Marble Female Sculpture

Among the archaeological sculptural remains conserved in the Museum of Archaeological Ensemble of Baelo Claudia, there are examples of a very remarkable quality and manufacture. This is the case of this Koré. The style has its origins in the Greek Hellenistic period, and subsequently was well represented in Roman Republican times and the first moments of the Roman Empire, when the Baelo example was sculpted. This type of sculpture had an honorary function, serving as portraits of the imperial family and the upper classes.

The sculpture made of white marble, locally sourced and 1.70 m. in height, was sculpted from a single block, and seems to have been painted. It has a fine tunic and over it a himation, covering most of the body and suggesting its female form. The left hand hold that himation (which crosses diagonally across the chest and is collected on the opposite shoulder), exposing a thin, soft pleating. This pleating, reveals the tunic which is sculpted with deep folds. The left leg is flexed, and looking at the right leg we can appreciate the closed shoes calcei muliebres, characteristic of this type of female representation.

The statue was found in 2000 in the environs of the Eastern necropolis of the city in the course of excavations at the gate Carteia, reused in a grave without the head (which would be sculpted in a separate block and not recovered), and having lost her right arm and left hand. Probably its original location was in the city Forum where it honor an important woman, because it is not the only example found in the city; in the 1972 campaign of excavation, carried out by the French Institution of Hispanic studies Casa de Velázquez, another female statue was discovered, (conserved and exhibited today at the Museum of Cádiz), which although it has a different style and layout seems to have honored a local matron, or an elite women related to the imperial dynasty, as described.
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Bibliography:

- Gómez Bueno, M. C.(2010): Dama Romana de Baelo Claudia. Aljaranda, (77), 13-18.

- Le Roux, P.: (1973): La VIIe campagne de fouilles à Belo (Bolonia, province de Cadix). Mélanges de La Casa de Velázquez, (9), 755–770.