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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Hundreds if not thousands of statuettes of the Hellenistic and Roman times of alabaster, clay, and bone have been found all over Babylonia in Graeco-Roman ruins and tombs and in many places in Middle-Mesopotamia, e.g. at Dura. They present a great interest not only from the artistic but also from the religious and mythological points of view. Those of clay have been collected and illustrated by Mrs. E. Douglas van Buren and all those found at Seleucia will soon be published and illustrated in a comprehensive study by Miss W. van Ingen of the University of Michigan. I have dealt with some of them repeatedly, especially from the point of view of the history of art.
In this short note I wanted to correct a mistake of mine regarding some of these statuettes and at the same time to draw the attention of fellow-students to one very curious variety occurring among them. I mean the statuettes which represent a human figure—without doubt a deity—in the squatting position so typical for the Orient in general.
page 19 note 1 van Buren, E. Douglas, Clay Figurines of Babylonia and Assyria, 1930 Google Scholar.
page 19 note 2 Rostovtzeff, M., Rev. d. Arts As., XXVIII (1933), 208 Google Scholar; id., The Excav. at Dura-Europos, Rep. IV, 1933, 211 ff. and pl. XIX, 3–5; id., Dura and the Problem of Parthian Art (Yale Class. St., v, 1935), 179 f. and figs, 11 and 14.
page 19 note 3 Legrain, L., Un. of Pennsylv. Museum Journal, 06 1928, p. 210, figs. 15, 16, 17Google Scholar. I owe the photograph which is reproduced (pl. VIII) to the kindness of Mr. Legrain. The three bone figurines representing the pole-priestess require no description. To the l. is seen a statuette of the same goddess standing on the top of a baluster which reminds one of wooden couch-legs. To the r. a similar statuette of the great goddess of fertility.
page 19 note 4 Dura, and the Problem of Parthian Art, fig. 14.
page 20 note 1 Hogarth, D. G., Excavations at Ephesus, 1908, Text p. 156, No. 1, and pls. xxi-xxii (Smith)Google Scholar; cf. my Hist, of the Anc. World, 1, pl. LVIII, 3 Google Scholar.
