CIRCA LATE 2ND-EARLY 3RD CENTURY A.D.

Limestone portrait busts from Palmyra rank among the most recognizable images from antiquity. Situated between the Roman and Parthian Empires, Palmyra was a key intermediary of trade between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea, and in the process, became an exceptionally wealthy city known for its elaborate temples, tombs and sculptures. Recent scholarship has focused on how Palmyrenes crafted their own unique identity, synthesizing elements from the Greco-Roman West and the Parthian East. Specifically, as B. Fowlkes-Childs and M. Seymour remark (p. 151 in The World Between Empires: Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East), Palmyrene portraits speak to the city’s identity through “their inscriptions and details, such as dress, gestures, hairstyles, and jewelry.”

This portrait depicts a woman enrobed in a tunic with a mantle draped over her head as a veil. Her hair is bound with a cloth headdress and in her right hand she clutches a swirling fold of drapery. Notable is the elaborate jewelry worn: two necklaces, three bracelets and earrings. According to Fowlkes-Childs and Seymour (op. cit., p. 174), the appearance of extravagant jewelry is a prominent feature on Palmyrene portraits of women from the 2nd-3rd centuries and further speaks to the trade networks and materials available to local artisans during this period. For a similarly adorned portrait, see the bust of Bat’a in the Musée de Grenoble, no. 125 in Fowlkes-Childs and Seymour, op. cit.