#terracotta figurines

[blueiscoool]

Rich Votive Deposit Discovered in Sicily's Valley of the Temples

At least sixty terracotta figurines, female protomes, and busts, oil lamps, and small vases, a rich votive deposit of bronze fragments were found in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, on the southwest coast of Sicily.

The objects were found in House VII b, which forms part of the housing complex north of the temple of Juno. The campaign is fully funded and supported by the Sicilian Region through the Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park, directed by Roberto Sciarratta, and is led by archaeologist Maria Concetta Parello.

In an announcement published by the Sicilian Region Institutional Portal: “The findings allow us to understand the dynamics of the destruction of Agrigentum in 406 BC by the Carthaginians, when the inhabitants had to flee in exodus towards the city of Gela.”

The votive deposit, which would appear to have been arranged above the destruction levels of the house, may tell the story of the time when its objects were recovered by the Akragantines after the destruction. To define with certainty the function of the interesting deposit will require further research, paying close attention to the stratigraphic connections between the deposit and the living and abandonment levels of the house.

The Valley of the Temples forms part of the ancient city of Agrigentum, situated in the province of Agrigento, Sicily. Since 1997, the Valley of the Temples (covering 3212 acres) has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

According to the Greek historian, Thucydides, Agrigentum was founded around 582-580 BC by Greek colonists from Gela in eastern Sicily, with further colonists from Crete and Rhodes. It was routed by the forces of Carthaginian general Himilko in 406 B.C. Agrigento’s residents fled to nearby Gela when Himilko sacked their city, but then he took Gela too. All of the Greek colonies on Sicily fell to Himilko and were made vassals of Carthage. Punic primacy would not last long, however. Timoleon of Corinth defeated Carthage in Sicily and liberated the Greek cities in 399 B.C.

By Leman Altuntaş.

[artstfuff]

woman figurine, terracotta, 3600 bc s

[lionofchaeronea]

Ancient Greek terracotta figurine (16.5 cm = 6.25 in high), depicting a peasant carrying a basket and wearing a pilos (conical cap). Artist unknown; 1st cent. BCE. Excavated at Myrina, Lemnos, in 1883. Now in the Louvre. Photo credit: © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons.

[vintagehomecollection]

Tones of butterscotch, bittersweet, camel, and black are woven into the color blocks of a fringed throw draped on a white sofa. The spicy colors are repeated in the black and camel tiles of the table and the little terracotta figurine.

House Beautiful Color, 1993

[romegreeceart]

Greek figurine

* terracotta

* Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm

Stockholm, November 2023

[a-sculpture-a-day]

Woman looking into a box mirror, West Greece, 3rd-2nd century BC, terracotta, MET.

[artifacts-archive]

Head from a Figurine of a Female

Java, Indonesia, 14th/15th century

[puyostim]

wtf. is a tiny little guy who barfs out tiny little guys.

[propalahramota]

Terracotta figurine of goddess Cybele, 400-200 BCE

Found in 1936 in Pontic Olbia, an ancient Greek city on the shore of the Southern Bug estuary in Ukraine, near the village of Parutyne.

[molkolsdal]

Female figure, possibly a fertility goddess

Northwest Pakistan, terracotta, Sunga period, 3rd century BC

The strictly frontal and rigid posture is characteristic of hand-modelled archaic figures. Distinguished by an elaborate headdress, large slit-pellet eyes, prominent breasts, narrow waist, wide hips, and diminutive limbs, this figure communicates an emphasis on ornamentation and fertility. While it's original function remains unknown, its comfortable fit within the human hand denotes ritualistic use.

[blueiscoool]

Terracotta Figurines Found During Excavations at Pompeii

Archaeologists have unearthed 13 terracotta figurines during excavations of a domus at Pompeii.

Pompeii was a Roman city, located in the modern commune of Pompeii near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy.

Pompeii, along with the Roman town of Herculaneum, were buried under 4 to 6 metres of volcanic ash and pumice during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

The Vesuvian eruption spewed forth a deadly cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km, ejecting molten rock, pulverised pumice, and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Recent excavations of a domus adjacent to the “House of Leda and the Swan” along the Via del Vesuvio have revealed 13 terracotta figurines measuring around 15 centimetres in height.

According to the researchers, the figurines may be associated with Cybele and Attis, a telling of the story of the Phrygian great mother goddess’s tragic love for a mortal.

Attis, was unaware of the love Cybele bore him, and in time fell in love with the daughter of the king of Pessinus. Consumed by jealousy, Cybele drove Attis to madness, leading him to castrate himself and tragically end his life at the base of a pine tree.

The figurines where found in what was likely the decorated atrium within the domus, where archaeologists also uncovered the head of a clay rooster and a glass pine cone.

Ongoing works at the House of Leda (first excavated between 2018 and 2019) have also revealed a finely frescoed room with roundels containing depictions of female faces, in addition to two further domus dwellings to the north and south of Leda’s house.

[bagdemagus]

Terracotta figurine of a woman wearing a two-stranded necklace, anklets, and a sash Old Elamite period, ca. 2112-1900 BCE Susa (Iran, Khuzestan)

Musée du Louvre, Sb 2796

[huariqueje]

Anémones et Tanagra  -   Félix Vallotton , 1920.

Swiss, 1865-1925

Oil on canvas,  54 x 65 cm

[didoofcarthage]

Terracotta “phi” figurine

Greek (from the Peloponnesus), Mycenaean Period, 1400-1200 B.C.

Saint Louis Art Museum

[a-sculpture-a-day]

Standing woman, Greece, probably Boeotia, late 4th-early 3rd century BC, terracotta, MET.

[artifacts-archive]

Head from a Figurine of a Child

Indonesia, Eastern Java, 14th/15th century