Ancient Near East / Central Asia, modern day northwestern Iran/Armenia, Iron Age, ca. 900 BCE. A fascinating object: a mold-made pottery votive foot wearing a boot. The details of the boot are fine, with incised lines along the front of the toe and the heel as well as down the sides, giving the impression of strips of fabric or piping. The boot rises up to the ankle and ends without further decoration at the opening of the hollow piece. The boot itself has a wonderful realism in its form. Size: 6.5" L x 2.9" W x 6" H (16.5 cm x 7.4 cm x 15.2 cm)

Throughout the ancient Near East and the Classical world, people created ceramic votive figures of disembodied, sometimes abstract, body parts. Many scholars have suggested that they represent the afflicted body parts of the ill, made to be placed in temples and at altars to ask for healing, but that is speculative and the meaning of these evocative objects remains elusive.

Compare to a similar example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (62.174.1).

Provenance: private New Jersey, USA collection, acquired over twenty years ago

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#121338

Repaired at toe, heel, bottom of foot, and ankle.