A mysterious prehistoric statuette from the Hallstatt tradition found in 2022 throughout freeway building in Mönchstockheim, Decrease Franconia, will go on everlasting show on the Bavarian State Archaeological Assortment in Munich. The Bavarian State Workplace for Monument Preservation (BLfD) has accomplished conservation of the determine and it will likely be formally handed over on January thirtieth.
The statuette is 7.5 inches excessive immediately, however is lacking a part of its legs and is estimated to have been about 4 inches longer when it was intact. The entrance of the higher physique can also be lacking, so any chest bumps that will have conveyed the determine’s gender are now not current. The top is undamaged with detailed modeling of facial options and a round border perforated with holes on both sides of the face. Archaeologists hypothesize that the perforated, curved sides characterize a hood adorned with steel rings or pins, a sort of headgear worn by Hallstatt ladies.
The statuette was known as a water goddess due to the discover web site: a prehistoric channel believed to have been utilized by the folks of the close by Hallstatt settlement to gather water. Pottery shards, instruments and an uncommon clay stamp had been additionally discovered within the channel, and neither they nor the statuette have the rounded edges attribute of water erosion. That means they weren’t washed downstream, however had been somewhat intentionally positioned within the channel, indicating that they had cultic significance related to water.
The vessel fragments had been dated to between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C., the early Hallstatt interval, however the statuette couldn’t be so clearly dated. This kind of figurine may be very uncommon in Decrease Franconia. Related designs have been discovered within the western Black Sea area however they’re much older, courting to the Neolithic interval, and don’t have the headdress which hyperlinks it to the Hallstatt interval.
