Upper section of the slab covering the loculus of a tomb in the prosperous caravan city of Palmyra.

The deceased was depicted in the form of a bust (only the head and neck remain), dressed in a Roman toga. His smooth-skinned face with its crown of curls radiates calm. The dedication in the Palmyrene language, carved into the flat part of the slab, gives his name and three generations of his lineage: "Alas! Malikou / son of Simon / (son of) Borrepha".

Eminent Orientalist André Dupont-Sommer (1900-1983), permanent secretary of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, a French learned society, acquired the fragments of this relief from a Parisian dealer in 1937.