A headless bronze statue dating from the Hellenistic times, weighing 300 kg (661 pounds) and measuring six feet in height, was caught by Turkish fishermen recently off the coast of Marmaris (Physkos), near Bodrum.
Pulling out the statue from a depth of 50 meters (164 feet) was not an easy job Turkish daily Hurriyet reports, and it required ropes to lift and get it on a boat’s deck.
A report from Arkeofili stated that the fishermen had been dredging the bottom at when they sensed that the net had become unusually heavy.
When they lifted their net they were astonished to find the enormous bronze figure of a woman which in many respects resembles the “Kyra of Kalymnos,” or the Lady of Kalymnos, which was discovered in 1995 off the Greek island and is how housed in the local museum.
Lady of Kalymnos.Bronze statue(detail)of a female figure in a chiton and a fringed himation.Hellenistic,2nd c.BC. pic.twitter.com/uEzSK4zd39
— Ioannis Tz (@tzoumio) August 10, 2018
The statue was lifted out of the boat’s hull and was placed onto a vehicle by crane once on land. She was then handed over to the Marmaris Museum Directorate for examination and identification.
The fishermen who are said to have “caught” the statue duly informed the Marmaris Coast Guard District Command team by radio after they brought the statue onto their craft.
A team from the Marmaris Museum Directorate was then able to make an on-site examination of the find.
Marmaris Museum Directorate officials have remained mum about the incredible find, saying only that they would have an official statement after the statue was thoroughly examined.
Similar sculptures, of the type of the “Megali Irakliotissa” have been found in that area previously and were a common sight in Greek cities in Hellenistic times. Like that statue, the new bronze is of a female wearing a tunic and a headdress.
The Lady of Kalymnos is of a similar size, measuring 1.95 meters high. Like the recent find, she was also dredged up from the bottom by fishermen; parts of a statue depicting a man on a horse were also found near her at that time.
At least, that is the official line. The new supposed find throws not only the new statue but the Lady of Kalymnos into question as well, since some say that she was actually found in Asia Minor.
Nikos Kaltsas, the former director of the National Archaeological Museum, reportedly once said during a meeting of the KAS “We do not know (The Lady of Kalymnos’) origin. “It probably came from Asia Minor.”
Regardless of its provenance, after dedicated preservation work which went on for twenty months, the statue is now displayed in an appropriate setting in the Kalymnos Museum. The torso of the man on horseback, which was reported to have been found near the Lady, was even displayed at the Acropolis Museum for a time.
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