Terracotta, 450 grams, 155.87 mm. Circa 2000 B.C. Figurine from Bronze Age Afghanistan. Hollow figurine with a bird like head, pinched beak, applied eyes and thin elongated ears. She wears a pierced choker and has both hands together on chest, as if praying. This piece, which was manufactured from a single piece of long thin pottery coiled to form the hollow body, was probably mounted on a ceremonial staff or an alter where rituals would have been undertaken for fertility of both land and body. Extremely Fine 'as found' condition.

The Hittite old kingdom, with its capital city, Hattusa in the Halys bend, was one of several states into which Anatolia was divided during the second quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. Its finest monuments date from the imperial period that followed. The capital city, strategically placed astride a rocky gorge, has an inner enclosure, rising up to a high citadel rock. Greatly extended in imperial times, the outer city has a four-mile circuit of powerful fortifications.