Leonine Goddess in the Brooklyn Museum, August 2007

Leonine goddess
Magnesite or crystalline limestone
Proto-Elamite Period, late 4th millennium BC
Iran, Susa region, exact provenance not known
Accession # L.48.7.9, on loan to the Brooklyn Museum from Robin B. Martin

Iranians living around 3000 BC like many Near Eastern people, believed that their deities combined human and animal attributes. This statuette depicts a powerful, supernatural being with the head of a lioness, and the massive, muscular body of a woman. Originally, the figure stood on a pair of silver or gold legs inserted in dowel holes just below the knees. The extreme rarity of sculptures from this remote age and the extraordinary realism of the modeling make this statuette one of the acknowledged masterpieces of ancient art.

Text from the Brooklyn Museum label.