Ancient Arabia

golden plaque with Ashtart; lion-flanked goddess in clay; a pillar figurine; three goddess scarabs

A live visual presentation by Max Dashu

We look at ancient figurines from villages up to 7000 years ago; the carved seals of Falaika Island in the Gulf; a stupendous array of rock art depicting invoking women, or perhaps ancestral mothers; sculpture in Jordan, including the clay shrines of Mt Nebo, circa 900 bce, and later goddess temples of Petra and Khirbet et-Tannur; Nabataean queens portrayed on coins and in Assyrian inscriptions; stone funerary portraits of women in Yemen and Palmyra, and the famous queen Zaynab / Zenobia; altars with the disc and crescent; Yemenite temples such as the "Mahram Bilqis," and associated legends of the Queen of Sheba / Sab'a; surviving reliefs of Allat and Atargatis, and ceramic goddesses up through the 2nd century CE; Bedouin women's weaving, murals of the Hijaz, and other modern arts.

Live visual presentation 90 minutes, with extra time for discussion
and questions; (available in shorter 60-minute version).
Requires digital projector, VGA cable, screen, and mic.

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