3-065-955 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Head of the Emperor Hadrian found at Jerusalem, 1874. 'A remarkable head of a statue was found last year among the fallen blocks of a stone wall [in the tombs of the Kings?], just outside the walls of Jerusalem. It is believed by M. Clermont Ganneau, who first observed the importance of the relic, to be the head of the Emperor Hadrian. If this be the case, it is probably that of the statue which the Emperor erected in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, on the site of the Jewish sanctuary...This head is clearly a portrait, and not of a vulgar type. The opinion of M. Ganneau that it is no other than the head of Hadrian is shared by the Archimandrite of the Russian mission at Jerusalem, who has bought the relic. Mr. Vaux, late of the British Museum, confirms this view, so far as it is possible from the photograph. He says, "The characteristics of Hadrian's physiognomy are the crisp beard, the straight nose, the curved eyelids, and the curved if not curled moustaches'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.