Alabaster Head of a Man in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2008

Head of a Man
Alabaster (gypsum)
Southwestern Arabia
3rd-4th century AD

Accession Number: 1982.317.1

The head, perhaps part of a larger sculpture, is adorned with a stylized laurel wreath, symbolizing royalty or high rank. The single ringlet on the left cheek may indicate that the subject was one of the Himyar Jewish rulers in this region about the middle of the first millennium AD.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.