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Source Description
This unique plaque depicts a man dressed in a thigh-length costume and shoes. He wears headgear used by hunters and traders. A serpent is coiled in front of his face, and a bird, perhaps an eagle, with outspread wings emerges from behind his shoulders. Serpents and eagles in South Arabian art are associated with the sun and moon. On top of the plaque, a female figure wearing a long, sheath-like dress is oriented horizontally and may represent a worshiper. Text beside the man contains the given name Heshfer or Heshqer of the Serben clan.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
76494
label
Plaque of a Man
core
obj
dtoType
sculpture
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
76494
contentType
sculpture
stage
normalized
title
Plaque of a Man
description
This unique plaque depicts a man dressed in a thigh-length costume and shoes. He wears headgear used by hunters and traders. A serpent is coiled in front of his face, and a bird, perhaps an eagle, with outspread wings emerges from behind his shoulders. Serpents and eagles in South Arabian art are associated with the sun and moon. On top of the plaque, a female figure wearing a long, sheath-like dress is oriented horizontally and may represent a worshiper. Text beside the man contains the given name Heshfer or Heshqer of the Serben clan.
provenance
Portobello Road Market, London; Giraud and Carolyn Foster, Baltimore, between 1963 and 1964, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 2007, by gift.
date
2nd-1st century BCE
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Sculpture
plaques (flat objects)
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
17.8
height
10
depth
0.5
dimensionsRaw
H: 7 x W: 3 15/16 x D: 3/16 in. (17.8 x 10 x 0.5 cm)
Source extras
inscriptions
[Transliteration] Hsfr (or) Hsqr Srbn[Translation] Heshfer (or) Heshqer of the Serben clan
med
bronze
creator_ids
15549
collection_ids
SAY
exhibition_ids
2002
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
912f26c54a8adf99