Heraclea Sintica statue shows his face – The History Blog

The larger-than-life-sized statue of a male deity found in the Roman-era sewer of the ancient town of Heraclea Sintica near Petrich in southwestern Bulgaria has shown his face. Archaeologists finished excavating the statue, which had been buried in the sewer face to the wall and covered with soil, revealing the face and the right arm. Unfortunately no right hand survived.

This is a young face with short hair. It’s definitely not a statue of the Atalante Hermes type which has a more mature face and thick, wavy hair. His build seems slighter too. It bears some of the characteristics of portraits of Roman emperors depicted as gods. It looks more like a young Caligula, Octavian or Gaius Caesar than any of the 2nd century emperors, but they certainly weren’t making statues of Caligula at that time. Having seen the full statue, excavation leader Dr. Lyudmil Vagalinski suspects it was made earlier than the initial 2nd century estimate.

In order to remove the statue from the sewer, exact measurements were taken and a custom metal carriage built inside the sewer. The statue was then lifted for packing in a secure crate. After six hours of hard work, the statue was removed from the sewer Friday, July 12th. It was raised with a crane to a track and then transported with police escort to the Petrich Historical Museum.