Southern Arabian, Sabaean people, ca. 1st millennium BCE to early 1st millennium CE, probably later in the period based on the lead weight, which was a later technological innovation to stabilize monumental statuary. Four matching, more-than-life-sized cast bronze bull hooves, each capped by a large, cuboid shape, and with two have projecting slots atop the cuboid for attachment. Three are hollow on their interiors, with openings at the back of the cuboids and on the base of the foot. The fourth is filled with lead up to the interior of the cuboid form. Each stands slightly forward on its realistic hoof with two claws displayed, the cuboid slightly set over the back of the hoof rather than directly over it, with two naturalistic projections from the back, showing that the artisans who sculpted the molds to create these feet paid close attention to the details of bull anatomy. Size of each (all are relatively similar): 5.75" W x 11" H (14.6 cm x 27.9 cm)

What might these massive hooves have graced? The cuboid projections and slots on two of them suggest that they were made to hold a table or altar rather than a full statue of a bull. For example, the sandstone offering table found at Swada and now at the Louvre (AO 31930) has an animal's head on the left and feet terminating in bull's hooves. A bronze table found in 2004 in the same region is of a similar form. Another possibility is that these feet were part of a naos - a simple rectangular temple form - as in an example found near Haoulti, which had four feet shaped like bull's hooves, two pointing forward, and two pointing back, supporting a base that held a niche decorated with ornamentation. Bulls' hooves have also been found on stone furniture from the same region. Whatever these feet supported, it was a massive and important, probably ritual object.

Provenance: East Coast, USA collection from a major New York art gallery, before 2011

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#134665

All have some losses to their upper and back portions, with some slight bending to form around the opening at the back. Pale turquoise patina on surfaces of each, with encrusted deposits, especially on the tops of the pieces.