ABSTRACT
It is the remains of an almost certainly divine basalt statue, which must be one of the most important cult images in the major sanctuary of the Old Syrian city. It also started off a kind of production that continued in some significant urban areas of Syria and Palestine until at least the end of the Late Bronze Age, as is clearly indicated by the ivories of Tell Fekheriyah. They continued to do so in their treatment of Middle Egyptian artistic craftsmanship in the classical Old Syrian Period, and it seems to be a remarkably persistent gift in the palace workshops of the main centres of inner Syria from mid-third to the mid-second millennium bc and later. There are particularly significant divine images on the second upper and the last register at the bottom of the front face, as well as in the upper registers of the rear face, while the side faces do not display this kind of scene.
