Cultic stela
Alabaster
~3000

The chief archaeologist at Mari believes that this was a small stela used in the practice of a cult. On one side it is decorated with a face-like design, with two large circular eyes and the suggestion of a nose. In the place where the mouth should be, there is a female pubes, represented as a schematic triangle, while stylized birds and ibex are incised above and on either side. The presence of ibex near the female sexual organs might be interpreted as expressing an association between the masculine and the feminine. The eyes are reminiscent of those on the “eye idols” of Tell Brak. This stela is thought to be a little older than the rest of the objects in the deposit. No other object like it has ever been found in Eastern archaeology. It might have represented an all-seeing divinity or may have simply expressed the awe felt by humans in the presence of the divine and the sacred.

35,3 x 18,5 x 1,6 cm
19088 (TH97,154)
TELL HARIRI, ANCIENNE MARI
MUSÉE DE DEIR EZ ZOR

_{© Musée de la civilisation, 1999}