Shihan Stele, Stele representing a warrior from the land of Moab at The Louvre, Paris

by Scan The World

This basalt stele, sometimes called the Shihan stele, was the oldest monument from the Holy Land to be found in the Louvre's collection until the inter-war excavations bore their fruit. The figure represented on the stele, for a long time identified as a king or prince, might also be a warrior god. The dating of the work, however, still poses many questions, with the current estimate ranging from the Late Bronze (c. 1200 BC), to the Iron Age (c. 800 BC). This basalt stele was discovered in 1851 by Félicien de Saulcy, in the course of his famous journey around the Dead Sea, so fruitful in important cartographic, archaeological, and entomological observations. Too heavy to be carried away, it was nonetheless immediately published, and the precision of the mapping allowed the Duc de Luynes, who undertook an expedition in 1864, to locate the stele and bring it to France to be presented to the Louvre. It was found at Redjom el A'abed, a site on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, near Shihan, at the heart of the biblical Land of Moab. The site was not excavated and the archaeological context of the find remains unknown. It could, however, equally well have been brought there from some other unknown and even quite distant site. The edges of the relief have been broken off, apparently to reduce the weight and facilitate transport. The squat figure holds a spear, point facing downward, with his right arm raised, and the left crossing the chest. He wears no more than a short loincloth, its upper edge rolled at the waist. The head, turned in profile over shoulders presented frontally, is clad in a close-fitting helmet leaving the ear uncovered. From the top of the stele falls a long tress rolled up at the end. At the bottom left is an animal shown in profile, possibly an eagle or a lion. For a long time some have considered the figure to be a prince or king represented on a victory stele. Others have identified it as a warrior god related to the Baal of Canaan, god of the stor