This statuette, probably fashioned from a mold with additional details of the body and coiffure cold-incised afterwards, depicts a standing nude woman with her arms raised to her head in a gesture of worship. Her wrists are each decorated with a pair of bracelets, and her braided locks are wrapped close to her head in a turban.

The statuette displays features that are widely seen in smaller scale Near Eastern bronze and terracotta figurines from the late 3rd through the 2nd millennium B.C.: rigid frontal pose, exaggerated pubic triangle, tiny waist, upraised arms, large eyes, connected brows and broad triangular nose. The pubic triangle is stippled and the prominent breasts are applied, emphasizing the sexuality of figure. This bronze probably played a votive or devotional role in fertility cults or in worship of “the Great Goddess”, Kirisha, who became the most important female deity in the Elamite pantheon during the 2nd millennium.

Elamite art is very closely related to Mesopotamian art. During the period of the 3rd – early 2nd millennium B.C., Elamite culture and history was linked to that of its neighbors: Sumer and Babylon. The capital of Elam was the city of Susa, famed during this period for its wealth and beauty.

All e-Tiquities have been searched in the Art Loss Register database.