Schihan stele

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Schihan stele

The Schihan Stele is a stele from basalt , which in 1851 by Felicien de Saulcy the east Dead Sea was discovered and in since 1866 Louvre is.

Discovery site and history

On Saulcy's journey around the Dead Sea, Beduins showed him the Schihan stele in January 1851. It was located on the Rujm el-Abd ⊙ on the northwestern edge of the Khirbet Faqua ( Arabic خربة فقوع, DMG Ḫirbat Faqwaʿ ) ⊙ 4 km southwest of the Schihan Mountain ( Arabic جبل شيحان, DMG Ǧabal Šīḥān ) ⊙ . Saulcy was unable to buy the stele, or at least make an impression of it.

Saulcy's travel companion, the painter Léon Belly , made a sketch of the stele. The illustrations for Saulcy's travelogue were made from this sketch. This sketch in the travelogue was used by the archaeologists for their interpretations. This resulted in considerable differences from the original, from which photographs were only taken later.

In 1864 Honoré Théodoric d'Albert de Luynes , 8th Duke of Luynes , following Saulcy's instructions, went to Faqua, where he found the stele at the place Saulcy had described. He describes this place as a conical hill 3 m high and 13 m in diameter. He managed to buy the stele for 15 gold pieces and take it with him to France. There he donated it to the Louvre in 1866.

description

The stele shows a bas-relief on a 103 cm high and 58 cm wide stone block made of blackish-green basalt. This block of stone was originally larger, but was chopped off around the figure shown to reduce its weight for transport. The stele shows a muscular man, dressed in a loincloth , with a spear in his hand. The man's body is shown frontally, but the head in profile. From the observer to the left of the figure, an animal is shown below. Also on the left is a ribbon that is rolled up to the left at the bottom. To the left of the figure's head and on its shoulder is an oval shape about the size of a head. The interpretation of this shape, the ribbon and the animal are the subject of discussion.

Archaeological interpretations

The Schihan stele is believed to date from 1200 BC by archaeologists . BC ( Late Bronze Age ) and 800 BC Dated BC ( Iron Age ). It is regarded as a Moabite work, as a representation of a king or a god of war. The god of war is perhaps Kemosh , the chief god of the Moabites . The Mesha stele was also dedicated to this. When interpreted as a god, the spear is sometimes also seen as lightning, as an attribute of a weather god .

The animal below to the left of the figure is interpreted as an eagle or a lion and is partially interpreted as the armrest of a throne in front of which the figure stands.

The oval shape to the left of the figure's head is interpreted as:

  • helmet
  • Hairstyle

Another interpretation assumes that a monkey was depicted on the figure's head, whose hand can still be seen in the hairstyle.

The band to the left of the figure is interpreted as:

  • Hair curl
  • Tail of the monkey
  • String attached to the spear
  • arc

The dating of the stele is not clear. The Egyptian loincloth and the depiction - body frontal, head in profile - indicate Egyptian influences. They would date it to 800 BC. Suggest. The lance and the long curly appendix of the hairstyle as attributes of the Syro - Canaanite gods point to the 2nd millennium before Christ.

literature

  • Félicien de Saulcy: Voyage autour de la Mer Morte et dans les terres bibliques, exécuté de 1850 à 1851 , 2 volumes, 1853 Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 on Google Books
  • Dussaud René: Les Monuments palestiniens et judaïques au musée du Louvre , Leroux, 1912, n 1.
  • Tufnell Olga: The Shihan Warrior , in Iraq, 15, British School of Archeology in Iraq, 1953, pp. 61–166.
  • Félicien de Saulcy (1807–1880) et la Terre sainte , Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux (Notes et documents des Musées de France, 5), 1982, n 242.
  • Warmenbol Eugène: La stèle de Rugm El-'Abd (Louvre AO 5055). Une image de divinité moabite du IXe * VIIIe siècle av. J.-C. , in Levant, 15, British School of Archeology in Jerusalem, 1983, pp. 63-75.
  • La voie royale: 9000 ans d'art au royaume de Jordanie , exposition du musée du Luxembourg, 26 nov. 1986 * 25 janv. 1987, Association française d'action artistique, 1986, n 110.
  • Regine Hunziker-Rodewald, Robert Deutsch: The Shihan Stele Reconsidered in J. Elayi and JM Durand (eds.): Bible et Proche-Orient. Mélanges André Lemaire II (Transeuphratène 45). Paris, 2014, pp. 51-67 online
  • Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain. Uvre posthume, publiée par ses petits-fils sous la direction de M. le Cte. de Vogüé . 4 volumes. Bertrand, Paris 1871–1875, (Digital copies: Volume 1: Relation du voyage. Volume 2. Volume 3: Géologie. Atlas. ).

Web links

Commons : Schihan stele  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Stèle au dieu guerrier at louvre.fr. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Régine Hunziker-Rodewald , Robert Deutsch: The Shihan Stele Reconsidered in J. Elayi and JM Durand (eds.): Bible et Proche-Orient. Mélanges André Lemaire II (Transeuphratène 45). Paris, 2014, pp. 51–67.Retrieved online August 4, 2020.
  3. ^ Félicien de Saulcy: Voyage near the Mer Morte et dans les terres bibliques, exécuté de 1850 à 1851 , Volume 1, 1853, pp. 323-325 Vol. 1, p. 323 at Google Books. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c d O. Tufnell: The Shihan Warrior , 1953, Iraq, 15 (2), 161–166. doi: 10.2307 / 4199574 The Shihan Warrior at cambridge.org. Retrieved August 4, 2020.