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Volume 105 No. 2
April 2001
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Archaic Kouroi in Naucratis: The Case for Cypriot Origin
Ian Jenkins
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| Limestone statuette, originally ca. 0.4 m high. |
This article takes a fresh look at the miniature, so-called alabaster kouroi found in 19th-century excavations at the site of the Greek emporium of Naucratis in the Egyptian Nile Delta. It reassesses the ethnic origin of these statuettes in light of archaeological and scientific evidence. and argues against previous attempts to see them as Greek. The article concludes that - like the limestone statuettes with which they were found - they are products of Cypriot workshops, which adapted native style and iconography for a Greek market. Even those that have hitherto been treated as self-evidently Greek turn out to combine their Hellenic nudity with features that are unquestionably Cypriot. Comparisons with limestone sculpture from southeast Cyprus suggest that the same workshops that supplied statuettes to sanctuaries there were also engaged in an export trade to Naucratis.
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