‘Precanonical’ female statuette

This female nude statuette, with clasped hands, has a rounded, imposing form, complete with broad neck, rounded head and curved thighs. The face is barely rendered, but we can imagine it enhanced and embellished by colour. This statuette comes from the Cyclades, Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. The position of the hands makes it typical of the so-called ‘Precanonical’ female statuettes, dated to around 2800-2700 BCE (early Bronze Age), as opposed to the ‘Canonical’ models with folded arms. We don’t know the meaning or meanings of these stylised figurines, which have been found in tombs and in some cases in dwellings. They probably had a magical, religious, funerary or cultic function, and may have been associated with rites of passage.