Newsletter: Fall 2004

The colossal scale, the dowel channel for attaching the right arm, the downward gaze, and the cursory carving of the back of the head suggest that this imposing female was broken from a statue occupying a niche in the wall of a public building, such as a bath or theater. Though her identity is unknown, she is clearly no ordinary woman. She may be a goddess, such as Aphrodite or Artemis, who are sometimes represented with their hair tied in a topknot. The contrast between the hard, angular brows and the softly modeled flesh of the face and neck is characteristic of sculptures of ideal type in Roman Asia Minor, where geographic regions, such as Caria or Pisidia, also were commonly rep resented as women. Comparison with similar works, carved from the same distinctive marble, suggests that it may have been among the sculptures found at the Carian site of Aphrodisias in 1904-5, by the French engineer Paul Gaudin.