Isis type female deity. Canaanite culture. 2nd Century B.C. Bronze. Provenance: Old French private collection of Mr. S. D. Acquired in the 1990s. Conservation: Good condition, without restorations. Measurements: 14,8 x 4 x 7,3 cm (sculpture); 25 x 7 x 10 x 10 cm (base). Bronze sculpture representing a seated female deity. It could be Astarte, goddess of love and fertility that knew diverse iconographies according to its origin was Mesopotamian, Babylonian or Canaanite, as in this case. It does not present, in this case, the bird's head that characterizes the Syro-Palestinian models. Its slender body follows patterns close to Egyptian sculpture, and the headdress also denotes this influence. This stylistic contagion also translates into a certain symbolic syncretism, so that the goddess resembles Isis in attributes. Both are mother goddesses of love and sexuality, protectors of the home and family. The goddess Astarte is associated with love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, justice and political power. She was originally worshipped in Sumer and was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians under the name Ishtar. She was known as the "Queen of Heaven" and was the patron goddess of the temple of Eanna in the city of Uruk, which was her main center of worship. She was associated with the planet Venus and her most prominent symbols included the lion and the eight-pointed star.