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TRAVELLING OBJECT · INTERCULTURAL BIOGRAPHY

The so-called ‘Priest of Cádiz’

The originating workshop may have been Phoenician; the figure was found in Cádiz and we do not know whether it represents a god or a priest.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Image 1 of 2 · Main image
DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS

Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Declared visual reconstruction; not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

Image 1 of 2 · Main image
Image of the so-called ‘Priest of Cádiz’
DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · AI-GENERATED IMAGE · TRACEKEEPERS

Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Declared visual reconstruction; not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

History and context

Probable Phoenician production: Bronze and gold are probably attributable to a Phoenician workshop; its divine or priestly identity is not certain.

The same piece also appears in Phoenician Gadir in the peninsula. Duplicating the fiche does not duplicate authorship: it allows reading manufacture, use, deposit and discovery from both routes.

Evidence and interpretation

Probable Phoenician production [probable]: Bronze and gold are probably attributed to a Phoenician workshop; its divine or priestly identity is not secure. Phoenician Gadir in the peninsula [documented]: The Cádiz find documents Phoenician colonial circulation; it does not make the figure an Iberian object.

Catalogue facts

Role in this museum
production
Location
Levantine Phoenician
Date
7th century BCE
Certainty
probable

A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS

Objects connected through time

Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.

The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.

Sculpture51 dated objects

31 / 51In the centre: The so-called ‘Priest of Cádiz’

Also connected, without a comparable date (3)

These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.

  • Before PersiaAchaemenid Persia · Central core c. seventeenth century BCE; Neo-Elamite additions between the ninth and sixth centuries BCE
  • Lararium of VilaubaEtruscans and Rome · Roman period
  • The Thracian HorsemanThracians · Roman era · diffusion especially in the 2nd–3rd centuries CE

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .

A gold mask and a hidden mounting peg

The face and ears are covered by a sheet of gold fitted to the features of the bronze. Beneath the bare feet, a rectangular base has a mounting peg that allowed the statuette to be fitted into another support. The figure wears a long tunic with sleeves reaching the wrists and holds its fists at chest height; whatever it held has been lost. This absence affects its identification: the old proposal to identify it as Ptah encounters differences in dress and the absence of the Egyptian god’s characteristic attributes.

Where it is held

Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid)

Item or group in the record · Documented collection

Exact record of the so-called Priest of Cádiz.

The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.

Cultural connections

Phoenician Gadir in the peninsula →

The Cádiz find documents Phoenician colonial circulation; it does not make the figure an Iberian object.

Documented

Sources and references

Consult the piece and its provenance

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