3. Fertility Goddess
Total Score: 529
This artifact represents the Aztec goddess Tlazolteotl. She was a goddess of sex and fertility, known for encouraging people to sin, and at the same time the one who absolves them from all their sins. The name Tlazolteotl means the “Filth Goddess”, and she is also known as the “Mother-Earth” goddess. The figurine is displayed at the Tate Gallery in London, and the Tlazolteotl is shown during childbirth in a form of the mother-earth goddess. It is important to mention that the Fertility Goddess had four different ways, describing her from a very young age to her destructive moments as a grown woman.
This figurine shows how ancient civilizations treated women and how they favored their gods, because of that it is one the most valuable artifacts that enables us to understand the past better.
2. Ram in a Thicket
Total Score: 581
While archeologists excavated the cemetery in Ur, in Iraq, they encountered a pair of ram figures that are suspected to date from 2600-2400 BC. They were discovered lying together in one of the graves at the Royal Cemetery of Ur called the “Great Death Pit.” The figures are kept in the British Museum in London at the Mesopotamia Gallery and in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
This artifact has an enormous significance because of its artistic value, and it provides us an insight in early civilizations and how they respected crafting and arts.
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