Small terracotta heads with polos from Lucania
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Two female terracotta heads in the Collection of Classical Antiquities can be assigned to Lucanian workshops through corresponding comparative examples. Therefore, the landscape of Lucania, which in essence corresponds to today's southern Italian region of Basilicata, will be briefly introduced. It extends between the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west and the Gulf of Taranto in the east and initially also included Paestum/Poseidonia, which was later integrated into Campania. The landscape received its name in the 3rd century BC after the Italic (Oscan) people of the Lucanians. The region had been under strong Greek influence since the middle of the 7th century BC, when colonists from Colophon in Asia Minor founded the city of Siris[1]. In 433/32 BC, Heracleia was founded a short distance away, as a daughter city of Taranto and Thurioi, which was called Heracleia Lucania to distinguish it from other cities with the name of the godlike hero Heracles. From 330 BC onwards, the Lucanians sought an alliance with Rome, but changed sides on various occasions in the wars that followed. Heracleia was one of the first Lucanian cities to conclude a treaty with Rome (civitas foederata). At the beginning of the 1st century BC it became a Roman municipium[2], which was associated with full Roman citizenship.
From the 7th century BC onwards, the production of clay figurines, which were consecrated in sanctuaries and used as grave goods, flourished in the colonies, just as in the Greek motherland.
The two small heads in Giessen, Inv. T I-10 and T I-11, crowned with a polos, resemble archaic heads from terracotta statuettes of Lucan provenance, which are mainly standing and enthroned female figures[3]. They mostly wear long robes, but also appear once in divine (aphrodisiac) nudity[4]. Comparisons show that their matrices could occasionally be used to make figures of young men[5]. The curvature of the breasts was indicated with such restraint that the matrices could be used for bodies of both sexes. Afterwards, either male genitals were added[6], or the head was adorned with a polos. The gesture of extending the forearms and the upturned palms are also not gender-specific. In Metapont, as in Poseidonia, they are used equally by female and male deities or adorers[7].
A characteristic feature of clay sculpture of the Archaic period is a hairstyle in which relatively broad, flat strands fall onto the forehead[8]. The individual workshops used to vary this slightly. For example, the strands in Lokroi Epizephyrioi are usually sculpturally curved and their ends rounded like tongues[9], while the rather flat strands of the statuettes from Metapont, Herakleia or Sybaris end horizontally[10]. Usually the contour line of the forehead hair is interrupted by shortening of the middle strands[11]. In contrast, the flat arches of Inv. no. T I-10 and T I-11, as well as specimens from Metapont[12] and Paestum[13], show a continuity that possibly points to the proximity of the Giessen heads to the two workshops mentioned.
[1] M. Lombardo, Greci, Enotri e Lucani nella basilicata meridionale (Neapel 1996) 15.
[2] The date 278 BC is not entirely certain, s. D. Feil, Geschichte von Siris und Herakleia, in: B. Otto, Herakleia in Lukanien und das Quellheiligtum der Demeter (Innsbruck 1996) 34 f. and note 50.
[3] From Metapont: G. Olbrich, Archaische Statuetten eines Metapontiner Heiligtums (Rom 1979), 232 f. no. C 78 pl. 62; Die Neue Welt der Griechen (Köln-Mainz 1998) 122 fig. 51; from Sybaris: G. Olbrich, Verwandtes und Benachbartes zu den archaischen Terrakotten aus dem Demeter-Heiligtum von Herakleia, in: B. Otto (ed.), Herakleia in Lukanien und das Quellheiligtum der Demeter (Innsbruck 1996), 182 pl. 5, 1; from Herakleia: M. Osanna – L. Prandi – A. Siciliano, Eraclea. Culti Greci in Occidente (Tarent 2008), 38-41 pls. 9 c. d; from Poseidonia: R. Miller Ammerman, The Naked Standing Goddess: A Group of Archaic Terracotta Figurines from Paestum, AJA 95, 1991, 204 f. fig. 3. p. 209 fig. 6; id., The Sanctuary of Santa Venera at Paestum II. The Votive Terracottas (Michigan 2002), 41 no. 21 pl. 5; Die Neue Welt der Griechen (Köln-Mainz 1998) 117 fig. 41.
[4] Cf. R. Miller Ammerman, The Sanctuary of Santa Venera at Paestum II. The Votive Terracottas (Michigan 2002), 27 f. 39 f.
[5] R. Miller Ammerman, The Naked Standing Goddess: A Group of Archaic Terracotta Figurines from Paestum, AJA 95, 1991, 210 fig. 7; id. 2002, 38 pl. 5 a.
[6] B. Otto (ed.), Herakleia in Lukanien und das Quellheiligtum der Demeter (Innsbruck 1996), 111 f. pl. 12, 4.
[7] R. Miller Ammerman, The Naked Standing Goddess: A Group of Archaic Terracotta Figurines from Paestum, AJA 95, 1991, 204 fig. 1 and 210 fig. 7.
[8] M. Barra Bagnasco, Protomi in Terracotta da Locri Epizefiri (Turin 1986), 41 f.
[9] Barra Bagnasco ebenda, 51 no. 61. 62 pl. 11, 12 and p. 53 f. no. 64 pl. 12.
[10] G. Olbrich, Verwandtes und Benachbartes zu den archaischen Terrakotten aus dem Demeter-Heiligtum von Herakleia, in: B. Otto (ed.), Herakleia in Lukanien und das Quellheiligtum der Demeter (Innsbruck 1996) 182 f. pls. 4, 2. 5, 2 and 6. 2.
[11] Two shortened strands - from Metapont: G. Olbrich 1979, 256 no. C 127 pl. 72. p. 257 no. C 131 pl. 73; from Taranto: N. Poli, Collezione Tarentina. Coroplastica arcaica e classica (Triest 2010), 79. 83 f. no. 49. 51. Four shortened strands - from Metapont, Olbrich 1979, 157 no. A 122. A 123 pl. 29; from Locri: M. Barra Bagnasco 1986, 90 no. 141 pl. 25. Six shortened strands - from Sybaris, M. N. Pagliardi, NSc Suppl. 28 (Rom 1974), 134 figs. 118. 119; from Taranto, apart from the common specimens with two shortened central strands, the variant type "Budapest - Saturo" with a hair cap divided into vertical stripes with a concave surface and arched ends, Á. Bencze, Early Votive Terracotta from Southern Italy, BMusHongr 2012, 49-68.
[12] Olbrich 1979, 116 f. A31 pl. 8. 131 A65 pl. 15. 149 f. A105 pl. 23. 198 f. C9 pl. 48; D. Adamesteanu, La Basilicata antica, Storia e monumenti (Neapel 1974) 58 d.
[13] R. Miller Ammerman, AJA 95, 1991, 204 fig. 1 and 210 fig. 7.