Agora Object: S 1631
Inventory Number:   S 1631
Section Number:   Τ 1404
Title:   Portrait Head of Female Figure
ΤΙΤΛΟΣ:   Μαρμάρινη κεφαλή νέας γυναίκας, εποχής Τιβερίου Πρώιμος 1ος αι. μ.Χ
Category:   Sculpture
Description:   Intact save for end of nose and ancient chip from right ear and recent chips from hair and left ear.
Socket for fitting into body rough-picked; carried up high in back of neck.
Hair in marked waves above forehead and carried back above ears and tied in a club at back of neck.
Careful work.
Pentelic marble.
Associated with S 1627 (Τ 1378), see below, and S 1645 (Τ 1484).
Drilled for setting with bronze pin in hollow base 1956.
ADDENDA Homer A. Thompson's account attached to the card:
Found in the S.E. corner of the east stoa of the Commercial Agora, immediately north of the Church of the Holy Apostles, in a level of the second half of the 3rd c. A.D.
The head is worked with a short tenon for insertion in a draped statue. The tip of the nose is broken away; small chips are missing from the edges of both ears and from the hair. The surface is fresh and unweathered, but discolored by a few root marks.
The head is that of a young woman, slightly turned to the proper right; the widely opened eyes and the slightly parted lips give an alert expression.
The eyeballs are well rounded; the tear duct is emphasized by a small drill hole but there is no plastic indication of pupil or iris and no surviving trace of color. The eyelids are carved with great precision and crispness.
The hair is parted in a well defined line from front to back. Over the back of the head it is drawn tight and on the sides twisted into rolls, which run down from points behind the ears to unite into a heavy club tied with a narrow ribbon on the nape of the neck. The lower part of this club was worked on the main mass of marble.
The surface was finished smooth but not polished; it retains slight traces of rasping here and there.
With this head is probably to be associated the right hand, life-size in scale, of a woman holding a phiale mesomphalos which was found in an early Byzantine foundation near the east of the South Stoa (S 1627). The hand is broken off above the wrist; the thumb and much of the rim of the phiale are missing. The marble is Pentelic, similar in quality to that of the head. The surface is fresh and unweathered but blackened by fire especially on the back of the hand. The careful, precise carving is very similar to that of the head; compare especially the division of the fingers of the hand with the parting of the lips of the head. Similar also is the smooth surface finish, which retains on occasional touch of the rasp.
ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΦΗ:   Κεφαλή γυναικός. Λείπουν μικρά θραύσματα από το αριστερό αυτί και τα μαλλιά του ευρήματος Πεντελικό μάρμαρο (Εποχή Τιβερίου 14 - 37 π.Χ.).
Context:   In red fill on marble chip floor.
Negatives:   Leica, LIII-53, LIII-54, LIII-55, color slide
Dimensions:   H. 0.38, (chin to crown) 0.226; W. 0.19; D. 0.21
Material:   Marble (Pentelic)
Chronology:   Julio-Claudian period.
Date:   15 April 1952
Section:   Τ
Grid:   Τ:93/ΙΖ
Lot:   Lot Τ 77
Period:   Roman
Bibliography:   Museum Guide (2014), p. 173.
    Guide (1990), p. 270.
    Guide (1976), p. 276.
    Guide (1962), p. 185.
    AgoraPicBk 5 (1960), fig. 21.
    Hesperia 22 (1953), pp. 55-56, pl. 20 b.
    Agora I, no. 11, pp. 22-23, pls. 9-10.
References:   Publications (4)
Publication Page: Agora 1, s. 36, p. 22
Publication Page: Agora 1, s. 121, p. 107
Images (42)
Cards and Envelopes (4)