Detecting antiquities describing mother giving birth

Archaeologists have found two pieces of an amazing work of art dating to about 2,600 years, depicting a woman while she was born. This is the oldest known image ever found in the West. This artwork was discovered in the ancient Etruscan settlement, in the Mugello valley near Florence, Italy.

The image on a small piece of pottery dating back to 600 BC shows that the baby's head and shoulders are coming out of the mother's body, which is believed to be the image of a goddess. The image of the woman is described with a rather large knee, a face that looks slanted, an arm raised and a ponytail hair flowing down her back. Interestingly, this piece of ceramic was found by William Nutt, a graduate student at the University of Texas for the first time to excavate his archeology. The implementation of this excavation is from a project co-operated by several universities: Dallas, Texas, Franklin, Marshall, Pesynnvania, Archeological and Anthropological Museum, British Open University Institute.

According to the Daily Mail newspaper, the identification of images is done by Dr. Phil Perkin, an expert at the Open University Institute. He was surprised to see this private image, which may represent the birth of a child in Western art. Old images of Etruscan women often describe them attending parties, rituals or depicting goddesses. As for the image on the piece of pottery, scientists have to find out who this woman is and how her child is.

The 3 x 4cm ceramic piece broke from a jar made by bucchero - a kind of black, smooth ceramic material. This type of ceramic vase is often decorated, beautified by abstract motifs, usually strange animals in legend.