stela
- Museum number
- 1859,0402.38
- Description
-
Limestone stela, only gabled top missing. In a niche with a rounded arch is a male figure who stands on a high pedestal with concave sides and wears an enveloping mantle. Around his neck is a torque with a signet in the centre. He holds an offering in each hand (possibly pomegranates). The right arm is bent to the chest while the left arm is at his side. His hair is arranged in short tight curls across the head. The niche is supported by 2 fluted columns and the voussoirs of the arch have countersunk circles with central depressions. On either side of the niche is standard with a wide base and 2 circles on the shaft. Below the niche is what appears to be a coffered ceiling, either a misunderstanding by the mason or an attempt to depict a ceiling in plan. Above the niche 2 birds nibble beak to beak at a fruit cluster. Above them, a Tanit figure holds a cornucopia with a large bunch of grapes / dates in her right hand and 2 pomegranates on a stalk in her left. 2 birds peck at the grapes. At the top is a disc and crescent, the crescent with upturned ends and the disc with a round face enclosed in a wreath (moon and sun). On either side a bird holds a stem in its beak (perhaps the fruit from the scene below). They stand on a deeply carved 10-petalled rosette. In the field are inset circles with countersunk holes in the centre. At the bottom of the stela is a one-line inscription between 2 lightly traced lines.
- Production date
- 2ndC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 130.50 centimetres (joined)
-
Width: 40 centimetres (joined)
-
Depth: 15.50 centimetres (joined)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Attached to 1857,1218.53 (also BM.125183).
- Location
- On display (G70/dc24)
- Condition
- Incomplete; gabled top missing.
- Acquisition date
- 1859
- Department
- Middle East
- Registration number
- 1859,0402.38
