Deposit | Washington, Dumbarton Oaks, DO 38.12 |
Notes | "The horse [...] was first reported in fragments, about 1929, in Cairo. The more than eighty fragments were eventually assembled by an art dealer in New York, and in 1938 the horse was purchased for the Dumbarton Oaks Collection" (Ryckmans 1975: 287). See Stupperich and Yule 2014 for a history of the discovery and of the deposits of the piece. |
Support type | Artefact » Sculpture in the round » Animal figure | ||||||
Material | Bronze | ||||||
Measures | h. 102, w. 106 | ||||||
Decoration |
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Decoration |
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Notes on support and decorations | For a thorough description of the sculpure, see Stupperich and Yule 2014. |
Modern site | Ghaymān |
Ancient site | Unknown |
Geographical area | Ghaymān |
Country | Yemen |
Link to site record |
Modern site | Ṣanʿāʾ |
Ancient site | Ṣnʿw |
Geographical area | Sanʿāʾ |
Country | Yemen |
Notes | The horse is said to have come from a site south of Ṣanʿāʾ. |
Link to site record |
Pirenne (1955) dated the statue to the 5th century BC on the basis of a comparison with the Greek statuary. However, the inscription of dedication of two horse statues on the shoulder of the animal has been dated to the mid-2nd century AD by Ryckmans (1975). For the rearing posture of the horse, Antonini (2012: 113-114) suggests a comparison with other South Arabian representatios of horses of Hellenistic-Roman, but also Sasanian, influence. See Stupperich and Yule 2014 for a discussion of the various theories. |
Title | Ja 489 A |
Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic |
Link to epigraph record | |
Title | Ja 489 B |
Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic |
Link to epigraph record | |
Title | Ja 489 C |
Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic |
Link to epigraph record |
Pirenne 1955: 63-65 | Pirenne, Jacqueline 1955. La Grèce et Saba. Une nouvelle base pour la chronologie sud-arabe. (Mémoirs présentés par diverses savants à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 15). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. |
Ryckmans, Jacques 1975: 287 | Ryckmans, Jacques 1975. The Pre-Islamic South Arabian Bronze Horse in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection; with Technical Remarks by I. Vandevivere. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 29: 285-303. |
CIAS: i, 373-386 | Beeston, Alfred F.L., Pirenne, Jacqueline and Robin, Christian J. 1977-1986. Corpus des inscriptions et antiquités sud-arabes: Vol. I (1977): Tome 1. Inscriptions. Tome 2. Antiquités; Vol. II (1986): Le Musée d’Aden. Tome 1. Inscriptions. Tome 2. Antiquités. Louvain: Peeters. [Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres] |
Antonini de Maigret 2012: 113-114 | Antonini de Maigret, Sabina 2012. South Arabian art. Art history in pre-Islamic Yemen. (Orient & Méditerranée, 10). Paris: De Boccard. |
Stupperich and Yule 2014: 350-362, figs. 9-11 | Stupperich, Reinhard and Yule, Paul 2014. Himyarite period bronze sculptural groups from the Yemenite highlands. Pages 338-367 in Alexander V. Sedov (ed.). Arabian and Islamic studies. A collection of papers in honour of Mikhail Borishovich Piotrovskij on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Moskow. |