Terracotta Lyre Player Figure

Upper part of a terracotta figure of a female worshipper or priestess playing the lyre; mould-made face (probably with some modelled details) with hand-made body and accessories. She stands in a frontal position, holding the instrument in her left hand at a right angle to the body; the right hand extends across to the strings. Ridged eye-sockets; feathered eyebrows; large nose. The wig-like hair falls in a mass on each shoulder; very stylised curls incised on the top of the head. She elaborate wears ear caps, double-spiral earrings, rings around the edge of the ear and two necklaces: the first consists of two rows of oval-shaped beads with incised decoration meeting in a central disc (traces of red paint); the other is a single series of biconical beads and a central pendant (also painted red originally). The body is missing below the waist; approximately half the lyre is also broken away. Dimensions: Height: 31 centimetres Object Type: figure Techniques: mould-made; handmade; hand-modelled; incised; painted