# Statuette of a Striding Figure

- By: Ancient Mesopotamian
- Date: 3000-2800 BCE
- Medium: Copper
- Classification: Religious/Ritual Object
- Dimensions: 17.2 × 5.7 × 5.7 cm (6 3/4 × 2 1/4 × 2 1/4 in.)
- Culture: Iraq
- Credit line: Anonymous loan
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/206785)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/cb29f9b8-2955-9c1e-fd52-ccfca730942b/full/!1690,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Cast in solid copper and executed with a remarkable degree of sophistication, this statuette is thought to represent a supernatural being that served as an intermediary between the physical world and the spiritual realm. It depicts a muscular, bearded male wearing a headdress of goat horns and ears, a raptor skin over his shoulders, a cylindrical belt around his trim waist, and ankle boots with long, curved toes. His eyes are inlaid with bits of shell or stone; the now-missing pupils were probably made from a contrasting material. It is one of a pair of virtually identical figures (the other is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) that are unlike anything else that is known today.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0