88 Anna Witecka - Catalogue of Jewellery found in the Tower-tomb of Atenatan at Palmyra

5.Fragment of a head

Pl.XII/4

Inv. no:

Dimensions:

Material:

Tool:

Condition:

Provenience:

S 4/92

H. 114 mm, W. 105 mm.

White limestone.

Chisel.

Upper left part of the head preserved.
Northern part of the tomb.

The male head fragment consists of a small part of the face and hair above it. The hair is combed up and
shown by means of groups of long wavy lines to represent thick waves. The forehead is low, and the
eyebrow is shown by a row of oblique hatches. The eye has the upper eyelid underlined by two lines and
elongated down and to the outside.

Date: Mid 2 nd cent. A.D.

There are many Palmyrene portraits with similar eyebrows (Ploug 1993: nos. 50, 61; Tanabe 1986: il.
281, 289, 308). This is a characteristic feature of male bust mainly of Ingholt’s Categories II and III, e.g.
portrait of Zabda, son of BDWL(?), and his brother from the hypogeum of Sasan, now in the Palmyra
Museum (Tanabe 1986: il. 370).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barag

1978

Barag D., Hanita,Tomb XV, A Tomb of Third and Early Fourth Century CE, Antiqot
English series 1978

Chahadeh

1972

Chahadeh K., Untersuchungen zum antiken Schmuck in Syrien, Berlin 1972

1987 Chahadeh KZu Schmuckdarstellungen auf palmyrenischen Grabreliefs, in: Palmyra.

Geschichte, Kunst und Kultur der syrischen Oasenstadt, Linz 1987

Colledge

1976 Colledge M.A.R., The Art of Palmyra, London 1976