Mysterious Queen of Sheba introduces treasures of Near East
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Your support makes all the difference.The mystery surrounding the life of the Queen of Sheba is to be examined in an exhibition that opens at the British Museum tomorrow.
The queen is used as an introduction to the ancient civilisation of Yemen, which she is reputed to have ruled in the 10th century BC.
While the exhibition highlights the splendour of the kingdoms of southern Arabia at that time, it will disappoint anyone seeking proof of the queen's existence.
Through sculptures and artefacts, the exhibition throws light on life and death in ancient Yemen, including funeral rites with sculptures and inscriptions that show its people believed in an afterlife.
A lucrative trade in incense and other commodities between the Near East and the Roman Empire made the region rich, and treasures including statues, gold jewellery, glass and metalwork will be on display from the British Museum's own collections and in items borrowed from America and Yemen itself.
But there are no images of the Queen of Sheba until considerably later, when, from the Renaissance onwards, she came to be seen as a figure of beauty and seductiveness.
She has also been important in the history of Ethiopia, where she is said to have given birth to the son of King Solomon of Israel and thereby founded a dynasty of leaders. In the Koran, she is said to have converted to Islam, while in Jewish folklore she is sometimes said to be demonic.
But a spokeswoman for the museum said: "We don't know if she really existed." The exhibition runs until 13 October.
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