Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T02:42:20.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Votive and portrait sculpture from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Wadi Bel Gadir, Cyrene (Shahat)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Susan Kane*
Affiliation:
Bryn Mawr College

Extract

Excavation and study work was continued by the University of Pennsylvania expedition under the direction of Professor Donald White from late June to early September 1976 in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Wadi Bel Gadir, Cyrene (Shahat). With the help of a grant from the Society for Libyan Studies, I was able to begin my study of the votive and portrait sculpture excavated in the sanctuary and to travel to sites and museums in the Cyrenaica and Tripolitania for comparanda research. The 1976 season proved to be a fruitful one, not only for examination of sculpture from previous seasons, but also for acquisition of several fine pieces from new excavation. One life size marble female of Grosse Herkulanerin type (known from 1974) was unearthed and brought to the Casa Parisi sculpture yard, a new overlife size marble female (perhaps representing a priestess) and two underlife size marble peplophoroi of good workmanship were among the major pieces excavated. The two portrait finds were a fine marble female head in a Faustina the Elder hairstyle and a small limestone male head with Alexander the Great overtones. There were several statuettes found, including one of Demeter with her daughter Persephone seated in her lap which has parallels in both Eleusis and the Athenian Agora.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)