The "Bulawayo Stone". A Sabaean Votive Stele to the Gods 'Athar and Sahar, Southern Arabia, circa 3rd Century A.D.

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Auction Closed

December 6, 03:36 PM GMT

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a British Private Collection

The "Bulawayo Stone". A Sabaean Votive Stele to the Gods 'Athar and Sahar

Southern Arabia, circa 3rd Century A.D.

of rectangular form, carved within a recess from right to left with a large head of an antelope, a head of a dragon with long neck, Almaqah's bludgeon, a smaller head of an antelope, and a spearhead crossed by a strap, the area below the frame engraved with a single line of South Arabian inscription reading qyf 'thtr ws-hr ("Plinth of 'Ahtar and Sahar").

30.5 by 45 by 11.5 cm.

Please note that there may be restrictions on the import of property originating from Yemen into the USA and some or all member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Any buyers planning to import property originating from Yemen into any of these countries should satisfy themselves of the relevant import regime. Sotheby's will not assist buyers with the shipment of such items into the USA or the GCC.This lot should have a W symbol in the printed catalogue. Lots marked "W" will be sent to Greenford Park Warehouse immediately after the auction.

said to have been found at al-Hawtah, Sultanate of Lahej, but probably from Marib

Sir Hugh Marshall Hole (1865-1941), Civil Governor of Rhodesia, Bulawayo, received as a gift from the above

acquired by the current owner on the London art market in the 1980s

Published

D. H. Müller, "Mitteilung von einem sabäischen Steine mit figuralen Darstellungen, der sich im Besitz des Zivilgouverneurs von Rhodesia, Sir H. Marshall Hole, B.A., in Bulawayo", Anzeiger der Phil.-Hist. Kl. der kaiserl. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Wien, vol. 40, 1903, no. IV (4 Febr.), pp. 20-23, illus.

O. Weber, "Göttersymbole auf südarabischen Denkmälern", Hilprecht Anniversary Volume. Studies in Assyriology and Archaeology Dedicated to Hermann Hilprecht, Leipzig, 1909, p. 272

Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, vol. IV, Inscriptiones Himyariticas et Sabaeas continens (CIH), Tabulae, Vol. II, fasc. 2, Paris, 1914, no. 458 pl. XVI (=CIH 458)

Maria Höfner and Nikolaus Rhodokanakis, "Zur Interpretation altsüdarabischer Inschriften III," Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. 43, 1936, pp. 221-222

Jacques Ryckmans, "The Old South Arabian so-called Bulawayo Stone (CIH 458) Recovered," New Arabian Studies, vol. 3, 1996, pp. 134-146, photograph and line drawing on p. 135

Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions: http://dasi.cnr.it/index.php?id=dasi_prj_epi&prjId=1&corId=0&colId=0&navId=331455920&recId=5568

Christian Julien Robin, "Matériaux pour une typologie des divinités arabiques et de leurs représentations", Dieux et déesses d'Arabie. Images et représentations, Isabelle Sachet and Christian Julien Robin, eds. (Orient & Méditerranée, no. 7), Paris, 2012, pp. 32-33

"The two gods mentioned in the inscription were particularly revered by the banū dhu-Saḥr of Marib. The five symbols carved on the stone probably represent the five deities of the Sabaean pantheon: ʿAthtar, Hawbas, Almaqah, dhāt-Baʿdan^um,and dhāt- Ḥimyam. The central symbol, in third position, is that of Almaqah; the first one, to the far right, is an antelope's head which could symbolise 'Athtar" (Robin 2012, pp. 32-33).

Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Marshall Hole, CMG (1865-1941), was a British colonial civil servant in southern Africa. He travelled to the Arabian Peninsula in 1901 on a fact-finding mission from Cecil Rhodes and is best known for issuing the "Marshall Hole Currency" during the Anglo-Boer War.