Eine zweifarbige Statue des Sarapis aus Bosra

Abstract

The present article deals with an unpublished bichrome statue of an enthroned Sarapis excavated 1999 by a Syrian team of archaeologists in the northern palaestra of the central baths at Bosra. The material, a greyish-blue schist most probably derives from Egyptian quarries and implicates a provenances of the statue from the Nile Delta. The enthroned Sarapis prooves thus to be an imported replica of the famous cult statue created by Bryaxis for the god's main sanctuary at the Rhakotis quarter of Alexandria. The date of the Bosra statue's origin toward the mid 2nd century AD can be deduced by comparison with other bichrome Sarapids, especially with the cult statue of the sanctuary at Lepcis Magna. During the same era during the late Hadrianic-Antoninę reign other Sarapis monuments were distributed in the oriental provinces of the Roman empire. The study of the bichrome Sarapids is concluded by a survey of finds relevant for the Sarapis cult in that area, in large and small scale sculpture as well as the god's occurrence in minor art.