the Numidian (Amazigh) prince Mastanabal
The bronze head, housed in the British Museum in London, represents the Numidian (Amazigh) prince Mastanabal, dating from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, discovered in Cyrene, eastern Libya, in 1861.
Well versed in Greek literature1, he learned law. A sportsman in his youth, the prince is said to have participated in chariot races at the Panathenaic games. He was a sportsman and passionate about horse riding. He owned a stud of purebred horses. Around 168 BC. or 164 BC BC, he won a Gold medal on the Athenian hippodrome at the Panathenaic Games, ancestors of the Olympic Games, the prestigious horse-drawn chariot racing event2.
Mastanabal, son of King Massinissa, was a renowned athlete and this head could be the commemoration of one of his victories.
How is the bronze head of Mastanabal carved?
The head is from a bronze portrait cast using the indirect lost wax method, with curly hair, beard, mustache and incised eyebrows. The lips, eyelids and eyelashes were done separately. The copper lips were inserted from the inside, the original red shade contrasting with the color of the face. The lips are slightly split. The pupils of the eyes were originally made of glass and the whites of magnesium carbonate. The thick-walled casting of this bronze suggests a date of around 300 BC.
Source: websites