Large clay concrete ithyphallic figurine of a seated male, unique due to its size, found in Thessaly at the beginning of the 20th cent.

Morphology of the object:

Large clay concrete figure of a seated male. Final Neolithic Period (4500-3300 BC). It is a finding of the beginning of the 20th cent,; the area of Karditsa was given as its province, when it was brought to the National Archaeological Museum. Height 0,475m. Width on the shoulders 0,195m. It is unique, the largest-up to the present – piece of art of the neolithic age, since its size brings it close to the sculpture rather than small sized prastic art. The face is angular in shape; its mouth and nose are plastically rendered, while eyes and ears are small holes. The grooves and incisions on the neck and the genital area rended the male’s hair. Also important for the knowledge of anatomy is the deep groove along the back rendering the spine. The head of the male is tri-dimentional when compared to the plank-like flat stiff and moveless body. The hands, assymetrical one another, are very clumsly bent, the left on the thigh and the right by his chick. His short bent legs look more like legs of a stool.

The presence of the incisions and the grooves on the figure is connected with the appearance and the characteristics of the male genter (hair and beard). The deep groove along its back indicate an anatomical detail, the spine. All these can not be considered as decorative and therefore the figure bears no decoration.

-

This male figure is unique due to its size. In general, male figurines, compared to the female ones, are few through out the neolithic era. When presented they are mostly rendered standed or seated on stools with the hands on the thighs (photos 5945, 5947). They have long hair and the genital is well formed. In some cases the figure of man was represented by man’s distinctive trait, the phallos, sometimes as part of everyday’s objects, like the handles of scoops (photos nos. 01, 12493 and 15948: Clay phalloid handles of everyday’s utensils, Sesklo, Late Neolithic period 5300-4800 BC), or as pendants like no 16673 (photo - gold amulet of hammered sheet in the shape of a phallos. Final Neolithic period 4500-3300 BC, the provenance is unknown }.

The large size, the posture, the seated position of this clay statue and, above all, the over-sized phallos point to a specific personification. Made as to be visible from all sides, it is not extreme to suggest, that it was placed, not in a private house, but in a central place for the community. It may as well have represented an agrarian deity associated with the fertility of the earth.

-