Female Worshipper Statuette

2700 BC - 2500 BC
Gypsum
Khafajah
41.5 cm x 15.5 cm x 11 cm
A11441

Oriental Institute Museum

Artifact Description

Female Worshipper Statuette

Scholars believe that worshipper statuettes were placed in temples to stand in perpetual prayer while their owners went about their daily lives. Found in a temple at Khafajah, this standing female figure is depicted wearing a tasseled shawl and a turban made of finely woven cloth. Her hair seems to protrude from beneath the turban at the ears and across the forehead.

Collected by

Henri Frankfort, Field Director of the Iraq Expedition
Excavated by The Oriental Institute 1932-1933

Multimedia

Life in Ancient Mesopotamia
What was life like in ancient Mesopotamia? Find out in this video featuring Oriental Institute Assyriologist Dr. Martha Roth.

A Worshipper Statue
What is a worshipper statue and why did the ancient Mesopotamians use them? Learn the answer to this question and more with this interactive.

Suggested Readings

Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994.

Frankfort, H. and H.A., John A. Wilson, and Thorkild Jacobsen. Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1946.

Van Der Toorn, Karel. From Her Cradle to Her Grave. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.

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