Calcite statue of a standing female figure
Sabaean, 3rd-2nd century BC
From Marib or Qataban, Yemen
Calcite sculptures such as this are typical of South Arabia, and
most known examples seem to have been dedicated in temples as
votive offerings. These were donations made in the hope of gaining
the favour of the god, and perhaps also intended to show publicly
the wealth of the donor. Small human statues were the most common
type. This standing woman may originally have held an offering. The
tendency to abstraction and to rather squared shapes is noticeable.
We cannot tell how such sculptures relate to cult images, as we do
not know what form the divine image in a temple took.
The wealth of the donors of such statues must in some cases have
derived from the fact that the southern Arabians had the monopoly
for two of the most prized materials of ancient times: frankincense
and myrrh. These two aromatic resins only grow in eastern Yemen,
southern Oman and Somaliland. Their production and trade was in the
hands of the ancient south Arabians. Every temple or wealthy home
in the Mediterranean and Near East required them, and purchasers
were prepared to pay their weight in gold. This is the historical
background to the legendary account in the Old Testament of the
Queen of Saba making a caravan journey to Jerusalem.
During the first millennium BC, a number of independent states
appeared in southern Arabia. Apart from the spices, an important
factor in the wealth of these cities was that they were on the
great trade routes linking the Middle and Far East to Europe and
Africa.
W. Seipel and others, Jemen: Kunst und Archäologie i (Vienna, 1999)
B. Doe, Southern Arabia (London, Thames and Hudson, 1971)
St J.H. Philby, The Queen of Sheba (London, Quartet, 1981)