The Nameless Mother reflects a free interpretation of the well known “Burney Relief” aka “Queen of the Night relief”, a powerful artifact that haunts a hallway of the British Museum.
This terracota high relief is a mysterious piece originally discovered in southern Iraq, dated probably between 1800 and 1750 BCE (old Babylon). Its exact find-site remains unknown due to the lack of records, generating some doubts of its authenticity.
The main character on this plaque has been the subject of debate for a very long time and it seems that there is no agreement regarding the true identity of the featured goddess.
Some argue that she’s Lilith, a female demon from the Ancient Mesopotamian religion – assuming sometimes the role of first wife of Adam as in the Judaic tradition.
Others find a curious relation between the elements on the plaque and other artistic representations (from the same period) of Ištar, a goddess of beauty and sexual love (but equally prominent as the goddess of warfare) whose name is many times translated as “the lady of the heavens”.