Nude goddesses with opened veil, worshiper holding hare

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between 1650 B.C. and 1350 B.C.
hematite
21 x 10 mm
Morgan Seal 937
Provenance: 
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan sometime between 1885 and 1908.
Notes: 

"The figure of a woman lifting the ends of her veil and displaying her nudity, as found in 937-944, is differentiated from the earlier Syrian and Cappadocian representations of a nude female by a more rounded form and a more elaborate coiffure. The hair is bound up in the back, but otherwise it resembles the ornate coiffure of the goddess in an ivory relief from Ras Shamra that reflects the feminine fashion prevailing in the Levant and in the Aegean regions around the middle of the second millennium. A dating at about this time is likewise suggested by the vase held by the enthroned figure in 937, since it corresponds in shape with a Mycenean gold cup dated in the second half of the sixteenth centuy B.C. ... Sometimes she stands before an enthroned male figure who my, by the mere fact that he is seated, be characterized as a superior deity (937, 938)."--Porada, CANES, p. 124

Summary: 

Nude goddess with opened veil -- Worshiper holding hare behind leg before enthroned deity(?) with cup -- In sky, star, sun disk in crescent -- Fish in field -- Terminal: sitting antelope above two small female figures -- Upper border, three vultures with spread wings.

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