Corner Pillar from a Small Stupa with Standing Male and Female Figures

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Artist
Name	Unknown
Basic Info
Alternative Title	Lintel Support with Standing Male and Female Figures
Period	Kushan period, c.100 BCE-250 CE
Created in	Central Asia, Afghanistan
Century	2nd century CE
Culture	Afghan
Dimensions	H. 35 x W. 10 x D. 12.5 cm (13 3/4 x 3 15/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
Harvard Museum
Department	Department of Asian Art
Division	Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact	am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

TechnicalDetails

Chemical Composition

6/17/2025 Patrick Degryse noted from thin-section petrography: This is a rock that has a calcite cement (likely some gypsum as well) and shell fossils in it, so it’s a limestone… but it also has many and large fragments of minerals and rock in there that are not usually found in your regular marine limestone, like quartz, feldspar, mica, amphibole…  This is usually points to a depositional environment near the coastline, with regular influx of sediment (sand and silt) into the basin while the limestone is forming. That is often called a beachrock...

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for Asian Art in memory of Benjamin Rowland Jr.