Antiquities Exhibits

In 2015, I had the opportunity to photograph artifacts in the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery of Asian Art.  In it, I found this spectacular fragment of a gold breastplate dating to the Iron Age III period. Other fragments of this breastplate are today in the Cincinnati Art Museum and in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Fragments from a second gold breastplate found in the burial mound near the village of Ziwiye are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the National Museum in Teheran. "This is a fragment from the lower part of a much larger pectoral, or breastplate, made of sheet metal and embellished with figures and ornament arranged in horizontal bands. A breastplate shielded the chest from arrows or other weapons. The decoration on this example consists of mythical guardian creatures, whose images were believed to provide magical protection for the wearer." "A pectoral made of thin sheet gold, like this one, would have been attached to a sturdier material, p...

Ancient Yemen was composed of a number of regional kingdoms including the Minaeans in the north in Wādī al-Jawf, the Sabeans on the southwestern tip, stretching from the highlands to the sea, the Qatabānians to the east of them, and the Ḥaḑramites east of them.  They were all engaged in the spice trade, especially frankincense and myrrh. They left behind many inscriptions in the monumental ancient South Arabian script or Musnad, as well as numerous documents in the related cursive Zabūr script.  Scholars disagree about their origins with some claiming these kingdoms arose about 1200 BCE.  Others say they did not begin to flourish until the 8th century BCE and lasted until they were conquered by the Himyarites.  The Himyarite Kingdom conquered neighbouring Saba' for the first time in c. 25 BCE, Qataban in c. 200 CE, and Haḍramaut c. 300 CE. The Middle Saba' kingdom rose in the early 2nd century CE with its capital established at Ma'rib. Himyar's fortunes relative to S...