Tell Halaf "mother goddess" figurines

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21st November 2005

These "mother goddess" figurines appear frequently for sale, especially on eBay and many people ask about them.

This site, Tell Halaf, in modern day Syria is near the village of R'as al 'Ayn in the Khabur valley through which the Khabur river flows. It was discovered in 1899 by Baron Max von Oppenheim, a German engineer, while he was surveying the area in preparation the now non existent Berlin-Baghdad railway. He excavated the site from 1911 to 1913, and took many of the artifacts foundback to Berlin where he established a Tell Halaf museum to show the pieces found during excavation . There were further French excavations in 1927 and1929.

The museum von Oppenheim established was destroyed in aerial bombing in World War II and many of the artifacts were damaged or totally destroyed. However a large number of basalt fragments were later rescued and stored away in the Pergamon Museum. Since 2001 there has been a restoration project to reconstruct some of the damaged artifacts.

Female figurines have been found at many Halaf sites. They are generally squatting or sitting with their arms around the torsoand the hands in between pendulous breasts. They sometimes have large and oval-shaped eyes with "pinched" faces. Mallowan and Perkins described them as belonging to the "mother-goddess" tradition. Mallowan further suggested that the figurines were depictions of women in childbirth. However, some authorities (Ucko) believe they may have been children's toys. Ucko rejected Mallowan's suggestion of childbirth ase the figurines have flat stomachs and are seated with knees raised which is not a position for childbirt, and furthermore, because there are no known no Halaf figurines of a mother and child.

Map showing the location and a pic of Mallowan and his wife, the author, Agathe Christie at Tell Halaf

Map showing the area in which such so called "mother goddess" figurines have been found.

Before we take a look at some examples of these pieces, here are some which are in museums and are more likely than those seen on eBay to be genuine.

These black and white pics are of fragmentary figurines in the Ashmolean Museum