Head of a Parthian Ruler

This sculpture, originally part of a larger statue, represents the head of a bearded man wearing a diadem. His face is ringed by curly hair and prominent ears on either side. The eyes, once inlaid, are now missing. The brow ridge is angular and has incised furrows. The nose is lightly crooked and features broad nostrils. The mouth is small but with full lips. The beard is square, and composed of thick, vertical zigzags. The hair beneath the diadem is rendered in two rows of thick curls; above the diadem it is rendered in the same manner as the beard. The diadem is thick and rounded, with a knot at the back. On the top of the head there is evidence of some protruding feature having been broken off. The head is broken off diagonally at the neck. A thin crack encircles the head at the back. The features of this head, especially the diadem, the shape of the nose, and the shape and length of the beard, are close matches to the images of the Parthian kings Mithradates I (r. 173-139/8 BCE), Artabanos I (r. 128-124/3 BCE), and Mithradates II (r. 124/3-88/7 BCE) on coins minted at Seleucia-on-the-Tigris and Ecbatana (1). These similarities suggest this head was made at one of these two imperial centers. It also bears some resemblance to a fragment of terracotta sculpture discovered at Old Nisa in Turkmenistan, another major Parthian site (2). NOTES: 1. See examples in G. M. A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks (Ithaca, 1984) 245-6. 2. A. Invernizzi, "Parthian Art - Arsacid Art," Topoi Orient-Occident 17.2 (2011) 197, fig. 8.