Lot 2814
Gold Fertility Figure of Venus/Astarte. Roman Near East, 2nd-4th century AD. The gold pendant comprised of two sheets of gold, and integral loop. Joined together by folding the front's edges over the back, it is strengthend by a hard filling substance within -- to give the piece solidity without adding extra gold weight. The figure that of Venus/Astarte, a Hellenized form of the Near East's most ancient goddess of love and fertility. The goddess stands frontal on a short dais. Clasping her breasts and raising one leg slightly to display her enlarged and boldly delineated pudenda, she stands naked but for a belt or girdle, with distinctive knot at center, which encircles her waist. Intact and pristine. Height: 2-1/2". Rare! Large, lightweight gold amulets, such as this, rarely survive from antiquity. If, on the one hand, they were not crushed or damaged from the weight of compressing earth over the centuries, then random finders would usually quickly reduce them to melted gold, a form more suitable to their modern day needs.
Estimated Value $2,500 - 3,500.
|
| |
| Unsold |
