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BM 132913
By kind permission of British Museum
By kind permission of British Museum
By kind permission of British Museum
DEPOSIT INFORMATION
| Deposit | London, The British Museum, BM 132913=1960,1212.5 |
| Notes | Donated by Dr Sidney E. Croskery. |
SUPPORT INFORMATION
| Support type | Artefact » Personal adornment » Necklace |
| Notes on support and decorations | Collection of three re-strung bead necklaces and three bronze bells including a string of 47 glass (melons and bicones), and a single white cylindrical marble bead. Necklace 1: shown with three round bronze bells Necklace 2: made of 47 glass (melons and bicones), bicone, cylindrical, triangular and tear drop shaped pendant stone beads (including grey banded and translucent, cream and brown banded agate Necklace 3: not illustrated There is also an additional badly damaged stone bead in this collection. |
ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE
| Modern site | Ṣanʿāʾ |
| Ancient site | Ṣnʿw |
| Geographical area | Sanʿāʾ |
| Country | Yemen |
| Link to site record |
CULTURAL NOTES
These beads possibly date to the first few centuries AD (see also Simpson 2002: 187, cat. 245). Similar melon beads made of faience have been excavated at Ḥurayḍah and Shabwa (Beck 1944: 98, pl. XXXVIII: 5;
Morrison 1991: 385, fig. 2: 68) and similar green glass bicones have also been excavated at Ḥurayḍah (Beck 1944: 99, pl. XXXVIII: 8). Similar bronze bells were found in domestic contexts in level B, dated to the 1st century BC–1st century AD, at Hajar ibn Ḥumayd (Van Beek 1969: 320), where they were believed to have been strung on a necklace or – less probably – worn as earrings. Others were found in domestic contexts excavated in the Wādī al-Jubah or in funerary contexts of the same period at Timnaʿ, and a necklace consisting of multiple bells is depicted worn around the neck of an ancient
South Arabian stone bull gargoyle in the Ṣanʿāʾ National Museum (Costa 1978: 46, pl. XXVI, no. 92). Finally, the discovery of many other similar bells in graves across south-east Arabia, southern Iran and even Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) implies that they had a very wide usage.
Morrison 1991: 385, fig. 2: 68) and similar green glass bicones have also been excavated at Ḥurayḍah (Beck 1944: 99, pl. XXXVIII: 8). Similar bronze bells were found in domestic contexts in level B, dated to the 1st century BC–1st century AD, at Hajar ibn Ḥumayd (Van Beek 1969: 320), where they were believed to have been strung on a necklace or – less probably – worn as earrings. Others were found in domestic contexts excavated in the Wādī al-Jubah or in funerary contexts of the same period at Timnaʿ, and a necklace consisting of multiple bells is depicted worn around the neck of an ancient
South Arabian stone bull gargoyle in the Ṣanʿāʾ National Museum (Costa 1978: 46, pl. XXVI, no. 92). Finally, the discovery of many other similar bells in graves across south-east Arabia, southern Iran and even Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) implies that they had a very wide usage.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
| Simpson 2002: 122-23, cat.138 | Simpson, St John (ed.) 2002. Queen of Sheba. Treasures from the ancient Yemen. London: British Museum Press. [Catalogue of an exhibition held at the British Museum, London] |
| Morrison 1991 | Morrison, Helen M. 1991. The beads and seals of Shabwa. Syria, 68: 379-392. |
| Van Beek 1969 | Van Beek, Gus W. 1969. Hajar bin Ḥumeid. Investigations at a Pre-Islamic Site in South Arabia. (Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man, 5). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. |
| Beck 1944 | Beck, H.C. 1944. Collection of beads from Hadhramaut, cave sepulchres at Hureidha, and ruin fields at Sune and Gheibun. Pages 96-101 in Gertrude Caton Thompson. The Tombs and Moon Temple of Hureidha (Hadhramaut). (Reports of the Research Committee and of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 13). Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
| Costa 1978 | Costa, Paolo M. 1978. The Pre-Islamic Antiquities at the Yemen National Museum. Rome: "L’Erma" di Bretschneider. |