Researcher reveals Yemeni archaeological lions, ibex in int’l museums

SANAA, July 25 (YPA) – Abdullah Mohsen, a specialist Yemeni researcher interested in antiquities, has a number of Yemeni bronze lion statues distributed in European museums and in the United States of America.

Mohsen pointed out that the most famous of them are those located in the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art in the United States of America, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in Britain, and the Israel Museum in Al-Quds.

He explained, in a post on his Facebook page, that more than 27 centuries ago in the city of Nashan, the Kingdom of Ma’in, industry and metal casting were aspects of the mental image of Yemen’s civilization.

The researcher continued to say: “Bronzes of all kinds were popular, including statues of lions, and from there came the lions of the collection of Shlomo Musayev, an Israeli antiquities collector and jewelry dealer.”

As for the lion of the Fitzwilliam Museum, “Cambridge,” he added, “It is one of our antiquities in Hadramout, and it has a famous story.”

Mohsen confirms that the other lions were donated to the Smithsonian Museum by the American Foundation for the Study of Man (the Wendell and Merlin Phillips Collection), which is one of the most famous archaeological missions in Yemen, as he put it.

YPA