Image Details

Lady Godiva of the Bronze Age. This beaten gold plaque, measuring about 5 by 8 inches, was found in the same 12th-century B.C.E. temple as the steps shown earlier. It depicts a nude female standing on top of a galloping horse that wears a decorated covering. The figure holds two outsized lotus blossoms and wears a tall headdress; her “flip” hairdo recalls the Egyptian goddess Hathor. From the various iconographic elements, the excavators identify the figure with the Egyptian goddess Qudshu, though with local variations; in Egyptian portrayals of Qudshu, for example, the goddess stands atop a lion rather than a horse.