Fine South Arabian Bronze Camel

**First Time At Auction**

Ancient South Arabia, Yemen, ca. early 1st millennium BCE. A beautiful hollow-cast bronze statuette of a camel with an erect head and neck, a slight hump centered on the back, and a petite tail draped behind the hind legs. The raised head bears hemispherical eyes, a tapered snout with a slit-form mouth, and a pair of perky ears. Both the front legs and back legs are fused via separate, integral tangs which were perhaps inserted into a separate platform or animal-filled scene. Size: 2.5" L x 2.9" H (6.4 cm x 7.4 cm); 3.125" H (7.9 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.

For a stylistically similar example, please see The British Museum, museum number 1985,0223.139.

Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-R. Sorge collection, Germany, 1970s

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#137209
Condition Report: Restoration to front right and back left legs, with resurfacing and overpainting along new material and break lines. Abrasions and minor nicks to legs, body, neck, and head, with recess to one side of hump, and light encrustations. Light earthen deposits and fabulous green, brown, and russet patina throughout.