Abstract
A Neolithic Statuette from Malta.—Sir T. Zammit figures and describes in the Bulletin of the Malta Museum, vol. 1, No. 2, a fragment of a stone statuette found in 1929 in clearing the exterior of the apses of the Tarxien neolithic temples. What is left of the statuette shows details lacking in other statuettes from the megalithic ruins. It is 30 cm. high and has a width of 21 cm. with a flat base 10 cm. by 7.5 cm. The upper part, corresponding to the waist, has a hollow, carefully worked, which served as a mortice for the insertion of a dowel to bear the upper portion. The figure is draped with a flounced short skirt, and is sitting or leaning on a bench. A pear-shaped leg protrudes beyond the skirt. Each pair of pleats of the skirt is surmounted by a semicircular embroidered line forming a continuous decoration. The hips are prominent. The bench on which the figure sits, ends in a horizontal frame supported by standing human figures in high relief, the heads appearing as decorative knobs under the frame. They stand in typical hieratic attitude with the left forearm bent across the breast, the right arm hanging loosely by the side. The figures wear a plain tunic falling in folds to the ankles to conceal the feet. Another figure in bolder relief is seated at right angles to the three figures, its arms folded and its hands resting on the obese thighs. These carved figures are peculiar to Malta.
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Research Items. Nature 127, 643–645 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127643a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127643a0