The Art of Elam CA. 4200–525 BC by Javier Álvarez-Mon

Author:Javier Álvarez-Mon [Álvarez-Mon, Javier]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education, Teaching Methods & Materials, General, Arts & Humanities, History, Ancient, Social Science, Archaeology
ISBN: 9781000034851
Google: LxHaDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-03-31T01:38:22+00:00

Clothed women breastfeeding or clasping the hands together

This small corpus of figurines depicts clothed women who either nurse a baby or hold their hands clasped together at the waist in a worship gesture. They are very diverse in terms of facial features, hairstyles, and costume, though the garments are often typified by a square neckline.

Plate 95Terracotta dressed ladies breastfeeding and clasping hands (ca. 1600–1100 BC)

Breastfeeding Women. Women shown with naked infants of a range of ages. Unlike the nursing goddesses of the sukkalmah period [Pl. 65k], they appear to be human—whether mothers or wet-nurses employed by the urban upper class.62 They have been found at Susa and at Choga Zanbil in the temple of the goddess Pinikir.63 In view of high infant mortality, they could have been prophylactic images intended to prevent demons from killing (“snatching”) babies or causing suckling problems.64

One of the four breastfeeding women presented here has a broad face, earrings, a row of beads around the neck, a long, pleated robe covering the shoulders, and bare feet [Pl. 95a].65 She holds the baby with the left hand and supports its head with the right as it suckles. Another, missing the head and feet [Pl. 95b], wears two bracelets on each wrist and a dotted garment with a square neckline and fringes with square-shaped tassels that run diagonally along the hip and horizontally mid-way down the skirt.66 The right hand holds the right breast and the left hand holds the baby who touches the left breast as it feeds from it. Another figurine missing the head and lower section has a spotted, short-sleeved garment with a wide, square neckline, and a pair of bracelets on each wrist [Pl. 95c].67 The left hand supports the baby, the right rests on its belly. The baby has a large head and a long, lean body with legs parted, one in front of the other. It touches the woman’s left breast but does not seem to be feeding. One completely preserved figurine has a turban-like headdress, earrings, a necklace with two (or three?) rows of beads, bracelets, and a long garment with a wide, square neckline, and two triangular shoulder straps that may belong to a cape secured by diagonally positioned pins [Pl. 95d].68 The left hand supports the baby, the right rests on its belly. The baby’s legs are parted, one in front of the other, and its left hand rests on the left breast.

Clothed females with clasped hands. One figurine, now-headless [Pl. 95e], wears a long garment with a square neckline, fish-scale pattern, and a long fringe at the hemline. The arms are covered by a cape that may be attached to the garment with a pair of pins at the chest. The hands are clasped and three bracelets encircle each wrist. Bare toes peep out from below the garment fringe.69 The peculiar cape secured by two diagonal pins at the chest is worn by another headless figurine [Pl. 95f] with two bracelets on each wrist and a long garment

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