An Old Babylonian terracotta plaque depicting the nude female deity Astarte, shown standing with her hands clasped to her stomach. The reverse is unmodelled.
 
Old Babylonian period: Circa. 1900-1600 BC.
 
Condition: Fine, complete, and intact, the details worn although this may be from wear to the cast from which the mould was originally taken.
Height 14.7 cms (5.8 ins).
 
Provenance: From a London gallery, previously a 1990's collection acquired on the UK arts market.
 
These fertility figurines are the most common type of Babylonian votive statuettes and served as votive offerings or as amulets for conception and childbirth.
 
Astarte represents the Hellenised form of the goddess Ishtar (Akkadian), Astarte (Phoenician), or Inanna (Sumerian). Astarte 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 as her worship spread through Cyprus.