A Study of Unpublished Anthropomorphic Terracotta Figurines from Ancient Yemen
Yemen was called the Arabic Felix as it had a long history, which started in the third millennium BC and flourished throughout the kingdom of Saba, Ma'een, Qataban, and Hadhramout, Ousan and Hemyar. The Yemeni people were proficient in many aspects of life and had the capability to build a g...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2005
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/6022/1/FEM_2005_6.pdf |
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| Summary: | Yemen was called the Arabic Felix as it had a long history, which started in the third
millennium BC and flourished throughout the kingdom of Saba, Ma'een, Qataban, and
Hadhramout, Ousan and Hemyar. The Yemeni people were proficient in many aspects
of life and had the capability to build a great civilization as they had many experiences,
with different types of inventions, innovative arts and religious ideas at that time.
This study concentrates on one of the interesting aspects of the Yemen Civilization, i.e.
an art that they were skilled in. The terracotta figurines were collected from three
museums: The National Museum of Sana'a, The Military Museum in Sana'a, and the
National Museum of Aden. These figurines were obtained either by donation or by
purchase. There are one hundred eight including female and male terracotta figurines
This study involved fieldwork that was done as follows: description of the overall
shape, the position of the body, the method of manufacture, the decoration and the
colour. The Fabric colour was measured using Munsell Soil Colour Charts and the
hardness was measured using Moh's scale. The aim was to create a database of the
terracotta figurines for future references.
At present, Yemen is still lacking in ancient archaeological information concerning the
art and religion. The terracotta figurines from museums showed some similarity with
that from other sites in Yemen and Gulf countries that came from controlling
excavations and have already been dated.
As a conclusion, a date was suggested in the first millennium BC-100AD period for the
terracotta figurines in the Yemeni museums in Sana'a while the terracotta figurines from
Aden museum were dated to the fourth millennium BC to the second millennium BC.
After extensive research and reading, we suggest that the significance of these terracotta
figurines were clearly used for religious function i.e., it might have served either for
worship of the mother Goddess or maybe an offering as a gift to the temples and their
existence in ancient houses were to bring good luck and prevent bad luck.The male
terracotta figurines were very rare but they might used as God or King or horseman or
temple priest .The heads figurines might used as votive objects |
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