The Sabouroff head is a Late Archaic Greek marble sculpture. It is dated to circa

550 __NOTOC__ Year 550 ( DL) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 550 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

–

525 BC The year 525 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as year 229 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 525 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...

. This head of a

Kouros kouros ( grc, κοῦρος, , plural kouroi) is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a less ...

was named after

Peter Alexandrovich Saburov Peter Alexandrovich Saburov (22 March O.S./3 April 1835 – 28 March O.S./10 April 1918) was a Russian diplomat, collector of ancient Greek sculpture and antiquities, and an amateur chess player and patron of chess tournaments, as an honorary Pre ...

, a collector of ancient Greek sculpture and antiquities. It is 23 centimeters in height. The sculpture is currently located in the

Antikensammlung Berlin The Antikensammlung Berlin (Berlin antiquities collection) is one of the most important collections of classical art in the world, now held in the Altes Museum and Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. It contains thousands of ancient archaeological ...

and allegedly from

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

Aegina Aegina (; el, Αίγινα, ''Aígina'' ; grc, Αἴγῑνα) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina (mythology), Aegina, the mother of the hero Aeacus, who was born ...

. There are conjectures that it may also have been from

Caria Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionians, Ionian and Dorians, Dorian Greeks colonized the west of i ...

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. This marble head may have belonged to a life-size statue. It has been the object of various debates regarding the unusual design of the hair and beard. Men usually had long hair in 6th century Greek statues, but the beard was a common attribute in archaic sculpture. The treatment of the moustache, separate from the beard on the cheeks and chin, is very rare for Greek sculpture and gives an exotic look to the head. The head has been described as "nearer to a

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

than any other work surviving from Archaic Greece" (other than the Boxer Relief in Athens). Using an optical 3D-scanner the cast copy at the

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

was acquired and analyzed using the

GigaMesh Software Framework The GigaMesh Software Framework is a free and open-source software for display, editing and visualization of 3D-data typically acquired with structured light or structure from motion. It provides numerous functions for analysis of archaeologic ...

. The geometric measurements using Voronoi cells and Geodesic distances at the high-resolution 3D-model show an unbalance and a slight tilting of the head indicating that it was part of an

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...

References

{{reflist, refs= {{citation , first1=Tonio, last1=Hölscher , first2=Susanne, last2=Krömker , first3=Hubert, last3= Mara , title=Gedenkschrift für Georgios Despinis , chapter=Der Kopf Sabouroff in Berlin: Zwischen archäologischer Beobachtung und geometrischer Vermessung , publisher=

Benaki Museum The Benaki Museum, established and endowed in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in memory of his father Emmanuel Benakis, is housed in the Benakis family mansion in downtown Athens, Greece. The museum houses Greek works of art from the prehistorical to the ...

, location=Athens, Greece , language=German , page=125-138 , issn=1109-4109 , isbn=978-960-476-263-7 , date=2020 {{YouTube, VPqsY4tzwWA, Voronoi Cells & Geodesic Distances - Sabouroff head. Analysis using the

as described by Hölscher et al., cf. doi:10.11588/heidok.00027985. {{cite book , last1=Stieber , first1=Mary , title=The Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai , date=2010 , publisher=University of Texas Press , isbn=9780292773493 , page=98 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DaIAAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 6th-century BC works Ancient Greek art Ancient Greek sculptures * Sculptures