Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗
Seated Ruler
Creator not recorded by the museum
- Date
- 2000–1700 BCE
- Medium
- limestone with shell inclusions
- Dimensions
- Overall: 66.7 x 38.2 x 54.6 cm (26 1/4 x 15 1/16 x 21 1/2 in.)
- Country / context
- Syria
- Movement / tradition
- Middle Eastern and North African arts
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Pathway
- Middle Eastern and North African arts ↗
Four thousand years ago northern Syria was a crossroads of peoples and cultures, meeting through trade and military conflict. This statue of a portly man sitting on a low throne combines Assyrian and Amorite stylistic influences. It was possibly found at Ebla, where some scholars believe the biblical Abraham visited as he traveled from Chaldea to Canaan around 2000 bc. Such a large carved stone image suggests a local ruler or high official. The head was removed, probably in an act of ritual defilement, since decapitation was believed to cancel the object’s supernatural presence.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.Follow a connection.
Explore the tradition ↗
↗Bahram Gur Arrives at the House of a Merchant, text page (recto); Bahram Gur Slays a Dragon (verso), from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), known as the Great Mongol Shahnama
Creator not recorded
↗Persian Verses: The Fortieth Year of King Kisra Nushirwan's Reign and the Story of Buzurgmihr (recto); Portrait of Nushirwan the Just (verso) from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025)
Creator not recorded
↗Master of Animals Cheekpiece
Creator not recorded
↗Head of Amenhotep III Wearing the Blue Crown
Creator not recorded