Ancient South Arabia, Yemen, ca. early first millennium BCE. A pair of cast bronze camels, each standing, with a single hump, a tail, and a curved neck terminating in a long-snouted head with perky ears. Each wears some kind of thick collar and the larger also seems to wear a rug over its hump. Both with attractive pale green patinas. These camels are posed as if walking, a dynamic form for an animal whose ability to walk was prized above all else by the South Arabians. Size of largest: 3.9" W x 2.7" H (9.9 cm x 6.9 cm); 3" H (7.6 cm) on included custom stand.
The camel was domesticated in South Arabia some time during the Bronze Age (ca. 3000 BCE), and rapidly became central to its economy. Camels allowed them to traverse the vast desert of the Rub' al-Khali, "the Empty Quarter", and were the main method of transport for long-distance trade north to the huge urban centers of the ancient Near East. In turn, South Arabia became famous as a source of perfumes and incense necessary to religious ceremonies in Mesopotamia and beyond. Bronze camel statuettes like this one seem to have been votive offerings, often presented as this one is without inscription. For example, many were found as funerary offerings in various necropoli.
Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection
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#146862
Condition
Tail is lost from the smaller, and its front legs have been repaired, this being well done and difficult to see. Both have slight bending but overall very nice preservation of form.