Illustration
The Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük is a 8,000-year-old Neolithic baked-clay figurine unearthed at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia which existed from approximately 7100 BCE to 5700 BCE (inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012). It depicts a nude female seated between feline-headed arm-rests. Generally thought to depict a fertile Mother Goddess in the process of giving birth, a handful of scholars now suggest that such figurines (found in great numbers at Çatalhöyük) may represent elderly women who had risen to prominence and achieved status in Çatalhöyük. The sculpture is on display at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey.
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References
- Archaeologists from Stanford find an 8,000-year-old ‘goddess figurine’ in central Turkey, accessed 9 Mar 2021.
Cite This Work
APA Style
Raddato, C. (2021, March 09). Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/13585/seated-woman-of-catalhoyuk/
Chicago Style
Raddato, Carole. "Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified March 09, 2021. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/13585/seated-woman-of-catalhoyuk/.
MLA Style
Raddato, Carole. "Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 09 Mar 2021. Web. 21 Feb 2025.