Newly-Discovered Fragments of the Balustrade of Athena Nike

Extract

The immediate object of this paper is to publish three fragments of sculpture, which I had the good fortune to find on the Acropolis at Athens during the present year, and which may be, I think, claimed as belonging to the reliefs which ran round the bastion of Athena Nike. At the same time I should like to draw attention to, and discuss, certain corrections which have recently been made in some fragments of the same reliefs in the Acropolis Museum, and to make a few suggestions with regard to others.

The most important of the new fragments, which is reproduced in the plate, was found among a small heap of débris upon the top of the bastion fifteen yards to the east of the temple of Athena Nike. The marble is Pentelic; the sculptured surface measures roughly ·40 m. by ·28 m., the back of the slab is finished and the thickness from the back to the ground from which the relief springs is ·23 m., while the height of the relief is ·12 m. These measurements, which correspond exactly to the measurements of other slabs that we possess of the balustrade, the high relief, and delicate style of the torso all show that this fragment undoubtedly belongs to the balustrade. Further evidence is present in the small hole drilled in the top for the in-insertion of the bronze screen, which ran along the top of the slabs. The fragment consists of the left shoulder and breast, and portions of the left arm and wing of a Nike.