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Arched Door Fragment #191002, fragment of exterior door section with keystone and carved relief. c. 980 CE. Dressed fieldstone, spotted gray breccia, bronze pins, 1.14 x 1.28 m (45 x 50.5"). Courtesy of the Gallery of Modern Antiquities, London
This fragment is the top arch from an exterior door in the main courtyard with two carvings above it. The carvings are of a type of deer in front of a trefoil and a crown in front of a circle; now worn away, both have traces of being paint on them. When first found. the deer was mistaken for a springbok, though springbok, of course, are not found in this area. The figurative likeness, though, is identical to archaeological finds in Africa. It may have been modeled on a now-extinct local species of deer.
[2004, Mixed Media & Polychrome]
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