This clay bust of a female figure from the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki was found in a house at Olynthus and dates to the late 5th century B.C.
It was made with a mould in two parts that were joined together, one part for the face and neck and the other for the hair. The back side is hollow, possibly indicating it was placed on a wall in the private house where it was found.
The female figure is depicted frontally, up to the middle of the chest, slightly larger than life-size (40 cm). Her serene face, with well-shaped eyelids and arched eyebrows, a small mouth, and a pronounced chin, shows a faint smile. The hair, forming wavy curls, is parted in the middle and gathered with a circular ornament above the forehead. The stern features of the face, initially highlighted with paint, and the wavy hair place the bust in the 5th century B.C.
They are fragmentary representations mainly of the female body and they can be single-sided or three-dimensional. The busts that don't have a back usually have a hole on the top of the head for suspension. The three-dimensional ones were usually placed on shelves. Busts are commonly found in sanctuaries of female deities, as votive offerings, in burials mostly of young women, adolescents and children, as grave goods, and in houses, where they were possibly used as religious representations, as talismans to protect or even for decorative purposes. They are considered to represent either mortals, dedicators or personifications of deceased, or deities.
The bust from Olynthus likely depicts the goddess Aphrodite or Demeter, possibly even Persephone, as she is shown at a young age. This type of bust is not commonly found in Macedonia. Similar types have been found in Cyrenaica, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula. The Olynthus bust is a product of a local workshop and has received strong influences from Sicilian workshops, indicating the relations between the two regions.
You may see the exhibit (ΜΘ 6677) at the permanent exhibition "Macedonia from the 7th c. BC to Late Antiquity"
