Fragment of a Statue of a Naked Woman
Unknown · Late Bronze Age, undated in the museum record
The torso of a naked woman, under ten centimetres high, carved in stone with a smooth, simplified anatomy. Look at the three small holes in the surface: two at the breasts and one at the navel. These were not damage but sockets, drilled to hold inlays of a contrasting material, perhaps coloured stone, shell or metal, that would have caught the light. The head and legs are lost, and the surviving fragment concentrates the eye on the rounded belly and hips that the sculptor emphasised.
The fragment was excavated on the acropolis of Ras Shamra, ancient Ugarit, in the trench that the excavators called the Fortress trench, south of the house of the High Priest. The museum notes carefully that it therefore does not come from the temple of Baal, despite the nearby findspot. It entered the Louvre through the division of finds with Syria. Figures of naked women are common in the Levant of the second millennium BC, in clay, metal and stone, and are usually connected with fertility and protection. The inlaid nipples and navel of this one show a craftsman investing real care in a small, intimate image.
Did You Know? The holes at the breasts and navel once held inlays of another material, a detail that would have made the little figure sparkle.
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