An extremely rare travertine head discovered in Paestum: unique event for the site

A rare travertine head has been discovered in Paestum, which Archaeological Park director Gabriel Zuchtriegel describes as an event “unique to Paestum.” Discovered during a stratigraphic excavation campaign sponsored by the University of Bochum (Germany), the head, which can be dated to the first half of the 6th century B.C., is life-size and probably decorated the pediment of a temple or was part of a statue. It belongs to the first generation of monumental sculpture attested in Greece and southern Italy: this is especially evident from the “stepped” hairstyle and almond-shaped eyes typical of the Dedalic style.

“Archaic sculpture at Paestum is so far known mainly thanks to the remains of the frieze of the first temple of Hera at the mouth of the Sele River north of Paestum,” Zuchtriegel says. “But all the works we know of from this chronological horizon, that is, from the 6th century B.C., are made of sandstone. This is the first travertine sculpture, and it seems to be even older than the Foce Sele reliefs. We are at the beginning of Paestum’s history, shortly after the founding of the city around 600 B.C., but also at the beginning of Greek monumental sculpture in general. It is becoming increasingly evident how the colonies were actively contributing to the formation of a new artistic and architectural language between the 7th and 6th centuries BC.”

“The purpose of the project was a different one,” says Jon Albers, a professor at the University of Bochum, “namely to better investigate the so-called Temple of Peace, which is from the Roman period; instead we found fragments from the 6th century B.C., including a travertine head that may have come from an older shrine located in the same place.”

Excavations at the so-called Temple of Peace, on Paestum’s Roman Forum, will continue until early October.Archaeologists working on the site hope to obtain additional elements to put this discovery, considered exceptional, in a broader context.

In the photo, the discovered head

An extremely rare travertine head discovered in Paestum: unique event for the site

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