Archaic Terracotta Statuette of a Seated Woman in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 2010

Terracotta Statuette of a Seated Woman
Greek, probably Boeotian, late 6th-early 5th century BC

Accession # 1980.303.5

Small figurines were made to be presented as votive gifts to a deity. It is not always clear whether they represent a god, a priest or priestess, or a person offering a gift. These rigid figures seated on thrones and wearing elaborate headdresses are probably goddesses. Hundreds of such statues were buried in trenches on the Akropolis after the Persians looted and burned Athens in 480 BC., and it has been suggested that they represent an early cult statue of Athena.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.