Dionicia J Johnson
Art History 1303
Dixon Bennett
July 3, 2000
Goddess Transformation
exploring the changing goddess image in Southwestern Anatolia
I chose my subjects from the antiquities collection at the Menil Museum. They
both represent goddess carvings from southwestern Anatolia. The purpose of this paper is
to attempt to show a change in the perception of their deity over the course of 2,000
years, and what possible influences might have facilitated this change.
The first and earliest subject is a female idol and head, found in southwestern
Anatolia and dated at about 5600 BC. It is made of terra-cotta and shows a very rounded,
portulent woman reclining on her side. The aspects of a female form that one would
consider to be conducive to procreation are exaggerated. She has large round hips and
buttocks, and large breasts. It is striking how modern this piece looks. The pose of the
woman is so natural and relaxed that one would almost consider it to be the model for a
renaissance nude. The head has been broken off, and it seems at odds with the
naturalness of the body. The face is very crude, the eyes large, though it may show a type
of hair style that was common at the time of carving. The hair appears to be pulled back
tightly and formed in to a coil on the back of the head. The terra-cotta is very dark and
has been either polished or worn smooth by carrying or holding. This piece was found at
the site of a city called Hacilar, which was a contemporary of Chatal Huyuk.
The second subject is from the same area, but carved about 1400 years later. It is
made of marble, with a large bulbous head. The body is slender and shows no signs of
the large breasts and rounded form of the first subject. Its hips are slightly widened and
the neck is long and slender. These are the only female characteristics that it seems to
possess. It has short stump-like arms and the legs are missing completely. The body ends
in a taper at a slightly lower point than the hips. The head has no facial features, but is
elongated and flattened, almost forming a rounded triangular shape. The marble that the
figure is made of is smooth and well worn, much like the first subject.
These objects may first be seen as crude, but when carefully studied, they show a
myriad of careful steps that were taken to create an object that, for these people,
represented their most sacred deity. When one realizes that the first subject was created
in a time when stone tools were used and firing clay was a high-tech operation, one
begins to see the humanity and complexity of the sculpture. The second subject was
created later when marble carving with bronze tools was beginning. This could help to
explain why the figure lacks appendages. Possibly the sculptor was inexperienced in
working with this new medium, and didn�t create limbs because they simply couldn�t.
Why then was such great care taken in carving the slender neck? It was obviously a
convention that shows a long neck as being either desirable or a symbol of the
mother-female element of religion. The first figure is lying on one side and has a swollen
belly. Possibly this is depicting a woman giving birth. Humans had for thousand of years
been trying to understand the process of reproduction. This might show that they had
come to believe that it was a divine creation. The mother goddess was thought to control
birth, life, death, and the afterlife, as well as the natural world. It can be assumed that
due to the fact that the central element of religion during the Neolithic period was the
mother goddess, it is not unreasonable to believe that this was a matriarchal society.
When the second subject is studied, one can see a definite connection to the cycladic
female figures that were also carved of marble and lacked the �fertility� conventions.
This poses our central question. What made the Anatolian people evolve their
goddess from a rounded, fertile, earth mother to a simple, girlish, large-headed female?
During the Chalcolithic Period, one knows that copper tools started to be used alongside
stone tools and weapon production became more sophisticated. At this same time,
territorial disputes developed into small scale warfare. Men began to take a more
important role in society, as they were physically stronger, and expected now to defend
their families in times of attack. Nonetheless, the goddess figure continues to be
worshipped for her divine powers of birth and creation. This can be observed by the large
number of goddess figures found in archeological digs of this time period.
At the time of the second subject, the early Bronze Age, one knows that
metal-working flourished in Anatolia, simple political organization starts to take shape,
and the first city-states come into being. At this point, men probably came to the
forefront of the family and society as leaders in the community through some heroic act
in war, superior physical strength, wealth, or a talent for finely crafted goods and
weapons. The goddess is still worshipped, but now she is identified with the sun. She
begins to be known as a sun goddess, while she is still the supreme being, lesser gods and
goddess are put into place to explain seasonal changes and human frailties. This could
explain why our second subject had moved away from the fertile mother convention. It
is easy to see the lenticular marble figure with her large head representing the sun, and
her long neck holding it into the sky.
Echoes of this earliest worshipped being can be seen through the ages as the
shining Greek Athena, and the Byzantinian vision of the Virgin Mother of Christ. Even
today, Catholics and Orthodox Christians still revere Mary, the Holy Mother.
Works Cited
Janson, H.W. and Anthony F. Janson. History of Art, Volume I, revised 5th edition. New
York City, New York: Henry M. Abrams, Inc., 1997.
Gimbutas, M.A. The Language of the Goddess. New York City, New York: Harper and
Row, 1989.
9000 Years of Anatolian Women ed. Renda Gunsel. 1 July, 2000.