Ca. 300 BC. Etruscan. A moulded, naturalistically modelled, votive terracotta foot with delineated toenails set on a high sole. The practice of creating and dedicating anatomical renderings as votive offerings was widespread in ancient Etruria and Latium since the seventh century BC and became especially popular in the Hellenistic period (3rd-1st centuries BC). A variety of body parts were depicted, from whole and half heads, to arms and legs, hands and feet, and fingers and toes, to eyes and ears. Anatomical votives have been found exclusively at sanctuaries, spread over some 300 sites in the Etrusco-Italic region. Similar votives appear also in Greek sanctuaries, though in the shrines of very few gods (e.g., Asklepios), whereas a wide range of the gods worshipped in Etruria and Latium received anatomical votives. Because very few Etruscan anatomical votives include dedicatory inscriptions, it is uncertain whether they were offered to a god according to a vow (ex-voto) to give thanks after a wish had been fulfilled or to encourage the god's participation in granting a request or prayer. In either case, votives appear to have been offered by individuals as part of a ritual, with considerable numbers of such votives found at or near sanctuary altars and most found grouped in secondary deposits (presumably to make room for new offerings). In the absence of dedicatory inscriptions, the meaning of these anatomical votives is debated. They may have been given more literally for the protection or cure of certain body parts and their capabilities, or they may have represented something more figurative (e.g., ears signifying being heard by the god, eyes as being seen, or hands expressing persistent prayer). For further reading, see Recke, M. (2013). "Science as Art: Etruscan Anatomical Votives," in Jean MacIntosh Turfa (ed.), The Etruscan World. London: Routledge, 1068-85. Size: L:165mm / W:215mm ; 1.1kg. Provenance: From the private NYC collection, acquired on the European market in the 1980s.