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Eastern Desert, Jordan
Delicately carved into this basalt rock from the ancient lava fields of eastern Jordan is a seemingly whimsical depiction of music and revelry dating to about 2,000 years ago. A nude female figure with spindly legs and wild flowing hair plays a long flute-like instrument, while a male figure is shown dancing, the position of his hands and feet evoking the playful tunes of the flute’s melody. Below the fanciful scene, an inscription written in the so-called Safaitic script of the ancient Arabian tribes of the region records the name of the artist, the name of his father and grandfather, and an all-too-brief description of the subject of the drawing itself: “By Aqrab son of Kaset son of Sa‘ed is this songstress.”
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SearchBrowse by Publication![]() BAR 35:06, Nov/Dec 2009
Table of Contents
“Secret Mark”: A Modern Forgery?
By Charles W. Hendrick
By Hershel Shanks
By Helmut Koester
By Hershel Shanks
Features
By S. Rebecca Martin and Andrew F. Stewart
By Avraham Faust
Departments
By Hershel Shanks
By Steve Mason
By Jeffrey R. Zorn
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