Judean pillar figure

Judean pillar figures or figurines were ubiquitous household items in the Iron Age representing the Canaanite great goddess Asherah.

It also allowed them currency over a longer period of time, unlike the more sophisticated but then-late Revadim Asherah whose examples were mass-produced in the productive milieu leading up to the Bronze collapse.

Pillar figures are first found in small numbers around Judah in the 10th century BCE, then grew somewhat in geographic distribution and greatly in attestation.

A single archaeological site could reveal them in the hundreds like in Jerusalem, or over a thousand like in Kuntillet Ajrud, so museums and universities contain a great number.

The supine goddesses, more like portraits to view than dolls to hold, are made in gold by artisans for the wealthiest from Egypt and the early northern Steppes to later Achaemenid primacy.