Cycladic figurine from the sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas in Epidauria

Part of a small Cycladic marble figurine was found in layers belonging to the Mycenaean predecessor of the Sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas, itself predecessor and later part of the famous Epidaurian Asklepieion. Christos Piteros mentions the figurine in his overview of similar finds in ancient Epidauria. Preserved is the head of the figure and the greater part of a rather long neck, broken aslant from the rear side to the front. The fragment is 50 mm high; the head is oval in shape, tilted upwards and backwards. Its maximum width measures 25 mm. The nose is rendered as a smoothly rising ridge; the chin is defined by a rather sharp contour. The preservation is good: only a small flake at the lower part of the nose is missing. The lack of details, as well as the convex and clumsy profile of the head, classes it with the early canonical Kapsala type of Early Cycladic II figurines. The comparison with examples of this group from Naxos or of other Cycladic provenance, is eloquent.