Neolithic Figurines and Aegean Interrelations

Abstract

HE phenomenon of steatopygy in female figurines of the prehistoric period first appears in Greece together with the earliest Neolithic material culture of the region. In fact, the most carefully modelled examples are related technically and stratigraphically to the variegated ware of the Early Neolithic period in Central and Southern Greece,' and to the earliest Neolithic of Thessaly.2 The type of the steatopygous female figure is, therefore, an inheritance from the mother culture, the provenience of which cannot yet be determined with any accuracy. Slight evidence points to western Asia Minor,3 a logical and likely point of departure for which we shall see further support below; a sea route with the point of arrival in the region of the Saronic and Corinthian Gulfs has been suggested.4 It is possible that the same movement brought the first Neolithic peoples to Crete, but so little is known of the early phases of the Cretan Neolithic civilization that comparisons are difficult. This scanty material has been used to deny any connection between Crete and mainland Greece in the Neolithic period, so that even isolated objects which point clearly to relations between the two areas are of the greatest importance. This is the case with a type of steatopygous figurine hitherto known only from scattered photographs of several examples found all the way from Thessaly to Crete, but never fully described or connected. To these are now added three statuettes, two of which are among the best preserved figurines from the Aegean region, making a group of seven in all. These are described below, the terracotta examples first, followed by the five figurines of stone. 1. What is probably the finest Neolithic statuette yet discovered in the Aegean region is one found at Kato Ierapetra on the south coast of Crete. The site at which this figurine was found has been examined by N. Platon, the Ephor of Antiquities of Crete, who says that re is here an important Neolithic settlement which awaits investigation. The piece (pl. 1, A) happily found its way into the collection of Dr. Giamalakis in Herakleion.5 This figurine is unusual for its state of preservation, its size and ts posture. It is intact, a rare condition for clay figurines in the Aegean area; though seated, its height is 0.145 m., greater than the majority of Greek Neolithic clay statuettes. The woman is seated with her legs drawn up in front of her, the left one laid over the right. The mass of the folded legs in front is balanced behind by the e ormous, protruding buttocks, which also spread sideways to fill out a square base, 0.09 m. on the side, from the center of which rises the torso of the figure (pl. 1, A, side view). The protruding, angular abdomen forms the transition to the smaller upper body; the shoulders slope down sharply and from them large triangular breasts are pendant. The short, stubby arms, bent at the elbows, are held close to the sides with the hands alongside the abdomen. From the shoulders rises the heavy, rather long, cylindrical neck to support a triangular head with a prominent beak nose, the whole crowned by a flat, triangular cap or coiffure which flares out around the head.