What is it?
This splendid statue depicts Idrimi, the king of Alalakh, an ancient city near the Syrian–Turkish border. Dated to the 15th century BC, it is carved from hard, white magnesite stone, with inlaid glass eyes, and sits a metre high atop a black basalt throne, carved with two prowling lions. The object is adorned with a 104-line cuneiform inscription that recounts, with considerable élan, the political misfortunes that caused Idrimi to flee Syria as a young man, and the circumstances that led to his spectacular return. It was installed within a temple at Alalakh (Tell Atchana). In the late 12th century BC, an invading force – possibly the enigmatic Sea Peoples – destroyed the city, and the statue was decapitated and pushed from its throne.
Where was it found, and when?
Alalakh lay abandoned until Sir Leonard Woolley began excavations in 1937. In May 1939, he uncovered the basalt throne lying on the temple floor. A few days later, he unearthed the statue itself, immediately recognising it as one of the most important Bronze Age artefacts ever discovered in the Levant. Intriguingly, the statue was found concealed within a pit beneath the temple, the head carefully placed alongside. We do not know who hid the statue following its desecration in the city’s final hours. However, it is not difficult to imagine a mysterious devotee, now lost to history, finding the statue among the temple’s smouldering ruins, and burying it within holy ground. Woolley sent the statue to the British Museum in June 1939. Ironically, Idrimi soon found himself hidden underground once more, this time by nervous curators protecting the collection at the outbreak of WWII.
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