A marble statue believed to be more than 2,000 years old was found abandoned in a garbage bag near the Greek city of Thessaloniki, police said Wednesday. A resident discovered the 31-inch headless statue of a woman beside a trash bin in Neoi Epivates, outside Greece's second-largest city. The man turned it over to local authorities, who contacted archaeologists to assess its significance, reports the AP. Police said experts, following an initial evaluation, determined the piece dates to the Hellenistic era, a period roughly between 320 BC and 30 BC that was marked by flourishing art and culture following the conquests of Alexander the Great.
The statue was sent for further examination by archaeologists. It will ultimately be handed over to the local antiquities authority for preservation and study. Police opened an investigation to determine who discarded the statue and briefly detained a man for questioning who was later released without charge. Accidental archaeological discoveries are relatively common in Greece and are often made during building construction or public works. In December, workers installing natural gas pipelines near Athens uncovered a Roman-era statue of Hermes buried upright in a brick-lined pit near the Acropolis.
Thessaloniki weeks ago unveiled a trove of antiquities found during the decades-long construction of its metro system, which officially opened in November. Key finds, including a marble-paved Roman thoroughfare and tens of thousands of artifacts spanning the Greek, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods, are now showcased at subway stations. (More Greece stories.)
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