Standing ammonite
The Standing Ammonite is a 83 cm high statue made of gray hard stone that was found in 1949 at the foot of the Amman Citadel in Jordan . It is now in the Archaeological Museum there and has catalog number J 1657.
description
A bearded dignitary from Iron Age II is shown. He is dressed in a long robe; the two ends of the belt hang down in front. A wide scarf is draped around the torso and shoulders so that a tassel falls over the right shoulder. The left arm is bent, the hand is holding a small object, perhaps a vessel.
The Ammonite wears an Atef crown on his head . In Egypt it was an attribute of deities, but in Syria it was also used as a headgear for important people.
The figure's posture is rigid, the expression serious. The statue can be assigned to the culture of the Ammonites and was created between the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 7th century.
context
Several busts similar to the upper part of this statue have been found in the Amman area, that is, the sitters are bearded and decorated with the Atef crown. The majority of researchers interpret them as kings of the Ammonites. A minority see deities in them.
literature
- Siegfried Mittmann et al .: The royal road. 9000 years of art and culture in Jordan , Cologne 1987, p. 131.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Øystein S. LaBianca, Randall W. Younker: The Kingdoms of Amman, Moab and Edom: The Archeology of Society in Late Bronze / Iron Age Transjordan (approx. 1400-500 BCE) . In: Thomas Levy (Ed.): The Archeology of Society in the Holy Land . London 1995, p. 410 .