| Notes on support and decorations | This highly polished calcite-alabaster male head is one of the most finely carved pieces in the collection. His features are sensitively carved and the face is delicately modelled. He has round hollow eyes with drilled and cut corners, originally inlaid and recessed eye-brows, presumably also originally inlaid. He has arched eyebrows over a not very prominent brow ridge, a large triangular nose with nostrils carved, a small mouth, and long slender neck. The short neat moustache, fringe, and curtain beard are incised with fine lines. The fringe and beard encircle the face meeting at stylised ears with prominent tragus (cf. BM 1995,0617.3). The face has a realistic profile, carved fully in the round, with rough tooling on the surface of the head, which was presumably keyed for the addition of plaster hair.
The head was originally set in an inscribed base or displayed inside a niche. |