This small stylized figurine is carved out of alabaster. It comes from the Neolithic site of Tell es-Sawwan, located on the eastern bank of the Tigris, at the mouth of the great alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia. A simple irrigation system allowed its inhabitants to cultivate various domestic varieties of cereals and leguminous plants. The principal occupation period of the site corresponds to the Neolithic painted ware period known as the Samarra period (circa 6200–5700 BC), but the alabaster figurines that were discovered there are from the preceding period, that of the Hassuna (circa 6500–6000 BC). They come from individual tombs, most of them of children, which were dug beneath a large rectangular house made of unfired brick, which doubtless belonged to an important figure in the village.
Most of the tomb figurines of Tell es-Sawwan are representations of females. These could be interpreted as mothers whose role was to accompany the children to the world beyond, but some of the figurines were found in tombs of adults. The recurrent feminine symbolism, reinforced by the nudity of the figure, is instead evocative of an appeal to a protective power, which has traditionally been referred to as a “mother-goddess”. This primordial figure of fecundity and fertility appears to have played a central role in the imaginations of the first farming communities in the Near East.
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