On Tuesday, the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) have signed a five year deal with the Louvre Museum in Paris to display a Saudi Arabian statue that dates back to the Dadan or Lihyan periods of the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE.
Carved from sandstone, the statue was unveiled in the Oriental Antiquities hall and is more than two metres long and 2.3 metres high.
According to experts, the statue most likely depicts a Lihyanite king or a priest or praying figure standing upright in a frontal pose.
It was discovered in AIUIa, Saudi Arabia at the Dadan archaeological site. The city is home to 200,000 years of history and between 2005 and 2007, various statues believed to depict kings and priests were also discovered at the same site.
Excavation work is being conducted in the area by teams overseen by King Saud University in Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia history
During the second half of the 1st millennium BCE, the kings of the Lihyan tribe ruled over the Dadan kingdom which was one of the most important trade route stations of the world 2,800 years ago.
These trade routes ran from the south of the Arabian Peninsula to Egypt, Mesopotamia and the shores of the Mediterranean.
The statue from Saudi Arabia had previously been on display for three months at the Louvre Abu Dhabi from November 2018 to February 2019 as part of the Roads of Arabia. The exhibition was later held in Rome, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, St Petersburg, Houston and Tokyo.
It’s unveiling and new home within the Louvre Museum in Paris marks the beginning of a long term collaboration with the French museums of heritage.