Ancient Statues One of the things we have to wonder about is how did the ancients make such incredible statues? One of the most iconic statue in the world today and one of the best known is the Sphinx, on the Giza Plateau in Egypt. It just says to onlookers “I am eternal”. Eternal it might be. I say this because we have no proof of the date it was built. There is a Stele between the front paws of the Sphinx. A Stele is a kind of plaque. Pharaoh Thutmose IV claiming kinship. It is believed it was put there in 1401 B.C. The Stele is called the Dream Stele. Archaeology tells us it was created between 2558 and 2532 B.C. Many do not agree with this date and think it is far older. Could the Sphinx be from some forgotten race? There are ancient statues that exist and ancient ones which are mentioned which no longer are with us, if they ever were. One of the most famous, which probably existed, but no evidence of it has been found is the Colossus of Rhodes. It was said to have been built in 280 B.C. on the island of Rhodes and was a likeness of the Titan god Helios. People have been looking for evidence of the statue but none has been found. The statue was said to be 110 feet in modern terms. The most popular belief is the statue straddled the opening to the harbor. It is said the statue lasted 55 years, but met its fate after an earthquake took it down and it fell into the sea. The Oracle of Delphi blamed bad omens for its destruction so it was never rebuilt. Aphrodite of Knidos is an ancient Greek statue which is incredibly famous. One of the reasons for this is, it was a sculpture of the goddess Aphrodite and was one of the first depicting a nude female in ancient Greece. Before that, the statues were of naked male heroes. It was created by Praxiteles of Athens about the 4th century B.C. The statute shows Aphrodite preparing to take a ritual bath to restore her purity. The statue has been copied many times. One ancient Greek statue which is no longer with us was listed as one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was the statue of Zeus. The workshop where it was created by Phidias still exists. The statue was stationed in the temple of Zeus. In 391 A.D. the Romans closed the temple and the statue was transferred to Constantinople but around 70 years later there was a terrible fire and the statue was destroyed. The statue was a giant depiction of Zeus sitting in a throne chair holding a scepter in one hand. Phidias was the first sculptor to use gold and silver on statures representing the gods. Phidias is considered the greatest of the ancient Greek sculptors. Some of the ancient Egyptian statues possess something about them which we can’t explain today. While a few deny what I am about to say most say it is true. Some of the ancient Egyptian statues have faces which are exactly the same on each side. The ancient Egyptians believed in symmetry and worked very hard to achieve it. It is said when traveling through the many statues of Ramses one can’t help but notice they are like perfect carbon copies of each other. It is said if one takes a mirror and puts it at the central point dividing the face into a stone half and a reflection half and takes the mirror away, there is no change in the features of the face. One side mirrors the other. When it comes to creating beautiful statues, the ancient Romans were no slouches. There is a statue of Augustus Caesar which is named Augustus of Prima Porta. It is magnificent and stands about 6 feet 10 inches. It is thought there was an original made of bronze which was lost. This statue was found in the villa of Caesar’s third wife, and has become a very famous statue. Some wonder why he is barefooted. The reason for this is that is the way many heroes or gods were depicted at the time. Did you ever wonder what is the oldest statue found? I did, I can’t help myself when I get interested in something. The oldest statue I could find is of a man with the head of a lion. It is named Lionman. It was discovered in Germany and has been dated as up to 40,000 years old. The statue is made from the ivory of a mammoth. It is about 12 inches high and a couple of inches wide. One has to wonder how this was carved, were flint tools used? It is not clear, even though the statue is named the Lionman, if it is a man or a woman. It is hard to believe but there are some experts who think the is an Acheulian stature which is far older. Some have dated it between 300,000 and 500,000 years old. It looks very crude but has the rough outline of a small statue. The word Acheulian has to do with cultures dating from 1,500,000 years ago to 150,000 years ago. If the archaeologists are right about this, the statue could have been carved by a precursor of the modern human. Statues seemed to be very important to the ancients. Besides being used to remind people of their gods, they had other uses. In ancient Egypt they were sometimes used like photographs to represent the family on occasion. It might only have been the rich and powerful who could afford for these small representations to be made. The Indus Valley is said to be the earliest know human civilization starting around 5,500 B.C. They created many small statues. Most were made from terracotta. Some statues were dated before that date. Seated mother shows a woman sitting on a chair and it is dated at 6,000 B.C. Another is dated at 3,000 B.C. and shows a woman wearing a flowered headdress. Many figurines depict fertility. Statues seem to have been a part of humanity ever since we and maybe the ancestors of the modern human race were on this planet. You have to wonder what drove people to carve them? Will our far future generations find statues from our time? It is entirely possible we have them throughout monuments and parks. Our museums are full of them. Will our descendants mistake some of the more ancient work as being ours? Time has a way of getting blurred when enough of it passes. There are other statues while not quite as old still date back an incredibly long way.
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