UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
represented by small lozenges. The small figure wears a plain robe flaring
right down to the ankles, and a mantle covering his shoulders; on the righthand
side of the naos, a masculine proper noun is written over his head in
Sabaean script: 'RPS' (Rafash). The large figure wears a baggy loin-cloth
with a flapfalling down behind, held in at the waist by a belt that appears
to be knotted at the back with one end hanging free; a cloak thrown over
his shoulders is held in place by two corners tied in a large flatknot on
his chest. On the left-hand bas-relief, he is holding the object described as
a fan with both hands, but on the right-hand bas-relief, he is wearing a
quadruple bracelet on his left wrist and holding a sort of club in his right
hand. These few differences between the two bas-reliefs do not seem significant
enough for us to doubt that the two depict the same scene, the interpretation
of which will be discussed later.
The same site at Haoulti yielded several statues of a similar type, only
one of which is almost complete. It was broken when it was found, and its
pieces were scattered among those of the naos. The statue is of fine white
local limestone veined with mauve, and is 82 centimetres high. It represents
a seated woman with her hands on her knees, dressed in a long robe with
narrow vertical pleats shown by grooves that follow the lines of her body;
the neck, slightly V-shaped in front, is edged with piping, and round the
hem of the robe a narrow band of plain material is edged by another line
of piping. Over the robe she wears a wide necklace composed of three thick,
ringed strands from which hangs a scutiform pectoral; this is counterbalanced
between her shoulder-blades by an ornament in the shape of a
trapeze with six vertical stems. Round each wrist is a quadruple toric
bracelet. Her hands lie flat on her knees, and her bare feet rest on a little
rectangular base. Her head, also bare, is intact except for her nose and right
ear, and her hair is represented by rows of little lozenges. Her eyes are
accented by a line in relief, her chin is fleshy, and her full cheeks form
dimples round the mouth, giving it a beak-like shape and producing the
effect of a smiling expression that is perhaps unintended. The statue was
meant to fit into a seat, for the backs of the legs are flattened and have a
vertical lug, badly damaged, in the middle. ' 2
Apart from the fragments of at least two similar statues, there was a
headless statue, less delicately executed than the one described above but
otherwise differing from it only because its sole ornament was the threestranded
necklace and it was seated on a small stool decorated with a bar.
The posture of the Haoulti statues recalls that of a statuette discovered
accidentally with miscellaneous other antiquities at Addi Galamo, on the
western edge of the Tigre plateau (a site formerly known as Azbi Dera,
or Haouilé Assaraou). 13 The statuette is only about 40 centimetres high,
12. H. de Contenson, 1962, pp. 68-83; J- Pirenne, 1967, pp. 125-33.
13. A. Shiferacu, pp. 13-15; A. Caquot and A. J. Drewes, pp. 18-26, Plates V-VIII;
J. Doresse, 1957, pp. 64-5.
346