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Clay plaque in high relief, known as the “Burney Relief”, from the name of its first owner, attributable to the Old Babylonian period (II millennium B.C.). The female figure represented on the relief is probably to be identified with the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, with wings and bird feet and with two howls at her sides. The goddess is further standing on two lions, recalling the typology of the “Mistress of the Animals”, diffused in the Near East since Neolithic times. The presence of the howls seems to evoke the night aspect of the goddess, perhaps that of Ishtar’s sister, Ereshkigal, the Lady of the Land of the Dead. This could anticipate the female divine figures, related with the night ceremonies and the dead, who appear in the popular imagination since the late Middle Ages (variously called Diana, Abundia, Perchta, Holda, etc.). The object is in the British Museum, London.

[Image: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rilievo_Burney]




Female Symbols

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Clay plaque in high relief, known as the “Burney Relief”, from the name of its first owner, attributable to the Old Babylonian period (II millennium B.C.). The female figure represented on the relief is probably to be identified with the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, with wings and bird feet and with two howls at her sides. The goddess is further standing on two lions, recalling the typology of the “Mistress of the Animals”, diffused in the Near East since Neolithic times. The presence of the howls seems to evoke the night aspect of the goddess, perhaps that of Ishtar’s sister, Ereshkigal, the Lady of the Land of the Dead. This could anticipate the female divine figures, related with the night ceremonies and the dead, who appear in the popular imagination since the late Middle Ages (variously called Diana, Abundia, Perchta, Holda, etc.). The object is in the British Museum, London. [Image: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rilievo_Burney]