Iberian Peninsula to the indus

part of Zennaro’s letter where he 
describes the acquisition of the gift. 
According to other documents, in 
Constantinople Zennaro had close 
relations with other European doctors, 
especially the founders of Société 
Imperiale de Médecine – a renowned 
medical organisation opened in 
Constantinople around 1856 – that 
published a scientific journal: the 
Gazette Médicale d’Orient
. It appears 
that Zennaro was a member of the 
Editorial Board of this journal, too, 
and therefore gained social relevance 
and consideration within the Italian 
community and Turkish society as 
well. This undoubtedly allowed him to 
meet other colleagues, both local and 
foreign, and among these the figurine 
finder, whose precise identity is still 
unknown. “D.r Henry, Bolognese”, 
quoting Fabris’s letter, should 
have “found and picked up [the 
statuette] from the ruins of Nineveh” 
and then gifted it to Zennaro in 
Constantinople. After this event, 
Doctor Henry relocated to Bassora, 
on the Persian Gulf, where he soon 
died. The circumstances of discovery 
are, however, unclear and the place 
mentioned in the letter, Nineveh, 
where the statuette should have been 
“picked up”, raises some unanswered 
questions. The site of the Kuyunjik 
site (the ancient Assyrian capital of 
Nineveh) near modern-day Mosul was 
indeed occupied in the Uruk period, 
but this phase of its history is poorly 
investigated and nothing similar to the 
figurine has yet emerged from there, 
whilst the nearest parallels come 
from Southern Iraq, in particular from 
Uruk. It cannot be therefore excluded 
that “Nineveh” may be wrong: we 
might be dealing with an attempt to 
dignify the origins of the statuette by 
assigning it to a site that gained an 
exceptional echo among nineteenth-
century educated Europeans, or just 
with a confusion between Nineveh and 
other Northern or Southern Iraqi sites 
(such as Nimrud, Babylon, etc.), of 
which other contemporary examples 
are known. What is sure is that the 
date of the discovery is close to the 
period when figures like P.E. Botta and 
A.H. Layard made their outstanding 
discoveries in Northern Iraq and that 
it broadly coincides with the period in 
which the Paris and Zurich statuettes 
came to light in rather similar 
circumstances.
R.E., G.C.
References:
 
Gambino, Rova 2005, no. 94, 
pp. 6–53.
left thigh and the upper back of the 
head; remains of painting on the back 
and on the rear portion of the hair; 
auburn stains on the top of the head, 
the right and the left foot.
The figurine has been carved out of 
a solid light-beige limestone block 
which is still perceptible in the whole 
disposition of the statue, primarily in 
the block-like legs and feet, serving 
as the statuette’s basement, but less, 
however, above the hips, where the 
limbs are slender and elegant. The 
overall composition is symmetrical, 
oriented towards the vertical central 
line, but in the details there are 
some subtle deviations of this strict 
symmetry: the man is leaning slightly 
to his right side, and, moreover, 
the blocky aspect of the statuette 
is mitigated and vitalized by the 
bent knees. Thus, he gains quite an 
astonishing degree of vividness, even 
more accentuated by his intensely 
gazing eyes.
The surfaces are mostly rendered 
in planes and, to a certain extent, 
inorganic, apart from the arms and the 
chest where delicately carved muscles 
can be discerned. Many anatomical 
details are given by simple incised 
lines such as the toes, the separation 
line of the legs, the fingers and the 
sternum. Others like the genitals, the 
discoidal beard, the hair and the cap’s 
brim, the lips, the nose and the eyes 
are accentuated in their importance by 
the representation in full relief.
Colour remains on the rear side of the 
hair and on the back show that the 
statuette was originally partly painted: 
still perceptible is a V-shaped trace on 
the hair and an oval structure in the 
centre of the statuette’s back with an 
extension on either side at its bottom 
end, all painted in dark brown, now 
faded. While the traces on the hair 
need no further explanation a part of 
the hairstyle, the function of the back’s 
painted structure remains unclear (also