CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN BRONZE ISIS-FORTUNA WITH A SOUTH ARABIAN INSCRIPTION
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.
The goddess standing with her weight on her left leg, her right pulled back and bent at the knee, the heel raised, wearing a short-sleeved chiton below a fringed himation, secured by a knot above the right breast, its edge falling between her breasts, the heavy folds contrasting with the crinkly surface of the chiton, her right arm lowered, perhaps once holding a ship's rudder, her left shoulder pulled back, the left arm bent at the elbow, palm open, likely once supporting a cornucopia, her head turned to her right, with a crescentic diadem in her center-parted hair, adorned with incised ornament, her hair tied in a chignon, with long cork-screw tresses falling on to each shoulder, her head surmounted by a tall modius, atop a raised circular plinth, engraved with a South Arabian Hadramautic dedicatory inscription of the mid to late 3rd century A.D., reading: "Dhara'-karib and Dhara'um, clansmen of (the) clan Wat(a)rum"
8½ in. (21.6 cm.) high

Provenance

New York Art Market, 1978.

Lot Essay

The combination of a Graeco-Roman subject with a South Arabian dedication has been found, most recently, on several items from a temple treasury discovery at Jabal al-Lawdh in the Ibb region. The group comprised many imports from the Hellenistic world, primarily figures of women and goddesses, including an Isis-Fortuna, no. 163 in Simpson, Queen of Sheba, Treasures from Ancient Yemen.

The script, date and luxury nature of this object would suggest that it originally belonged to two members of a leading family at the court of the kings of Hadramaut, based in their ancient capital city of Shabwa. The kingdom was overrun by the kings of Sabean Himyar in 270 A.D., providing a terminus ante quem for this item.

More from Antiquities

View All