Early Anatolian Stone Skull Idol

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Ancient / Ethnographic From Around the World

By Artemis Gallery

Jun 20, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-06-20 10:00:00 2019-06-20 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient / Ethnographic From Around the World https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-ethnographic-from-around-the-world-4217
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• Lot Description
  Near East / Turkey, Anatolia, late Neolithic to Chalcolithic Period, ca. 6000 to 3000 BCE. Hand-carved from a coarse cream-colored stone, this is a fascinating and unusual idol figure in the form of a long ovoid, with an abstract, human skull-like face carved at the top and relief human hands clasped at the waist. The eye sockets are deep, rounded holes in the upper part of the face, with smoothed portions of stone in long rectangles around them. The nose is a thin, raised line, while relief teeth are carved below that - only from the lower jaw, with no upper row of teeth. The staring eyes and nose form are very similar to those found on a clay head fragment from Domuztepe (south central Turkey). It is believed that the deepset eyes on that figure and similar ones known from other Chalcolithic Anatolian sites were inlaid with precious stones. Size: 4.8" W x 11.55" H (12.2 cm x 29.3 cm); 16" H (40.6 cm) on included custom stand.
  
  Decapitation and a preoccupation with skulls are ideas found in many ancient cultures, and Anatolia was no different. The plastered, cinnabar-painted, and otherwise decorated skulls found at Catal Hoyuk and other Anatolian archaeological sites indicate that the people who lived there had a relationship with the disembodied heads of the dead that modern people may struggle to understand or see as a sign of ancient brutality. However, it seems like people in the past had a very different relationship with them than we do today. For example, several of these skulls were placed in outdoor, public spaces that may have been readily viewable by people in their everyday lives. Others were found in what archaeologists believe are shrines. Representations of skulls, like this idol, are also known from the same time and place - for example, the head-shaped cup found in a late Neolithic burial at Catal Hoyuk. Do they represent ancestors? Idealized worshippers? Gods? We may never know.
  
  Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection, acquired from Boris Mussienko, Maryland, USA, in the late 1980s
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #143567

  Condition

  Loss from lower part of the body as shown, as well as from side and back of head. Weathered surface with deposits. Nice remaining detail.
• Shipping Info

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