This limestone head of a woman, wearing an ornately rendered headdress, turban, and veil, is surely a fragment of a larger funerary stela, which would originally have included the upper part of her torso as well. Wavy locks of hair flow from beneath the headdress, brushed from a central part out toward both sides of head before disappearing behind the veil. Eyebrows have been incised above her large, almond-shaped eyes. A straight nose (mostly broken off) points down toward a small mouth. Her full face sits atop a neck marked with three distinct folds of skin, known as "Venus rings." Painted in vivid colors, limestone funerary reliefs like this one served as grave markers for the wealthy inhabitants of Palmyra, a caravan city located in Roman Syria.