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HoB 785: Terracotta “Exhibitionist” figurine. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Terracotta “Exhibitionist” figurine
- Date
- Context: later 7th to mid-6th c BC, Lydian
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 4359 and 4360
- Museum Inventory No.
- 4359 and 4360
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- P63.307
- Material
- Terracotta
- Object Type
- Pottery
- Pottery Shape
- Plastic Vessel
- Pottery Ware
- Lydian Painted
- Pottery Attribution
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- HoB
- Trench
- HoB
- Locus
- HoB Lydian I - Refuse Piles
- B-Grid Coordinates
- W13 / S104 *99.45
- Findspot
- W10 / S100 *99.60-99.30; W13 / S104 *99.45–99.30; W13 / S104 *100.45–99.30
- Description
- Ithyphallic man. Three nonjoining units, each mended from several fragments: the head and torso, the left leg and foot, and the phallus. Unusual and ornately decorated figure of a seated, ornately dressed ithyphallic man. Light-skinned, bearded male, with long black double-tresses framing an extended neck. He wears a sleeved jacket over a thinner garment, long banded trousers, and boots. A triangular cap or hood falls at his back. Barrel body with tubular appendages. Possibly a water-pressure trick vase in which the phallus works as the spout. Entire outer surface, except for sole of foot, painted in creamy white, dark purple-gray, brown-gray, and red. The style of the head seems to be inspired by contemporary East Greek fashions; the ornate costume seems to be Asiatic. Complicated vessel made in many separate parts. The torso, extant leg, and penis are all wheelmade and hollow, while the head seems to have been made with a combination of mold and free-hand modeling. Local fabric. [entry by Frances Gallart Marqués]
- Dimensions
Torso and head: H. 0.35, Diam. of belly 0.176, Th. of body 0.0018–0.024;
Leg and foot: H. 0.136, L. 0.06–0.07, Diam. of top leg 0.058–0.6;
Phallus: L:.0.087, Diam. of shaft 0.032–0.035.
- Comments
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Hanfmann, “Sardis 1963,” p. 11, fig. 3. Greenewalt 1971a; Greenewalt thought he was a Persian, but he comes from a Lydian context.
- Author
- GGD