South Arabian Head of a Woman

Circa 1st century BC to 1st century AD

A masterpiece of South Arabian sculpture with an illustrious provenance, traced back to its excavation at the necropolis at Timna.

Carved in luminous calcite-alabaster, this elegant funerary head hails from the ancient kingdom of Qataban, one of the great trading powers of ancient Arabia. Research undertaken by ArtAncient reconstructed its complete ownership history and reunited the sculpture with the previously lost record of its discovery near the necropolis of Timna. Acquired in the late 1950s by Captain John Aylward (1929-1986), it later passed through the collection of the celebrated explorer and photographer Ingeborg de Beausacq (1910-2003). Its rediscovery and publication adds it to the known corpus of South Arabian sculpture, and in particular those masterpieces hailing from Timna.

Now in the collection of the Museum of Visual and Contemporary Arts.