figure
- Museum number
- 2009,5010.18
- Description
-
Head of a limestone figurine of a female deity in the guise of Artemis; the top of a crudely rendered quiver rises from the left shoulder; the hair is knotted at back but what is probably intended to be a chignon is left unfinished as a rounded column-like feature.
- Production date
- 300 BC-100 BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 7 centimetres (max)
- Curator's comments
- The findspot of Achna is not stated in the Register but is provided in Pryce's catalogue. His provenances for Ohnefalsch-Richter material not registered in the 1880s are not always reliable, though on iconographic ground Achna is probably correct given that numerous images of Artemis/Great Goddess of Cyprus were found in the main sanctuary near the village and several in the surroudning area. The main sanctuary is assumed here but this is not certain.
The identification of this item, and of numbers C372 and C373 in Pryce's catalogue (GR 1884,12-10.297 and 2009,5010.30, respectively) as fragments of Artemis figurines was confirmed by Prof. Antoine Hermary (e-mail of 15/6/2017). For a complete statue showing the unfinished chignon, see Hermary and Mertens 2014, cat. no 363) though the three BM heads are particularly schematic and reseble the backs of thrones.
For a range of images of Artemis/the Great Goddess of Cyprus shown as a hunting or nature goddess rendered in limestone sculpture, see Hermary 1989, 411-14 and Hermary and Mertens 2014, 265-9.
Bibliography:
Hermary, A. 1989, Les antiquités de Chypre. Sculptures (Paris: RMN).
Hermary, A. and Mertens, J. 2014, The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot sculpture (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1883-1884
- Acquisition notes
- Found unregisterd in 2009 but was included in Pryce's 1931 catalogue so in the Musuem by this date. It presumably arrived in 1883 or 1884 when material from Achna was registered by the Museum.
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 2009,5010.18