Figurine of a Naked Woman with a Baldric
Unknown · Middle Elamite period, c. 1400-1100 BC
Slightly smaller than her companion, this figure repeats the same design: a naked woman on a pedestal, hands joined, a braided diadem, a necklace, bracelets and a baldric across the chest. She is just under fourteen centimetres high. Look at the two side by side and you can see how figures from related moulds vary in sharpness and proportion, depending on how worn the mould was and how much the clay shrank in firing.
The excavation record places the find in the Royal City of Susa, possibly in a vaulted tomb, which would mean the figurine accompanied a burial. Naked women with clasped hands were common grave goods and household objects during the Middle Elamite period, between the fourteenth and twelfth century BC. Their role may have been protective, securing fertility and well-being for the living or the dead. The piece entered the Louvre through the sharing of finds from the French excavations at Susa.
Did You Know? If she really came from a tomb, she may have been placed there to protect the dead just as she protected the living.
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