Roman sculptures excavated in Austria

Two Roman-era sculptures were discovered during the course of digging out the foundation for the new fire station on the premises of the volunteer fire brigade of Kleinstubing, in the district of Graz-Umgebung, Styria.

The "Eros von Kleinstubing" [Credit: APA/FF Kleinstubing/Werner Gasser]

The building site bordered on the area of a "Villa Rustica", a Roman estate in the area of the SOS Children's Village Stubing, where in 1999 and 2003 smaller finds had been made. It was therefore quite obvious at the start of construction that all excavation work would have to be accompanied by the Federal Monuments Office or archaeologists.

According to archaeologist Ulla Steinklauber, the sculptures are around 1,800 years old. The first is a fragment of a lying lion with curly fur. However, only a part of the body has been preserved - the head, legs and the end of the back are missing.

The second and more impressive sculpture, most of which has been preserved, is a childlike Eros - a winged boy, companion of Venus - standing on the neck of a marine animal. A part of the head of Eros, a part of the animal head and the end of the animal body are missing. The associated tail fin, which ends in three points, has been preserved.

"This sea creature is reminiscent of a dragon, but it depicts a dolphin whose appearance the Roman artist had interwoven with other notions of marine animals. Here we have the so-called dolphin rider, a classic companion of deceased people whose soul is accompanied into the other world by the two creatures," said Steinklauber.

"The sculpture stood on the side of the roof of a very high marble funerary building. With some probability both sculptures belong to the same tomb monument and show a strong artistic independence and the wealth of the deceased, who probably owned the Roman villa in Kleinstubing", said Steinklauber.

The 103 centimetre high Roman marble statue of "Eros von Kleinstubing" will initially be on display in the foyer of the fire station. After the scientific publication, the remaining objects as well as the finds from an urnfield grave will be made accessible to a wider public.

Source: Science APA [trsl. TANN, September 12, 2019]