Rethinking the Function of Clay Figurine Legs from Neolithic Greece: An Argument by Analogy

Prehistorians have long asserted that Neolithic figurines from Greece should be identified with an ancient cult of a Great Mother Goddess. Although concerns with fertility, both human and vegetational, were no doubt of paramount importance to emerging agricultural communities, recent research suggests that small, portable figurines were not a unifunctional class of objects but may have served a variety of purposes. This article reassesses the possible function of 18 unusual clay legs which have been traditionally interpreted as parts from female figurines of the Great Goddess. Inspired by both ethnographic and historical analogies, the author proposes that these leg fragments functioned as special contracts or identifying tokens symbolizing social and economic bonds among five Middle Neolithic communities in the northern Peloponnese. The objects are seen as useful devices marking regional ties in a preliterate society. The discussion underscores both the importance of reanalyzing the function of prehistoric figurines as well as the potential value of ethnographic analogies in interpreting past behaviors.