Fresh off the press! If you’re into figurines and their interpretation, this might interest you. This book chapter started as a conference paper (EABS 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria), but incorporates ideas that I shared in the discussions and conversations that followed within the research unit. I explore issues of interpretation of ancient figurines, particularly in the absence of narratives, using the Maltese presepju to provide a thought experiment. Anyways, have fun reading.

The paper is avialable in OpenAccess here: https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/pdf/10.13109/9783666573712.63

BRIFFA J.M. (2026), “Gendered figuration: ancient representations, modern readings of figurines from the Iron Age southern Levant”, pp. 63-83 in B. Biermann, L.C.C. Gonnermann, I.J. de Hulster (eds.), Gender and Iconography in Antiquity: Femininities, Masculinities, Ambiguities, and Beyond in the Ancient Levant, Near East, and Mediterranean. (Vetus Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus, n. 5). Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

The full book is available in OpenAccess here: https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/themen-entdecken/theologie-und-religion/religionswissenschaft/60327/gender-and-iconography-in-antiquity