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Ancient Origins Boutique

We specialize in picking artifacts from the finest private collections from around the globe. 

We're well known among many prominent collectors and are now available to everyone on eBay! 

Our mandate is to keep history alive by ensuring these precious items get passed along to a new generation of collectors.

Category: Neolithic or Copper Age

Country of Origin/Culture: Iberian Peninsula 

Approximate Age Range: 5,500 to 4,750 BCE

Material: Terracotta 

Size: Approx. 3.75" 

Provenance: purchase from a private European collection.

Comments: A large and very detailed owl/eye idol from Spain.  The idol depicts a stylized owl figure with 2 large eyes, with feathers and wings. This is an extremely fine example due to the incredible details and decorations. The rear design will remain forever unknown as most of it is unfortunately not intact. There does appear to be a pyramid shaped structure or perhaps a large X, your guess is as good as mine. This example is very owl-like in all of its features. 

Are these idols to do with fertility? No one really knows, but the 2 theories are, these were children's toys, made by children, which I personally find hard to believe, if you look at many examples of these, you see the second theory makes more sense. The second theory basically says that these are an adaptation of an eastern religion or beliefs that these represent the souls of the ancestors because in Mesopotamia they believed that the owl was the death bird that carried the soul to the afterlife. I think this theory is closer to the truth than the children's toy theory. I think this tradition actually originated from the vastly overlooked Vinca culture, which is much older than Mesopotamian culture. The vinca's had a thing for birds in a big way. Anyhow, this example is rare because of it's large size and incredible detail.

 

Ancient Origins Boutique stands by all of our picks and always try and provide the best information possible, based on the information we are provided with from the original collector. 

As always we offer a full 30 day money back guarantee on all items we sell...We always guarantee the authenticity of each piece for life or your money back.

We try to make all our pieces affordable and we are always open to offer so please do so!

Questions are always welcome and if your looking for more items similar to what we offer, please ask. We constantly have new pieces arriving and don't always have time to put everything up.

We are based in Canada and ship worldwide and do offer a combined shipping and handling discount on multiple purchases. 

Expedited and upgraded postal services are available upon request at an additional cost to the buyer.
Please be aware that the buyer is responsible for all fees, taxes, and duties associated with their country's custom policy's or trade agreements.