CIMRM 71 - Rectangular relief. Arsha-Wa-Qibar, Syria

CIMRM entry

ARSHA-WA-QIBAR 71. Rectangular relief (H. 0.54 Br. 0.98). Museum, Damascus. Found in 1932 by Captain Lavrieste on the left bank of the Afrin, near a bridge where the Roman road from Antiochia bifurcates to the East and North-East. Cumont in Syria 1933, 381ff and Pl. XL, 2;1 Berytus XI, 1954, Pl. III, 1. See fig. 25. The relief is hewn out in a thick piece of rock-stone. A monstrously small Mithras in Eastern dress as a bull-killer. Behind the animal's drooping tail a snake; on the other side, in front of the bull, the dog. The raven flies towards the god, the scorpion is invisible. In the upper corners the busts of Sol(l) and Luna(r). On either side of the main scene, separated from it by vertical rims, the torchbearers. Each of them has a torch in the one and an oval object (plate or vase) in the other hand.

Note: Vermaseren has not quite understood the statements by Cumont. If you read these, it seems that the bridge is at the point where the Roman road going north from Antioch splits into two, one heading north to Cyrrhus and Commagene, the other branching north-east to Zeugma and Mesopotamia.