by Amy O'Keeffe
Biases against motherhood in the ancient Greek archaeological record trace back to the inception of Classical archaeology as a discipline. These biases have become an unconscious status quo within the discipline, which are rarely questioned. They reflect harmful perceptions of ancient and modern women, especially mothers. The corpus of Mycenaean figurines illustrates this issue, in which the specialised types of kourotrophic figurines (woman and child), and charioteer figurines (perceived as male) are interpreted. The male figurines are perceived as depictions of everyday life, while the female and child figurines are interpreted as depictions of a “Mother Goddess”. Ancient women are rarely afforded the courtesy of their mortal agency and are instead diminished and obscured.