Archaeologists have uncovered a massive discovery—and a new mystery—at the excavation site of an ancient city in western Turkey.
During excavations at the ruined ancient city of Sardis, a recently-designated UNESCO World Heritage Site and the former capital of the Lydian Empire, teams unearthed a very well-preserved—and extremely large—statue, offering a rare look at the ancient world of its creators who thrived nearly 2,500 years ago.
The towering discovery, made in May of this year by researchers with the long-running Harvard–Cornell Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, stands at more than seven feet in height, although it was found broken in two, with its pieces apparently having been reused as paving stones, where they were located face down within a portion of an ancient Roman-era colonnaded avenue.
“It is very rare to find such monumental sculptures of this period anywhere in the Mediterranean, and this exceptionally well-preserved, unique monument casts important new light on the major arts of Lydia and on the Lydians’ ties to their own past,” said Nicholas Cahill, the excavation’s field director and a professor of Greek and Roman art and archaeology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
A Monument from a Lost Empire
As the capital of the ancient Lydian Empire, Sardis controlled a larger portion of western Anatolia during a period that spanned the mid-seventh until the mid-sixth century B.C. Few written records survive from this period, however, and much of what is known from historical accounts has been preserved from Greek and Roman accounts, thereby shaping many of our modern ideas about the Lydians.
Because of this, the unique discoveries at Sardis help to bring new context to those historical ideas, revealing a sophisticated center of wealth and culture from the ancient world, where luxury goods, perfumes, and fine clothing were prevalent.
At the time of the discovery of the massive statue earlier this year, archaeologists were initially uncertain about what era it represented.
“Then the guesswork started,” according to Susanne Ebbinghaus, the George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art at Harvard Art Museums, noting that in addition to being unclear on its age, it was not immediately apparent whether the statue represented a male or a female.
However, “they started cleaning the soil around the head, we saw he had sideburns, so that question was settled,” Ebbinghaus added.
One thing that was immediately apparent was the statue’s remarkable state of preservation, even though it had been broken in two and used as part of a roadway. Weeks after its initial discovery, the monumental find was removed from the roadway and carried to a special conservation laboratory where a more detailed study could be performed.
An Ancient Artist Looking Through Time
Based on subsequent analysis, the individual the statue represents is dressed in multiple layers of clothing, which include a thin tunic known in Greek as a chiton. Along with this, the figure is draped in a diagonally wrapped mantle, and an unusual garment which features finely rendered horizontal folds.
Intriguingly, some of the features on the statue give it the appearance of archaic Greek works dating to around the sixth century B.C., with the individual’s hairstyle, posture, and other characteristics all suggestive of earlier artistic traditions.
Yet subtle anatomical details tell a different story: upon closer inspection, veins can be seen coursing along the individual’s limbs, which complement several other features that the team believes point to the Classical period, with an estimated creation date from sometime in the mid 400s B.C. One thing this might suggest is that its creator had been referencing what would have been “classic” styles for them at the time, mirroring sculpture and styling that was more common a century earlier—an artist peering into the past, and crafting an anachronistic ancient piece of art.
Shifting Tides of the Ancient World
At this time, political changes were also occurring. Sardis would no longer have been the capital of an independent kingdom and would likely have already been under the control of the Achaemenid Persian Empire at the time the massive statue was carved. Despite this likelihood, the statue reveals no obvious Persian influence.
“This sculptor knows about contemporary styles in Mediterranean and Anatolian sculpture, the interest in hands and the structure of the face and so forth, and yet [the statue is] wearing clothes from 100 years earlier,” Cahill said.
“I think they’re very clearly looking back to their own past,” Cahill added, lending weight to the theory involving an artisan borrowing from earlier stylistic traditions in the art they created. From this, an intriguing possibility arises: perhaps they were consciously invoking Lydia’s earlier cultural identity, within the context of artistic techniques that were contemporary for Sardis by around 450 B.C.
Unknown Identity of an Ancient Stone Giant
Another mystery involves who the massive statue was crafted to resemble, as well as where it originally stood before it made its way among the cobbles in a Roman-era roadway.
Possible contenders for its original home include the sanctuary of Cybele, a site described in ancient texts, but whose location remains unknown to archaeologists. This location might support the statue’s identity as a prominent political leader or other individual, where their likeness in the sanctuary of Cybele would serve both religious and political purposes.
“You put yourself in a prominent place where your fellow citizens or subjects can see you, but also you are indeed worshiping the god, and if you’re a ruler, drawing legitimization from the relationship to that deity,” Ebbinghaus said. “So it might well have been an important person being represented.”
Searching for Clues
Presently, the team is continuing to search for additional clues while the statue undergoes careful cleaning. Surviving traces of pigment that may have once adorned the statue may help to add to the emerging picture of what this monument’s purpose was, and where it originally stood.
Following conservation efforts, the existing separate fragments will also be reassembled, after which the recombined statue will likely go on display in one of Turkey’s regional archaeological museums.
While many questions remain, the enigmatic ancient figure may preserve knowledge of the cultural heritage of ancient Sardis, and how its citizens lived during a period of transition as their once-powerful kingdom had become part of an even larger ancient empire.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.