Dumbarton Oaks - Tomb Stele Fragment with Kufic inscription

Tomb Stele Fragment with Kufic inscription

Islamic
late 9th century - 10th century (?)
29.21 cm x 40.64 cm x 7 cm (11 1/2 in. x 16 in. x 2 3/4 in.)
marble
BZ.1938.89

Not on view

Permalink: http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/36103

Additional Images

Obverse

Reverse

Three-quarter view

Description

Fragment of a marble stele, broken on all sides. The fragment contains four incomplete horizontal lines and, along the right edge, an incomplete vertical line separated from the others by a meander pattern in relief. Writing has been lost from the upper and lower edges, and at the left side. The characters, which are in relief, are in simple Kufic.

Bibliography

RIchard Stillwell, ed., Antioch-on-the-Orontes, II, The Excavations of 1933-1936 (Princeton, 1938), 168-169, no. 17, and fig.

Handbook of the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Harvard University (Washington, D.C., 1955), no. 27.

H. C. Evans, ed. with B. Ratliff, Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th-9th Century, exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2012), 262, no. 183.

Exhibition History

Washington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, "Scattered Evidence: Excavating Antioch-on-the-Orontes," April 7-October 10, 2010.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition," March 14–July 8, 2012.

Acquisition History

Purchased June 25, 1935 in Antioch by the Antioch Expedition, Syria (field no. 5442-I169).

Acquired by Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss from the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and its Vicinity, Princeton University Department of Art and Archaeology, in return for their support of the excavations, 1938;

Collection of Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, D.C., until November 29, 1940;

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, D.C.

Object Last Modified: 11/16/2023