The pieces of the statue of Athena, which were kept in safes after they were removed from the excavation site in İzmir’s Bayraklı district in the 1930s, were opened to visitors for the first time after the assembly was carried out by experts at the İzmir Archeology Museum.
The star of the exhibition, which includes 4 separate Athena figurines (sculptures) dating to the Archaic and Hellenistic periods, was the 28-centimeter statue, whose parts were found during the excavations carried out in the 1930s in the area of İzmir’s Bayraklı district, and was assembled by experts approximately 90 years later.
Athena is depicted with an oval face, prominent nose, mouth, chin, and black hair in the 28-centimeter terracotta artifact, dated to the period between 300 and 600 BC.
It was noted that the artifact, which was found in approximately 40 pieces and stored in chests, was assembled as a result of the careful work of the expert team of the museum and exhibited for the first time.
The exhibition also includes a 5-centimeter-high terracotta head of Athena, unearthed in 2013 from the Klazomenai Ruins, a 12-centimeter-tall Athena statue found in 2012 in the Aliağa Kyme excavation, and an 18-centimeter-tall marble Athena head that was brought to the museum through purchase.
Archaeologist Elif Erginer, Deputy Director of the İzmir Archeology Museum, said that the project, in which a special group of artifacts are exhibited in special showcases every month, attracted great attention. Erginer stated that they devoted this month’s exhibition to Athena, who is known as the daughter of Zeus, the “head of the gods”, and Metis, the “goddess of wisdom” in mythology.
Stating that the pieces found in Bayraklı were scattered in the safes in the warehouses for a long time, Erginer stated that the figurine was discovered as a result of the classification study.