On many Palmyra reliefs, women have more or less decorative headbands with floral motifs. This relief from the Manchester University Museum dated to the late 2nd century is different. A woman is wearing a headband (fillet) with an unique ornament in the center – a head surrounded by leaves at the central plaque.
A very similar ornament as on the relief from Manchester, a head surrounded by leaves, appears on a golden wreath from the beginning of the 3rd century BCE, which have been found in the grave of a woman at Lete, near Thessaloniki. Despina Ignatiadou in the article “Gold Wreaths and Diadems, Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki” describes it as a head of Aphrodite Antheia among oak leaves: “Aphrodite Antheia, the goddess ruling life and death, is depicted at the center of this unique gold diadem found in the grave of a woman. The goddess’s head is attached to a “Herakles knot”, flanked by two pairs of oak leaves. The hoop of the diadem consists of two tubes, supporting twenty pairs of spirals, oak leaves, and five-petalled flowers with spiral stems. The tubes terminate in wire hoops for the fastening fillet.”
The only similar motif from Palmyra I have found so far is this architectural ornament, head of a child flanked by leaves. Thus, as a child with a braid, Eros is depicted in antiquity.
on display at the Manchester University Museum
Photos by Professor Michael Fuller
SOURCES:
- Relief from Louvre, AO 4147 – https://colorsandstones.eu/produkt/palmyra-funerary-portrait-of-a-woman-with-a-child-3rd-c/
- Louvre, AO 1575 – https://colorsandstones.eu/produkt/palmyra-funerary-relief-of-a-woman-3rd-c/
- Louvre, AO 2196 – https://colorsandstones.eu/produkt/palmyra-funerary-relief/
- Wreath from the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki https://www.amth.gr/en/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/gold-macedon
- Despina Ignatiadou, Gold Wreaths and Diadems, Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 2011 >> academia.edu
- Fragment of a beam photo by Gerard Degeorge