National Geographic History - 03.2019 - 04.2019

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SEATED WOMAN
JAMES MELLAART FOUND THIS CIRCA 6000 B.C. CLAY FIGURE AT ÇATALHÖYÜK. MUSEUM OF ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS, ANKARA, TURKEY


FEMALE FIGURINESJames Mellaart, who carried out the first studies of Çatalhöyük in the 1960s, unearthed corpulent figures that he believed were powerful symbols of fertility. The most famous of these is a clay sculpture of a voluptuous woman (left), perhaps in the midst of giving birth. Her hands rest on the heads of two leopards, whose tails are coiled around her shoulders. When it was uncovered, a leopard’s head and the woman’s head and right hand were all missing. They have been reconstructed.

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