Group of Four Human Figures, c. 2000 BCE

Group of Four Human Figures

c. 2000 BCE · Sculpture

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “Group of Four Human Figures” now? Collection: Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

Harvard Art Museums

Cambridge, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

About the sculpture

“Family” groups of this type have been associated with North Syria and dated to the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE. None of the groups have been found in documented excavations, so there is significant uncertainty about their authenticity. This group of four figures has a close parallel in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

See:

Helga Seeden, The Standing Armed Figures in the Levant, Prähistorische Bronzefunde Abteilung I, vol. 1 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1980) 15-17, pls. 10-11.

P.R.S. Moorey and Stuart Fleming, "Problems in the Study of the Anthropomorphic Metal Statuary from Syro-Palestine before 330 B.C.," Levant 16 (1984) 82-83, no. 2, with metal analysis.

Oscar W. Muscarella, The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Near Eastern Cultures (Groningen: Styx, 2000) 196 no. 7.

Harvard Art Museums

Details

Accession number
2022.241

In the catalog

Sources

On view at Harvard Art Museums

Museum page