Archaeologists find statue of ancient Yemeni queen
[18 March 2009] DHAMAR, March 18 (Saba) – A Yemeni archaeologist team has discovered a mosaic statue of a women sitting on a throne with here chest engraved with Musnad letters.
The archaeologists also found other relics including a stone board with faith signs engraved on it.
Two pulls [bulls?] separated by a tree were carved on the stone board, a symbol that was know as "Life's Tree" [Tree of Life] in ancient Yemeni civilization, director of the authority Ali al-Sanabani said.
Other symbols like crescent were imprinted on found relics.
The discoveries were revealed during excavations at a site in Dhamar province where the team found buildings that were used to give sacrifices.
Al-Sanabani expected the site is a trace of the Yatrib city of the Sheba civilization.
FRSaba
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Er, is that the queen? If it is, she sure was ugly! Looks like she had a beard too. Did the ancient Yemeni people's female rulers wear "false beards" like the Egyptian pharaohs did?
5 comments:
Actually this is a hat they use and still ware till this day. It has a part of leather or fabric holds the hat around the nick from falling. She was so beautiful Woman.
No, this is a bronze male figure, and judging from the 'archaic' smile on the face it was manufactured sometime between 900 and 700 BC. The 'archaic' smile is credited with the early Greeks but it's actually a style used throughout the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean world. It's not surprising it would be found in Yemen.
Hello Anonymous,
Thanks for your comment. When I saw this image, I thought it was a male, but images can be deceiving. One has only to think of "Queen" Hatsepshut, for instance, and all the images that were carved of her as Pharaoh with a beard.
On the other hand, since this image was in the original article, and it is clear that is not a "mosaic," but a bronze, you are probably right.
But what about the "hat" that sam mentioned in his comment on June 9th? Could the bronze depict a sort of bonnet with side flaps that tied under the chin?
This may be a hat, but if so it imitates a natural hairstyle of the people of the time. It's definitely a male and he has a beard. I don't even know why that's up for discussion.
Kofi Khemet, can you post a link to an image showing men of the period wearing this hairstyle - or a wig like this? The image in the post looks like a hat or headdress - it has a band, that is not a natural hairline showing. By the way, I have since changed my mind that this was an image of a male. Since the person quoted in the article had access to the artifact and could see it in full, and he identified it as a "women," there may have been other elements present that allowed him to identify it as such.
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