We explore an ancient Greek artifact that helps us reframe how we think about color and identity. In this post, you will find the YouTube video exploring these shipwrecked finds, and a full video transcript (with relevant sources and links).

YouTube Video

https://youtu.be/6lA37cLfrnw

YouTube Video Transcript

Here, you will find the complete transcript of the video in the previous section with hyperlinked references/citations.

Intro

When you picture an ancient Greek statue, what do you see?

Chances are, you’re imagining smooth white marble. But that’s not how these sculptures originally looked. Ancient Greeks actually painted their temples, statues, and everyday objects in vivid colors – a practice known as polychromy

Hi! I’m Dr. Smiti Nathan, and I’m an archaeologist. In this video, we’re going to explore an artifact that shows what colors could have meant to people in Ancient Greece.

Background

Imagine yourself at the Acropolis in Athens in 1886. This is when archaeologists unearthed a striking statue now known as the Peplos Kore. The statue’s name reflects early assumptions about its subject: peplos refers to a kind of dress, and kore means young woman. 

The Peplos Kore dates to around 530 BCE, which was during the Archaic period in ancient Greece. Today, the statue lives in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.

At the time of its discovery, faint traces of pigment were still visible on the face, hair, and especially the dress. But a lot of its colors had faded, so researchers had to piece together what the statue might have originally looked like from these remnants

Interpretations

In the 1970s, Robert Cook and M.B. Lehrmann offered this colorful interpretation of the Peplos Kore. This version was based on 3 things. 1) the colors that were still visible at the time, 2) watercolor drawings of the sculpture a year after it was excavated, and 3) a desire to challenge perceptions that classical sculptures were always white.

Starting in the 1980s, scholars Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann carried out studies to reconstruct various classical sculptures based on scientific imaging methods, including the Peplos Kore. These imaging techniques not only revealed new information on pigments, but also stylistic patterns in the sculpture. Based on these methods, they produced two reconstructions of the Peplos Kore – Variant B and Variant C. 

The findings informing these versions led some scholars to reconsider their interpretation of the sculpture. Instead of being a young girl or woman wearing a peplos, some scholars think this is a sculpture of a Greek goddess, possibly Artemis or Athena, wearing an “ependyt” – which is a dress marking a high status.

In fact, there are other possible indications that Peplos Kore could be a goddess. For example, the sculpture’s left hand was carved from a separate piece of marble and fastened with a notch – perhaps to hold something sizable. The right hand’s fingers indicate she might have held something with them, too. Some scholars think that this could be a depiction of Artemis holding a bow in her left hand and arrows in her right.

Outro

While the identity of the Peplos Kore is still debated, this work remains important. It highlights not only the array of colors that were used in the past, but how those colors might impact how we interpret the identity of a sculpture.

We actually have a video on the forgotten colors of famous sculptures, if you want to learn more about this object and others

This video is part of our Artifact of the Day series, where we take a quick look at one intriguing object from the past. If you’re interested in watching another artifact of the day video, check out the video here.

Credits

Brooke Norton: Series Lead, Co-Producer, Researcher, Scriptwriter

Noor Hanania: Lead Video Editor, Peer Reviewer, Logo Designer

Anya Gruber: Peer Reviewer

Sneh P. Patel: Peer Reviewer

Smiti Nathan: Director, Co-Producer, Support Video Editor, Researcher, Scriptwriter

Patreon Supporters

Thank you to our paid Patreon members for supporting the creation of this video:

Nancy Fulton, James D., Giancarlo Annese, Thomas Martin, Stuart A. Griffin, Tagg, Ann Brookens, Diana Madden, Cole Guinn, Seemingly Unrelated Podcast, Chris

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