A recent study published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology has revealed a little-explored aspect of ancient art: the use of perfumes and aromatic substances in Greco-Roman sculptures. This research, led by archaeologist Cecilie Brøns, proposes a new way of understanding classical art, challenging the traditional perception of sculpture as a purely visual art form. […]
Statues
Posted inArt, Classical Archaeology
Five Impressive Roman Statues Found in the Ancient City of Perge, Famous for the Quality of Its Sculpture Workshops
As part of the Geleceğe Miras (Legacy for the Future) project, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism has announced a significant archaeological discovery in the ancient Greco-Roman city of Perge, located in the province of Antalya. During excavations carried out in 2025, five sculptures of great historical and artistic value have been uncovered, shedding […]
Posted inAntiquity, Art
The Mystery of the Priest of Cádiz: An Iron Age Statuette Combining Phoenician, Egyptian, and Iberian Traditions
In 1928, the bustling city of Cádiz in southern Spain witnessed a remarkable archaeological discovery that added to those already made in previous years. During the foundation work for the Telefónica building, five meters deep, a small bronze and gold figure emerged, soon to be known as the Priest of Cádiz, an extraordinary object now […]
Posted inArchaeology
A huge marble head of a monumental statue from the Ptolemaic period, found in a medieval house at Taposiris Magna
A remarkable archaeological discovery has been made at Taposiris Magna, a historic site located 45 kilometers west of Alexandria, Egypt. A French archaeological mission led by Dr. Joachim Le Bomin, in collaboration with the University of Lyon and the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO), uncovered a massive marble head belonging to a monumental statue […]
Posted inAncient Egypt, Art
The Two Statues of Himself Commissioned by Khasekhemwy Are the First of a Pharaoh and the Oldest to Represent a Historical Figure
Pharaoh Khasekhemwy ruled ancient Egypt during the 2nd Dynasty, in the 27th century BCE, between 2727 and 2700 BCE. He unified Upper and Lower Egypt after a period of turmoil and established his capital in Hierakonpolis, in the southern region of the country. Khasekhemwy was the first Egyptian pharaoh known to have commissioned statues of […]
Posted inArt, Travel
The Talking Statues of Rome
Statues don’t talk, evidently, and they never have, except when some clever priest of Antiquity used a hollow in the stone to deliver whatever message he was interested in. But that’s not the case we’ll discuss today with the statue parlanti, or talking statues, because these expressed themselves in writing. They are a series of […]
Posted inAntiquity, Art
Farnese Atlas, the First Known Representation of the Celestial Sphere
Atlas was one of the Titans in Greek mythology, son of Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, and brother of Prometheus. After the war against the Olympian gods, Zeus condemned him to hold up the vault of the sky (or celestial sphere) on his shoulders for all eternity. Herodotus claimed that Atlas (also known as Atlante) […]
Posted inAncient Greece, Art
The Colossus of Dionysus and the kouroi of Flerio, Greek statues from the 6th century B.C. that remain unfinished in the quarries of Naxos.
The island of Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades in extension, famous and coveted since ancient times for its wealth and its white marble, with quarries exploited until today (only those of crystalline marble). As it happens in Egyptian quarries, where obelisks remain, or in those of Rapa Nui, with half-finished moai, in those […]
