The Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük (also Çatal Höyük) is a baked-clay nude female form seated between feline-headed arm-rests. The figurine is 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) long, 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) wide, 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) high, and weighs 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds). It is generally thought to depict a corpulent and fertile Mother goddess in the process of giving birth while seated on her throne, which has two hand rests in the form of feline (lioness, leopard, or panther) heads in a Mistress of Animals motif. The statuette, one of several iconographically similar ones found at the site, is similar to other corpulent prehistoric goddess figures,Noted in Honour and Fleming 2005 "Ch.1: Before History" of which the most famous is the

Venus of Willendorf The Venus of Willendorf is an Venus figurine estimated to have been made years ago. It was recovered on 7 August 1908 from an archaeological dig conducted by Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier, and Josef Bayer at a Paleolithic site near Willendorf ...

. It is a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

sculpture shaped by an unknown artist, and was completed around 6000 BC. It was unearthed by

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

James Mellaart in 1961 at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. When it was found, its head and hand rest of the right side were missing. The current head and the hand rest are modern replacements. The sculpture is at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

, Turkey. Mellaart claimed that the figure represented a fertility goddess worshipped by the people of Çatalhöyük.

Notes

References

*Mellaart, James : ''Çatal Hüyük, A Neolithic Town in Anatolia'', London, 1967 *Guide book of "The Anatolian Civilizations Museum" *Lecture of Dr. R. Tringham, The Neolithic World of Çatalhöyük, at the University of Leuven

External links

When the Goddesses Ruled - Çatal Hüyük

The Goddess Uncovered
6th-millennium BC works 1961 archaeological discoveries Prehistoric sculpture Mother goddesses Ceramic sculptures Neolithic Asia Konya Province Archaeological discoveries in Turkey Prehistoric art in Turkey Ancient Near East art and architecture Çatalhöyük Sculptures of goddesses {{Turkey-archaeology-stub Venus figurines

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