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2,500-year-old sculpture discovered at UNESCO site in Turkey
The figure depicted in the sculpture has long flowing hair and is holding fruitCourtesy of Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism
A rare, approximately 2,500-year-old colossal statue has been unearthed in the ancient city of Sardis in Manisa, Turkey, the country’s ministry of culture announced on Tuesday (4 August).
The statue, depicting a young man holding fruit, was found in two pieces but once stood seven feet high, according to a ministry statement. It is understood to date back to the first half of the fifth century BC, around the beginning of the Classical period in Greek art. It has been exceptionally well preserved because it was reused as a Roman-era paving stone on a colonnaded street, and “offers significant insights into the art and social life of the period”, the statement adds.
Sardis, inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage site last year, was the capital of the Lydians, a powerful Iron Age civilisation (eighth-sixth centuries BC) known for its wealth and early coinage production. According to Unesco, the Lydians were located at a crossroads between the Greek world and contemporary Near Eastern cultures.
The sculpture dates from the period when Sardis was the capital of the western province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It presents a mixture of styles: the upright stance and long hair speak to sculptural traditions of the sixth century BC while the carving of the face and hands are typical of the first half of the 5th century BC, the ministry statement says.
What’s more, the garments depicted on the figure—a Greek-style outer cloak worn over a tunic-like lighter garment and another item marked by horizontal lines—are of a combination not seen before in similar sculptures originating in Greece or Anatolia from this period, the statement adds. The ministry statement suggests the work sheds light on the “clothing traditions and visual language of Lydia”.
“It’s a wonderful piece, and we’re still kind of astounded and a bit perplexed by it,” Nicholas Cahill, the field director of the Sardis Expedition—which discovered the sculpture—tells The Art Newspaper. The Sardis Expedition, sponsored by Harvard and Cornell universities, continually excavates the area with the permission of Turkey’s culture and tourism ministry.
“I’m always struck by how little we know about the Lydians. There is only one major Lydian site, and that’s Sardis. We’re still almost in the infancy of our studies of ancient Lydia, despite working at Sardis for more than 70 years. And we have never been fortunate enough to find such a monumental sculpture—indeed these things come up very rarely worldwide.
“The combination of the very old-fashioned hairstyle, clothing, and such with the more modern rendition of the hands with veins, the facial features, the turn of the neck and such, is quite striking as well,” he continues. “This is a sculptor who knew about what’s going on in Greece and Italy, but chooses to portray the person as his ancestors had been portrayed.”
Courtesy of Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism