The Amazon-Terracotta is a cultural relic,

and to this day singular in the world.

An unique opportunity to buy the earliest representation of a full preserved wounded Amazon from Ephesus.

The terracotta statuette is showing a barefoot female figure standing upright on her right leg with a slightly angled left leg. The head is slightly inclined to the right. The right arm is raised high over the head and lowered to the left side of the body. The left arm is hanging down. She is grasping the ends of a bow over a quiver, hanging over the left hip. At the feet is lying a Pergamon helmet.

The female is dressed in a rich-folded girded chiton, which is tied at the right shoulder. On her left side the tie has slipped down the girdle and one breast is bared.

The hemline of the knee-length chiton has been pulled up over the right thigh to the hip under the girdle. The full hair is parted in the middle and has been bundled up twice with two pigtails at the back of the head. The chiton retains traces of the original colour. The weapons mark this figurine as an Amazon.

This small statuette is showing a lost original life-sized bronze statue which was created in the Roman written tradition by a famous Greek artist, in competition with four other sculptors for the asylum sanctum of Artemis in Ephesus.

On the incompletely preserved Roman marble copies the bow over the quiver is missing, except for some rests in the hands and fixing points on the left thigh. On some marble copies can be found a wound on the bared left thigh, which explains the pulled-up garment hemline and characterises the statues of the Amazons as pictures of asylum-seekers in the sanctum.

According to the Roman written tradition, the small clay figure created in a sculpture competition is, after Polyclitus and Phidias, maybe the third–placed Amazon, made by Kresilas. The famous Roman marble copies have been made with the head of the famous statue of Perikles.

The result of the thermo-luminescence analysis limits the time of origin of the statuette. The artists’ competition of 430 BC is historically and politically likely, while a temporal minimal limit for the production of the clay statuette is stylistic on account of the typical hairstyle with the bundled pigtails, which differ from the hairstyles of the 5th century BC. Also, the Pergamon helmet fits with this time period.

Based on scientific analysis, this small terracotta statuette may be a model for an ancient small reproduction or, of scientific interest, a "preliminary" study of the original statue.

It is a cultural relic, a reminder of the lost life-sized bronze statues of the wounded asylum-seeking Amazons in the sanctum of Artemis in Ephesus,

and it is the earliest representation of an Amazon created for Ephesus we know of.

(The statuette is not restored)

Authenticity:

The item is unconditionally guaranteed to be authentic as described. For added security I offer a full money-back guarantee (1 year) if a recognized authority disputes the authenticity of the object.

The item ist tested (thermolumineszenz analysis): fired in antiquity, 2500 years +/- 20%.

Payment instructions:

PayPal or credit card, I organized the shipment, shipping is free of charge.

A note to international buyers: Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price. These charges are the buyer’s responsibility. Please check with your country’s Customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying

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