Roads of Arabia

18bis Arabie US p318-363.qxd 23/06/10 22:12 Page 332
ROADS OF ARABIA
151. Fragment of a statue: a fist
3rd century BC–3rd century AD (?)
Cast bronze
24 x 13 x 13 cm
Qaryat al-Faw
Department of Archaeology Museum, King Saud
University, Riyadh, 240/149-84 F 5
Bibliography: Al-Ansari 1982, p. 110.
These numerous fragments of statues, like
the fist, from very large works, indicate that
it is likely there were bronze workshops at
Qaryat. Throughout the cultural sphere of
South Arabia an important number of large
bronze sculptures have been found. Though
often very fragmentary, they are evidence of
the expertise of the local bronze founders
who several centuries before the Christian
era perfected a very special casting technique,
one of its main characteristics being
preserving the core inside the pieces. These
workshops were receptive to influences
from the Hellenistic world, and itinerant
artists from the Graeco-Roman world occasionally
worked with local founders, as
attested, for example, by the double signature
on two large bronzes featuring kings of
Saba’ and dhu Raydan (c. 2nd–3rd century
AD) in the San‘a National Museum: the
sculptor’s name is Greek, whereas the
founder’s is South Arabian. F. D.
152. Fragment of a statue: fur of an animal
(lion’s mane?)
3rd century BC–3rd century AD
Cast bronze
18 x 10 x 5.5 cm
Qaryat al-Faw
Department of Archaeology Museum, King Saud
University, Riyadh, 102-157 F 5
153. Head of a Man
1st century BC–2nd century AD
Cast bronze
H. 40 cm
Qaryat al-Faw
Department of Archaeology Museum, King Saud
University, Riyadh, 119 F 13
The dimensions of this head, probably of a
man, indicate that it belonged to a statue
which must have been approximately life
size. Despite the awful cavity deforming the
face, we can identify full cheeks, a small
mouth with full lips, eyes with carved-out
pupils, a style comparable to Hellenistic-
Roman sculptures. The hair, with curls simulated
by long twists evenly arranged on the
front of the skull and spread out in longer
rolls on the nape of the neck, suggests
rather a female hairstyle, that of Roman
women around the 1st century BC. This
type of hairstyle also recalls that of the
Graeco-Egyptian statues of the Ptolemaic
period, but the original treatment of the
curls reveals the production of a local workshop
influenced by Graeco-Roman models.
A very similar head found at Ghayman, in
Yemen, is preserved at the British Museum
(inv. no. BM136359) and several heads of
the same type, unfortunately fragmentary
or very corroded, are held in the museum of
San‘a, and attest the existence in this period
of a South Arabian school of sculpture
drawing its inspiration from Western models.
F. D.
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