frequently from:
1) Ancient refuse piles (about 60-70%)
2) Household contexts, usually in the foundation or under the floor
3) Agricultural sites (infrequently)
4) Burials (almost never, less than 2%)
The honest truth is that no one knows the purpose of these figures
or how they were used. Unfortunately, few dealers are willing to
admit that, preferring to make up ghost stories instead. Why are
they so frequently presented broken? One option is that they were
used in some ritualistic fashion in the home or field, and that once
broken, their power/purpose was spent and they could be discarded
like any other bit of trash. The other option is that the breakage
has nothing to do with their use, and everything to do with the fact
that these figures are most frequently found under a big pile of
ancient garbage, and fragile ceramic figures tend to break pretty
easily. We can't say for sure; this is an area where we just have to
accept a little ambiguity!
Either way, I think this is a case where a collector shouldn't see a
broken example as inferior. Intact, unrestored examples are
extremely rare and actually not representative of the way these
figures are naturally found most of the time.
Hope this helps,
Jason
http://www.janusantiquities.com
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