Vatican Museums

This terracotta figurine entered the collection in 2001 along with other objects from the collection of Msgr. Salvatore Garofalo. Its certain provenance, Palestine, confers particular scientific value to the item considering the rarity of specimens of clay human figures pertinent to the area and from the first centuries of the second millennium. The figurine was modelled by hand using mixed techniques, with the bust and head produced on a flat surface and the limbs worked in the round. It is precisely the position of the arms and legs that constitutes a particularly useful indication for its interpretation, also attributing a unique character to the object in the context of contemporary local production. Indeed, examples of choroplastic works from the same period show human figures with their arms open horizontally in the form of a cross and, subsequently, folded over the chest; in the Vatican specimen the arms are held in front of the figure, holding or offering something held in the hands. From close observation of the legs, positioned with the feet apart, and the lower ends of the work, it emerges that these could not have constituted a stable support, indicating that the statuette was not intended to be placed in a standing position.
It is believed that this object served a ritual function and would have been hidden, probably following a ritual combustion, of which visible traces remain.