The Tell Brak Head is an important

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

Middle Eastern The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European ...

sculpture found at the ancient site of

Tell Brak Tell Brak (Nagar, Nawar) was an ancient city in Syria; its remains constitute a tell located in the Upper Khabur region, near the modern village of Tell Brak, 50 kilometers north-east of Al-Hasaka city, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The city's o ...

in Syria. It has been part of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

's collection since 1939. Dated by archaeologists to before 3300 BC, it is considered to be one of the oldest portrait busts from the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

Discovery

The sculpture was discovered during excavations in the late 1930s carried out by the eminent British archaeologist Sir

Max Mallowan Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan (6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history. He was the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie. Life and work Born Edgar Mallowan in Wands ...

at Tell Brak, north eastern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. It was found in the so-called ''Eye Temple'', where a large number of offerings to the gods had accumulated over time. The temple, built around 3500–3300 BC, was named for the hundreds of small alabaster ''eye idol'' figurines, which were incorporated into the mortar with which the mud-brick temple was constructed. Many of the more important idols had been robbed in antiquity, but this stone head was uncovered inside a tunnel underneath the remains of earlier

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

, that had been used by robbers in ancient times.

Description

The Tell Brak Head is carved from

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

(

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...

) and appears to wear a head-dress.Statue - British Museum number 126460
britishmuseum.org The face is elongated with large

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

shaped eyes, circular ears and a small, smiling mouth. It has been difficult to determine whether the figure represents a deity or worshipper. A thin vertical depression at the back of the head, with holes either side for nails, suggests that it was once fixed to a pole and used during religious

ceremonies A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...

. No other similar sculptures were found at the site, and there are few other representations comparable to the head from this period in the region.

References

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External links

Statue - British Museum number 126460
britishmuseum.org Tell Brak Middle Eastern objects in the British Museum Sculpture of the Ancient Near East Archaeological discoveries in Syria 4th-millennium BC works

Discovery

Description

References

Further reading

External links