The Tel Shalem Hadrian Reconsidered
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4542315 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard A Gergel (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1991 |
| Volume | 95 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 231-251 |
| Publication date | 1991-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2307/505724 |
| OpenAlex | W2326308849 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
The Tel Shalem bronze find, discovered in 1975, includes a remarkable bronze portrait of Hadrian and fragments of an equally remarkable bronze cuirassed torso with a mythological battle scene comprising six nude warriors decorating the chest of the breastplate. All previous studies have assumed that this head and body belong together; however, the rigid configuration of the torso, the absence of the customary Gorgoneion or talismanic device on the chest, the presence of a scarf rather than a military cloak over the shoulders, and the purely mythological nature of the figural decoration as well as its placement across the chest of the figure rather than across the abdomen find no counterpart in Roman Imperial cuirassed statue design of either the Hadrianic or pre-Hadrianic period. Because of these anomalies, it is proposed that the Tel Shalem bronze is not a completely original work of the second century, but an artistic pastiche combining an imported head of Hadrian with a reused trophy or torso of local provenance and Hellenistic date
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Battle · Bronze · Chariot · Head (geology) · Inscribed figure · Literature · Mythology · Portrait · Torso · Anatomy · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Geology · History · Medicine
| Citations per year | 0.41 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2009 - 2025 (17) |
| Highly cited | No |