|
HOME :
Biblical Antiquities :
Phoenician Artefacts : Phoenician Sculpture of a Scorpion
|
 |
|
|
|
Phoenician Sculpture of a Scorpion - PF.1074
Origin: Sidon, Lebanon
Circa: 900
BC
to 600
BC
Dimensions:
4" (10.2cm) high
x 6.25" (15.9cm) wide
Catalogue: V4
Collection: Biblical
Medium: Diorite
Additional Information: SOLD
Location: UAE
|
|
|
| Photo Gallery |
|
|
| Description |
|
The Phoenicians were one of the most
important
civilisations of the ancient world, and
flourished
from around 1500 to 300 BC. Their world
was
centred on Northern Israel, Lebanon and
Syria,
while their sphere of conquest and
influence
extended throughout the Mediterranean
and
even beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the
Straits of
Gibraltar) and into the Mediterranean-
Atlantic.
Their power was due primarily to their
mastery of
seamanship – which they developed to a
whole
new level during their pre-eminence –
and
extremely well-organised administration
which
was strengthened by extensive use of the
alphabet. Indeed, it was the Phoenicians
who
introduced the alphabet to the Greeks,
who in
turn passed it onto the rest of the
Western
World. They were essentially Canaanites,
to
whom they were identical in
sociocultural and
material terms, the only difference
being the
massive range over which their cultural
remains
and heritage can be found. Phoenician
society
was comparatively stable when compared
to the
changeable fortunes of other Eastern
Mediterranean cultures, primarily due to
its
broad royal, political and religious
foundations.
The town of Byblos became a major hub
for trade
all over the Fertile Crescent, followed
by Tyre
and Sidon; overseas territories notably
included
Carthage (founded 814 BC), but they
either took
over or culturally dominated trading
ports from
Cyprus to Malta, Spain, Portugal and
Sardinia.
They traded in purple dye (“Tyrian
Purple”),
textiles, luxury ceramics, silver, tin
(with
England) and glass, explored down the
west
coast of Africa as far as the Gulf of
Guinea, and
may even have circumnavigated Africa in
around
600 BC.
Since earliest times, the mysterious,
poisonous
scorpion has gripped men's imaginations.
In
Egypt this ancient arachnid was
worshipped as a
god, and the Greeks placed it among the
constellations of the heavens. This
powerfully
abstract sculpture, perhaps a votive,
seems to
possess a magic that is older than
memory itself.
Even in a world where the scorpion is
hardly
seen, we are attracted by the primal
energy of
this image.
- (PF.1074)
|
| |
|
