Female figurine (Plastiras type)

Figurines of the “Plastiras type”, thus named after the cemetery on Paros where they were first identified, were contemporary with violin-shaped figurines and represent the earliest attempt at the naturalistic rendering of the human figure in the third millennium BC.

These figurines, which are mainly female and of small dimensions (h. 7-31 cm.), display some of those features that were subsequently to develop into distinctive traits of Cycladic figurines, such as the position of the arms below the breasts and the ovoid head with relief nose. Typologically, the Plastiras type figurines are a development of the steatopygous figurines of the Late Neolithic period (5300-3200 BC).

The conical cap with horizontal grooves occurs on both male and female figures of the late Early Cycladic I period (3200-2800 BC) and the transitional phase to Early Cycladic II (2700-2400/2300 BC), and is considered to echo Eastern (Syrian) influences, perhaps in combination with influences from the Balkans.