Agora Object: S 1604
Inventory Number:   S 1604
Section Number:   Ν 863
Title:   Portrait Head of Male Figure
Category:   Sculpture
Description:   Nose chipped; otherwise intact except for minor chips. Portrait of middle-aged man with close-trimmed beard and mustache. Hair simply treated and cap-like except for locks falling over forehead. Eyes have irises cut out, balls and pupils not cut. Mouth decisively closed.
Surface of flesh rasp-finished, hair done with round-nosed chisels, beard with punch and point. Below neck, pointed tenon for setting into statue.
Pentelic marble.
Set into the statue S 850 (Σ 1353) for display in August 1957.
ADDENDA Homer A. Thompson's account attached to the card:
Found in a Byzantine house foundation some 5.00m. to the west of the mid part of the Odeion, together with fragments of two inscribed bases of the Roman period (I 6502, I 6503), the leg of a male figure of life-size, roughly worked (S 1605), and pottery of the 3rd c. A.D.
The head is cut with a tenon for insertion in a statue. The nose and the lobe of the left ear are chipped; the left side is splotched with brown discoloration. The surface is fresh and unweathered.
The portrait represents a middle-aged man with a full head of hair, short beard and mustache. The hair has a cap-like effect with an abrupt lower termination behind. On the back of the head there is no indication of locks. Elsewhere the texture is suggested by shallow furrows made with a gouge driven in a vertical direction behind the ears, in a horizontal direction on the sides and top of the head. Above the forehead five flame-shaped locks have been isolated and worked in higher relief. The texture of the beard has been indicated by means of shallow working with gouge and point. A bridge of marble between lower lip and chin presumably represents a goatee. The pupils have been drilled in crescent shape; the iris is lightly incised. All the flesh surfaces retain light rasp marks.
Notes:   Negatives LIII-56, LIII-57, LIII-58 destroyed.
Context:   Area south of Gymnasium Apse, Wall no. 3.
Notebook Page:   1700
Negatives:   Leica, LIII-56, LIII-57, LIII-58, color slide
Dimensions:   H. 0.458, (worked portion where head fits body) 0.187, (left ear) 0.075, (right ear) 0.07; W. 0.204, (between eyes) 0.037; Th. 0.245; L. (chin to hairline in middle of forehead) 0.218, (eyes) 0.034, (mouth) 0.05
Material:   Marble (Pentelic)
Chronology:   Late 3rd c. or early 4th c. A.D.
Date:   5 April 1952
Section:   Ν
Grid:   K 10
Period:   Roman
Bibliography:   Museum Guide (2014), p. 55, fig. 34.
    Guide (1990), p. 211.
    Hesperia Suppl. 22 (1988), pp. 88, 111, nn. 135, 140.
    AA 101 (1986), pp. 245, 246, fig. 26.
    BJb 181 (1981), (Meischner, Jutta).
    Guide (1976), p. 206.
    Guide (1962), p. 134.
    AgoraPicBk 5 (1960), fig. 36.
    Agora I, no. 52, pp. 67-69, pl. 34.
References:   Publications (4)
Publication Page: Agora 1, s. 81, p. 67
Publication Page: Agora 1, s. 121, p. 107
Report: 1952 Excavations Ε, Η, Ν
Report Page: 1952 Excavations Ε, Η, Ν, s. 9
Images (9)
Notebook: Ν-9
Notebook: Ν-10
Notebook Pages (4)
Card: S 1604
Card: S 1604
Card: S 1604