Figurine

Part of a pipeclay mother-goddess figurine. The figure is holding an infant to her breast, her head is missing. Such figures are thought to represent fertility, creation, motherhood, and the bounty of the earth.

Statuettes like this were mass-produced in the Roman period, with many made in the workshops of Cologne and the Allier Valley, Gaul. It is likely that these figures were intended for religious practices, either for use in a household shrine or as gifts to the gods, to be deposited at temples and sacred sites. It has also been suggested that children may have used them as toys.