CIRCA LATE 3RD MILLENNIUM B.C.

 
Standing, the head with projecting ears and short, tapering, curving horns, almond-shaped eyes with concentric rings, prominent neck hump and dewlap, and long, straight tail reaching down to its hooves
5¾ in. (14.6 cm.) long 

source: Christie's Acution [1]

A two horned figure wrestling with the serpents - Jiroft Civilization

The vase was possibly found from Elamite sites in Southwestern Iran, but it belongs to Jiroft culture
possibly kept in Iran. [1] [2]

Helmet with divine figures beneath a bird with outstretched wings

Middle Elamite Period
Circa 1500 - 1100 BC
Made of Bronze, gold foil over bitumen
Southwestern Iran
Metropolitan Museum of New York [1] 
Source: Flickr [1]