DOI article:
Myśliwiec, Karol: Tell Atrib, 1992
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26425#0039
a particularly coarse clay, are poorly fired. Representations of
Greek divinities in a purely Hellenistic style (e.g. Hermes), as
well as various types of non-divine subjects (e.g. a youth with
catena on the head) predominate in the upper level of these strata.
Two figurines from a mid-Ptolemaic context are particular-
ly interesting from the monographic point of view. One is a
statuette of a naked female with a bowl in her hand, seated in a
small basin which has the same shape as some of the basins
unearthed in our bath complex. The other one is a group of two
phallic animals, one of which appears to be a personification of
a frog wearing a cuirass and holding a shield (a grotesque
representation of the ?). The protruding belly
of the first figurine brings to mind another type of terracotta
found in a similar stratigraphic context. This is a representation
of a naked woman seated with outspread legs and pointing with
her hand to her vagina. She wears a sophisticated hairdo, two
chains crossing between her breasts and boots. The accentuation
of the fertility aspects in the representations of women and of the
phallic male figurines, as well as their association with the baths,
also on the iconographic level, are an important suggestion for the
interpretation of the mid-Ptolemaic red brick constructions in
Athribis. They could have served for the (ritual ?) baths of
pregnant women or those who wished to become pregnant, and
may have been connected with the cult of Isis as the goddess of
fertility.
Among the numerous oil lamps there are two new types,
one of which has a round discus without a burner, with two little
handles attached on opposite sides and a decoration consisting of
a multiple rosette pattern.
37
Greek divinities in a purely Hellenistic style (e.g. Hermes), as
well as various types of non-divine subjects (e.g. a youth with
catena on the head) predominate in the upper level of these strata.
Two figurines from a mid-Ptolemaic context are particular-
ly interesting from the monographic point of view. One is a
statuette of a naked female with a bowl in her hand, seated in a
small basin which has the same shape as some of the basins
unearthed in our bath complex. The other one is a group of two
phallic animals, one of which appears to be a personification of
a frog wearing a cuirass and holding a shield (a grotesque
representation of the ?). The protruding belly
of the first figurine brings to mind another type of terracotta
found in a similar stratigraphic context. This is a representation
of a naked woman seated with outspread legs and pointing with
her hand to her vagina. She wears a sophisticated hairdo, two
chains crossing between her breasts and boots. The accentuation
of the fertility aspects in the representations of women and of the
phallic male figurines, as well as their association with the baths,
also on the iconographic level, are an important suggestion for the
interpretation of the mid-Ptolemaic red brick constructions in
Athribis. They could have served for the (ritual ?) baths of
pregnant women or those who wished to become pregnant, and
may have been connected with the cult of Isis as the goddess of
fertility.
Among the numerous oil lamps there are two new types,
one of which has a round discus without a burner, with two little
handles attached on opposite sides and a decoration consisting of
a multiple rosette pattern.
37