#protomes

This artifact was unearthed from the central terrace at Vani, which is located in what is now western Georgia (the country, not the state). It was created roughly 2,800 years ago, when Vani served as the religious, cultural, and administrative center for the Kingdom of Colchis.

The sculpture was originally designed with six heads, but only two of those heads remain intact. Each head is depicted with a large crown and zoomorphic features.

Above: the full-sized sculpture

Several other sculptures with this design have been discovered at Vani, and the same motif also appears at the nearby site of Nokalakevi.

Above: a similar sculpture from Vani

As this article explains:

Numerous terracotta figurines of various animals occur at Vani (e.g. deer, rams, etc.) but particularly interesting are four-footed figures with multiple heads on opposite ends. The protomes of two-headed and three-headed fantastical creatures with characteristic post-like legs apparently belong to figures of this type.

Above: two-headed protome from Vani

Similar designs can also be found in artifacts from ancient Greece:

Such figures, also common in the Greek world and generally assigned to the geometric period, have been found in 8th-7th century [BCE] contexts at Olympia, Delphi, Athens, Crete, Rhodes, Samos, and elsewhere. In Italy, these figures frequently appear in 7th-6th century contexts. Although at present a firm decision on which culture influenced the Vani figures (four-footed with two heads on opposite ends) is difficult to discern, the earlier emergence and wide distribution of such representations in the Greek world suggest a link with Hellenic culture.

Perhaps these new elements in Colchian culture c.800-650 BCE resulted from Greek contacts (still intermittent) in the precolonial era, which were reflected in the great popularity of stories of the Argonauts in the 8th-7th centuries and in the first geographical and ethno-political reports of Colchis (e.g. geographical references in the Homeric Catalogue of the Trojans, mention of Colchis in Eumelos and of the Phasis River in Hesiod). Regular Greek contacts began only c.550 BCE, after the establishment of Greek settlements on the eastern shore of the Black Sea.

Above: another two-headed protome from Vani

Sources & More Info:

Journal of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies: Vani: an Ancient City of Colchis (PDF)

The Georgian National Museum: Figurine of a Fantastical Beast

Yes, these are a particular type of “protome.” Protomes are head/upper chest busts which may be fixed onto another structure (like a building) or are stand-alone. The vast bulk are terracotta although they also come in marble and bronze (especially Etruria liked their bronzes).

The type of protome I referred to function much like icons in Greek orthodoxy or images of Mary in Catholicism in the home: a site for family worship, and in the case of Persephone/Kore or Demeter (or Aphrodite) protomes, probably largely female worship. These tend to be the terracotta ones we find in archaeological sites. The fancy ones were for the wealthy.

In addition to these, we have a lot of full-body terracotta figures of women, sometimes referred to as “Tanagras” (from where the first were illegally looted in Boeotia), but these seem to be decorative figurines of non-divine women. So shouldn’t be confused with goddess protomes. Although sometimes it’s not entirely clear.

All these were made IN BULK, and I do mean IN BULK. See above an image from the Veroia Museum with about a gajillion tanagras…and this is what’s survived for over 2500 years. Just imagine how common they were and how many must have been out there.

The goddess protomes tend to be kinda generic: she can be whatever goddess you need her to be. Many of them have crowns/high headdresses called a polos (one way we know it’s a goddess). The sort of classic pose is a crowned figure of a young woman, arms bent, holding something in her hands. A Persephone would be holding a round object (like a pomegranate). We also see flowers (Aphrodite, but also Persephone if a lotus), etc. Again, these figures tend to be identified by what they’re holding. Otherwise you can’t really tell them apart. Persephone is more common in the archaic and classical periods, but we start to see (in Macedonia) a switch-over to Aphrodite in the mid-4th/early 3rd century. Persephone can be Demeter. We don’t seem to see Hestia, but her cult/symbol is specifically the hearth. See below for several protomes and below that, a matched set of Persephone and Hades. (The sign in Pella says Dionysos but that’s not Dionysos. Olga Palagia said it’s Hades; I trust her. Museum labels can be wrong. I’ve found quite a few with problems.)

Pair of Protomes Depicting the Forepart of a Griffin

Columns with animal protomes, from the apadana of the palace, Persepolis, Iran

The columns consisted of tall bases with a ring of palm leaves, fluted 57-foot shafts, and enormous capitals composed of double vertical volutes topped by polished and painted back-to-back animal protomes (the head, forelegs, and part of the body). The designers drew on Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian traditions.