Lady of Ibiza

Adquired by the museum in 1923 it is a feminine figure made using a mould, with the arms and part of its lavish decoration added later. On the back there is a hollow that would allow it to be held upright. Her arms are forward with her hands clasped in prayer. It is decorated with plant motifs, both on the head and tunic, where the effigy of a gorgon particularly stands out. The Lady of Ibiza has been identified with the Punic Tanit, the goddess of fertility and rebirth who collects the dead in the afterlife. It has also been suggested that it could be a deified version of the deceased herself. What is certain is that it was produced in a local workshop at a time when the complex Ebusitan society affirmed its beliefs based on an agrarian society, taking foreign elements from Sicily or Carthage. It was discovered at the Puig des Molins necropolis on the island of Ibiza.