The Ancient World

Mudstone statue of a woman, Ancient Egypt, 30th Dynasty The British Museum

Mudstone statue of a woman, Ancient Egypt, 30th Dynasty

The British Museum

Gold lunula, 2400 BC-2000 BC, Found in Ireland, Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age The British Museum

Gold lunula, 2400 BC-2000 BC, Found in Ireland, Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age

The British Museum

Bell Krater, Attributed to The McDaniel Painter, Ancient Greece, 380 BC-370 BC The British Museum

Bell Krater, Attributed to The McDaniel Painter, Ancient Greece, 380 BC-370 BC

The British Museum

The Chatsworth Head, Ancient Greece, 470 BC-460 BC “The statue was found complete by peasants in 1836 in the bed of the Pediaeos river north of the village of Politiko (ancient Tamassos) in central Cyprus. The findspot was later revealed by excavation to have been a very important sanctuary dedicated to Apollo. According to the account of the finders preserved in Ludwig Ross’s account of his visit to Cyprus in 1845, the statue was naked, with the exception of a wide belt, with the left foot extending forward. The arms, legs and head were cast separately from the body, indicated by the fact thay they broke off as the statue was dragged away from the site.The existence of the belt suggests a more archaic form for the body than the head, whose closest parallels lie in the Severe Style of Greek sculpture in the second quarter of the 5th century BC. The staue was broken up and sold for scrap bronze for a very low price, with the exception of the head which came into the possession of an English collector and dealer who later sold it on to the Duke of Devonshire. Cornelius Vermeule suggests the statue was a cult image similar to that from the temple of Apollo at Miletos and furnishes the origin with arrows or a phiale in one hand and a bow in the other, though this is not certain as cult statues of this kind are very rare on Cyprus” The British Museum

The Chatsworth Head, Ancient Greece, 470 BC-460 BC

“The statue was found complete by peasants in 1836 in the bed of the Pediaeos river north of the village of Politiko (ancient Tamassos) in central Cyprus. The findspot was later revealed by excavation to have been a very important sanctuary dedicated to Apollo. According to the account of the finders preserved in Ludwig Ross’s account of his visit to Cyprus in 1845, the statue was naked, with the exception of a wide belt, with the left foot extending forward. The arms, legs and head were cast separately from the body, indicated by the fact thay they broke off as the statue was dragged away from the site.The existence of the belt suggests a more archaic form for the body than the head, whose closest parallels lie in the Severe Style of Greek sculpture in the second quarter of the 5th century BC.

The staue was broken up and sold for scrap bronze for a very low price, with the exception of the head which came into the possession of an English collector and dealer who later sold it on to the Duke of Devonshire. Cornelius Vermeule suggests the statue was a cult image similar to that from the temple of Apollo at Miletos and furnishes the origin with arrows or a phiale in one hand and a bow in the other, though this is not certain as cult statues of this kind are very rare on Cyprus”

The British Museum

Bronze statuette of a huntsman, probably representing Alexander the Great, Hellenistic, 250 BC-100 BC The British Museum

Bronze statuette of a huntsman, probably representing Alexander the Great, Hellenistic, 250 BC-100 BC

The British Museum

Marble head from a statue of the young Herakles or an athlete, 2nd c BCE, Ancient Rome The British Museum

Marble head from a statue of the young Herakles or an athlete, 2nd c BCE, Ancient Rome

The British Museum

Marble statue of a draped woman, Ancient Turkey, 2nd c BCE The British Museum

Marble statue of a draped woman, Ancient Turkey, 2nd c BCE

The British Museum

Marble head of a young woman wearing a taenia (headband), Ancient Rome, c 200 CE The British Museum

Marble head of a young woman wearing a taenia (headband), Ancient Rome, c 200 CE

The British Museum

Necklace, Etruscan, 5th C BC - 2nd C BC The British Museum

Necklace, Etruscan, 5th C BC - 2nd C BC

The British Museum

The Nereid Monument, Ancient Greece, 400 BCE The British Museum

The Nereid Monument, Ancient Greece, 400 BCE

The British Museum