Image Details

Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

AMMONITE KING. Holding a drooping lotus flower and wearing a headband or diadem, this statuette depicts the Ammonite king Yarḥ-‘Azar. Found in the Amman Citadel, the 14-inch-tall limestone statuette dates to the late eighth century B.C.E. and is currently kept in the Jordan Archaeological Museum in Amman, Jordan. A two-line inscription on the statue’s pedestal identifies the figure as “Yarḥ-‘Azar, [son of Za]kir, son of Shanib.” Shanib, Yarḥ-‘Azar’s grandfather, submitted to the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in approximately 734 B.C.E.