Harvard Art Museums > 1967.26: Sphinx, part of an Incense Burner Sculpture Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Sphinx, part of an Incense Burner , 1967.26,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Dec 18, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/289152. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1967.26 Title Sphinx, part of an Incense Burner Classification Sculpture Work Type statuette, sculpture Date c. 900-700 BCE Places Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Syria, Northwestern Syria Period Iron Age Culture Syrian Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/289152 Physical Descriptions Medium Steatite or chlorite Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norbert Schimmel Accession Year 1967 Object Number 1967.26 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Commentary This small sphinx with curling locks, facing right, was originally part of a sculptured openwork incense burner produced somewhere in Northern Syria or on the Levantine coast in the Iron Age. It may have been reworked as a separate object after the incense burner itself had been broken up. The sphinx of the female type seems to have originated in the Late Bronze Age Aegean and Anatolian worlds as a guardian figure which made its way to the Near East where it is abundant in many media during the Iron Age. Around 700 BCE the female sphinx returned to the Greek world where it had a long and illustrious career as a fearsome guardian of tombs and as the sphinx whose deadly riddle was solved by Oedipus. (David Gordon Mitten, 2004) Exhibition History The Book and the Spade: An Exhibition of Biblical Art and Archaeology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 04/13/1975 - 05/04/1975 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 02/13/2015 Verification Level This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
