Roads of Arabia

18bis Arabie US p318-363.qxd 23/06/10 22:12 Page 340
ROADS OF ARABIA
Qaryat al-Faw
163. Fragment of a mural painting with zodiacal motif
1st–3rd century AD
Black, red and yellow paint on white plaster
50 x 29 cm
Qaryat al-Faw
Department of Archaeology Museum, King Saud University, Riyadh, 238 F 9
On the right:
]yn..lṭ w
]d….lḥy
The text, perhaps incomplete, does not provide anything we can understand.
No certain reading is possible.
(transcription C. R.)
This enigmatic painting features an axis topped by a semicircle, from
which rise clusters; around it various figures gravitate: a spotted
feline, a lion, a scorpion, a centaur, a hydra; on the right, we make
out the horns of a ram. These animals represent constellations
arrayed around the welkin. Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and
Romans were already familiar with the zodiac since Antiquity and it
is probably contact with the Romans that led the South Arabians to
adopt this repertory of zodiacal motifs. However, we do not know if
this is the foundation horoscope of a building or the enthronement
of a high-ranking personality or if these motifs had an entirely different
meaning. This zodiacal representation differs from the few
rare known exemplars in the Arabian Peninsula, as at Zafar and
Khirbat al-Tannur. 1 M. C.
164. Fragment of a wall painting depicting a tower house
3rd century BC–3rd century AD
Black, red and yellow paint on white plaster
59 x 64 cm
Qaryat al-Faw
Department of Archaeology Museum, King Saud University, Riyadh, 29 F 22
On the right, from top to bottom:
Tym
Mnt
Read probably Tym|mnt, “Taymmana – t”, a man’s name.
Manāt is an Arabian goddess, found in many regions of West Arabia
(transcription C. R.)
The tower house is built on a stone foundation; on the ground floor
two doors are open, one of them framing a nude figure. The storeys
are built with beams forming regular frames, filled with raw bricks
or earth and painted with red and black geometric motifs. At the
windows of the two storeys busts of identical figures appear. The
building is crowned by a crenellated décor, bearing an inscription; it
is surrounded by four bounding ibexes. One of the roles of these
tower houses may have been defensive; in fact the very narrow openings
eventually allowed to use a bow and the terrace could serve as a
lookout post. This tradition of tower houses has lasted up to today
in the south of Arabia.
M. C.
1. Laffitte 2003, pp. 77–87, pl. 9, 10 and 11.
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