In Arabia, the southern regions grew and cultivated incense and largely controlled its trade. Cities along the trade roads provided shelter and levied taxes on caravans, bringing in tremendous wealth. The objects discovered in these cities testify not only to economic prosperity but also to cultural interactions with the distant civilizations connected to this trade network, including Mesopotamia, the Nile River Valley and the Mediterranean world. A limestone statue of a male figure discovered on Tarut island, a site along the incense routes in the northeast, possesses features resembling Mesopotamian sculptures. A group of chlorite vessels confirms the island’s connections with southeastern Iran. At Tayma, a site in the northwest, a stone pedestal was discovered with decoration that confirms the integration of multicultural motifs—Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Persian—into local religious practices. A set of colossal stone statues once stood at the northwestern oasis of al-Ula. Similarities in pose, musculature and painted surface recall sculptural traditions of Egypt and Sudan. Yet certain markers indicate the person represented was a noble or member of the region’s ruling class. The sites of Qaryat al-Faw and Thaj, two of the most prosperous stops on the incense roads, enjoyed cultural exchange with the Mediterranean world. The exhibition’s bronze statuette of the Greek hero Heracles represents the kind of luxury items imported to these cities, while the cast bronze head was apparently produced locally, but with an awareness of Greco-Roman models. Mediterranean influence also extended into Thaj’s burial customs, evidenced by the gold funerary mask and glove, common in Greek and Macedonian burials.
Statue of a man, 400–200 BCE. Saudi Arabia; Al-Ula site. Sandstone. Courtesy of Department of Archaeology Museum, King Saud University, Riyadh, 137D4, 136D4.
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Cylindrical vessel with palm tree, approx. 2250– 2000 BCE. Saudi Arabia; Tarut island, al-Rufayah village. Chlorite. Courtesy of National Museum of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, 3171.
Pedestal or altar, 500–300 BCE. Saudi Arabia; Tayma. Sandstone. Courtesy of National Museum of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, 1021. Statuette of Heracles, 1st–3rd century CE. Saudi Arabia; Qaryat al-Faw site. Bronze. Courtesy of Department of Archaeology Museum, King Saud University, Riyadh, 214F7.