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BM 130890 Ja 42; E 86
By kind permission of British Museum
DEPOSIT INFORMATION
| Deposit | London, The British Museum, BM 130890=1951,0407.9 |
| Notes | Bequeathed by Sir Antonin Besse. |
SUPPORT INFORMATION
| Support type | Artefact » Sculpture in the round » Part of human body | ||||||
| Material | Alabaster | ||||||
| Dimensions | h. 21.5, w. 12, th. 14.5 | ||||||
| Decoration |
| ||||||
| 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. |
ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE
| Modern site | Ḥayd Ibn ʿAqīl |
| Ancient site | Unknown |
| Geographical area | Wādī Bayḥān |
| Country | Yemen |
| Archaeological context | Funerary context: Necropolis |
| Link to site record |
BIBLIOGRAPHY
| Jamme 1951: 174, no. 42 | Jamme, Albert W.F. 1951. Pièces anepigraphes sud-arabes d’Aden. Le Muséon, 64: 157-176. |
| Antonini 2001: 158, pl. 103 | Antonini, Sabina 2001. La statuaria sudarabica in pietra. Repertorio iconografico sudarabico. 1. Paris: de Boccard / Rome: IsIAO. [Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres; Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente] |