libation-table
- Museum number
- 141549
- Description
-
Carved calcite-alabaster, roughly violin-shaped libation-table with lightly recessed top draining into a libation channel cut into the top of a bull's head spout; bulls' head carved with the characteristic multiple folds over the eyes; horns missing; part of corner opposite spout missing.
- Production date
- 3rdC BC-3rdC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 7.50 centimetres
-
Length: 59.50 centimetres
-
Width: 29 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Same shape also used for architectural gutters: compare one in the Musée du Louvre (Yves Calvet & Christian Robin et al., 'Arabie heureuse. Arabie déserte. Les Antiquités arabiques du Musée du Louvre', Paris: Louvre, 1992, cf. p. 237, nos 158-59.
-
Bowers catalogue entry
Libation table with bull’s head spout
Calcite-alabaster
Height 7.5 cm, width 29 cm, length 59.5 cm
ANE 1985-2-23,18 = 141549
Presented by Brian Doe
Carved from the typical yellowish veined calcite-alabaster which was widely used in ancient Southern Arabia, this object has a lightly recessed area along the top which ends in a channel running along the top of a bull’s head spout. This design enabled priests to pour liquid libations onto the object during religious ceremonies. Variations on this shape, either violin-shaped like this example, square or rectangular, have been excavated principally in temple contexts in South Arabia. They are carved from limestone or calcite-alabaster, or cast from metal; miniature versions were also deposited in cemetery contexts. The same form of spout was also employed for gutters.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2004-2005 17 Oct-13 Mar, California, Bowers Museum, 'Queen of Sheba: Legend and Reality'
- Condition
- Good / fair; horns missing; part of corner opposite spout missing; old scratches and abrasions.
- Acquisition date
- 1985
- Acquisition notes
- Collected in South Yemen between 1961-1967.
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 141549
- Registration number
- 1985,0223.18
