• r2-224-10
    Table leg, male figure standing against pillar, six pieces, reconstructed overview. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • r2-224-20
    Table leg, male figure standing against a pillar, top view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Table Leg, Male Figure Standing against Pillar

Date
2nd C. AD, Roman
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
S58.008
Material
Marble, Stone
Object Type
Sculpture
Sculpture Type
Furnishing, Human Figure
Site
Sardis
Sector
B
Trench
B 58
Locus
BS Locus BS-W 2 (Area of)
Findspot
B
Description

Although the entire head is missing, a strand of hair is preserved on each shoulder. A piece of drapery is wrapped around the left arm at the elbow. The r. hand probably held a staff, since the bottom of some such object is preserved on the base, and a rough spot on the r. calf may indicated the break where the leg was joined to staff or strut. On the other hand, the object at the r. might have been a tree. The pillar has a rectangular shaft and a simple, flaring molding with plain slanting sides. There is a shallow, round indentation in the top of the pillar.

The nude male figure leaning against a pillar and holding a shepherd’s (?) staff in his hand could be Attis. The large simple chiseled folds are crude, but the body seems to have had quite good, if limited modeling. A date anywhere from the 1st to 3rd C. A.D. seems possible, but 2nd C. is most likely.

Dimensions
Pillar: H. 0.52, W. 0.10, D. 0.12; top molding H. 0.042, W. 0.166, D. 0.152; flaring part of molding H. 0.05; diam. indentation in top 0.063, D. 0.012. Youth: torso H. 0.24, W. 0.12; leg H. 0.21, Base H. 0.055; P.W. 0.17; D. 0.19.
Comments
For Attis cf. Laurenzi, Sculture inedite, 134f., esp. no. 171. Also table legs from Argos, Marcadé-Raftopoulou, Sculptures argiennes II, 165-172, nos. 166-167, fig. 92.
See Also
Bibliography
Published: BASOR154, 32.
Author
NHR