Scientists are already calling it a sensation.
“A large statue is very rare. This does not happen every decade, - Alexander Butyagin, head of the Mirmeki archaeological expedition of the State Hermitage, does not hide his pride.
For a month and a half, the expedition, most of which are residents of St. Petersburg, conducted excavations of the ancient settlement of Mirmeky near the Kerch Strait.
Archaeologists from St. Petersburg have been working in Crimea for over a month. Photo: Alexander Butyagin.
And at the end of the season, a sensation - a marble statue!
- In a very good condition, despite the fact that there is no head, hands and feet, - the scientist explained to the site "Komsomolskaya Pravda - Crimea". - Volumetric double-sided antique sculpture. The man was sculpted at ¾ of human height. Heavy, weighs 120 kilograms, if not more, we carried it with six of us.
The statue is well preserved. Photo: Alexander Butyagin.
After the restoration, it will become clear who was immortalized in marble, but in the meantime it can only be assumed that this is a custom-made sculpture of some noble resident of the ancient Bosporus kingdom, located in the area of the modern Kerch Peninsula.
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Moreover, at “Venus of Mirmeki”, as it was jokingly called in social networks, the head and left arm were sculpted separately from the body - a kind of antique designer.
The scientist told "KP-Crimea" that in ancient times the torso of a statue was often sent from somewhere far away - from Greece or Asia Minor, and the missing parts were made separately, on the spot. So on the statue from Myrmekia there are marks from the pins for attaching the head and left hand.
- The sculpture was found in a layer of Roman time, which dates back to the first centuries of our era, - the scientist notes. - They found it about one and a half meters from the surface of the earth - they chose stones from the Roman layer of destruction, and among them one of them got a non-standard shape.
Cleared and gasped: a statue!
They dragged it to the surface, began to put it in order.
- It is better to free the marble on site from dirt and crust. First, I wash it with distilled or boiled water, and then special compounds are used to fix the cracks, the scientist explains. - No harsh chemistry.
After the "bath", the man will go to the lapidarium (storage) of the Kerch Museum, where restorers will take care of him.
The statue among the finds of this season in the settlement of Mirmekiy takes, of course, the first place in importance.
A fragment of the sculpture of a seated deity is also one of the most successful finds of the expedition. Photo: Alexander Butyagin.
The second is a 20-centimeter fragment of the sculpture of a seated deity, and the third is a piece of a large marble bas-relief with a human profile.
“A small bone sculpture of possibly the god Mercury or Lara, a domestic deity, was also found, and notes of joy and pride again appear in Alexander Butyagin’s voice. - 2018 is the year of sculpture! Sometimes there are seasons when there are not even small fragments of marble, and this year is so much luck!
Not without standard finds: coins of the first centuries of our era, pieces of ceramics - amphorae and grandiose pithos for storing grain and wine.
REFERENCE
The city of Mirmekiy (translated from Greek means ant), where such a sensational find was made, was founded by the Ionian Greeks in the middle of the 6th century BC.
The ancient settlement is located on the famous Karantinny Cape, in the north of the Kerch Bay and is part of the Crimean cultural and historical reserve complex.
GALINA KOVALENKO