A Late Archaic Kouros from Euromos (original) (raw)

2019, KARIA ARKHAIA La Carie, des origines à la période pré-hékatomnide Olivier HENRY / Koray KONUK (éds.), Institut Français d’Études Anatoliennes, Istanbul.

This study examines a kouros torso found in Euromos, which is today kept in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. The ruins of Euromos in Caria are located 2 km south of Selimiye, in the district of Milas, province of Muğla. Excavations and research studies were carried out in the ancient city by Prof. Dr. Ümit Serdaroğlu from 1969 to 1975. The excavations mostly focused in the center of the city and in the temple of Zeus Lepsynos. An Archaic period architectural terracotta group, consisting of 742 pieces, was unearthed in a bothros during the excavations of the terrace in the northwest side of the temple. These are architectural terracottas belonging to the upper part of more than one construction from the Archaic period and are today kept in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. The marble kouros torso examined in this study was found in 1973 in trench number IX on the terrace of the temple at level -123. Recorded in the inventory of the museum under number 57, this torso is 49 cm tall and 47 cm wide. Made of fine crystalline white marble, the sculpture was preserved in one piece from neck to waist, with the left arm as far as the wrist. Fifteen horizontal and five vertical strands of bead-hair falling onto the back can be observed. The head, neck, the right part of the body, and the part below the waist of the standing kouros, which is wearing a long chiton and himation, are missing. Comparisons carried out with similar examples show that the sculpture must be from the third quarter of the 6th century BC.