Statuette of a women breast-feeding a child

The statuette depicts a subject that was very dear to ancient Near Eastern cultures: a mother nursing her child. The woman is seated on a large cylindrical seat and holds the baby, fully swaddled, on her spread-apart knees; the child would have been comfortably nestled in the crook of her mother’s left arm while feeding.

This statuette belongs to a significant series of figurines with similar characteristics originating from the Phoenician and Punic worlds. Generally dated to the 7th–6th centuries B.C., they may be standing or seated, holding a child or various attributes (musical instruments, a fan, ears of grain, etc.) or simply holding their breast or belly: in the latter case, they are often called dea gravida