The ram-bearer kouros
A colossal unfinished archaic statue carrying a ram.
Gerhard Haubold โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Jean Housen โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Jean Housen โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Jean Housen โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**Because it shows you how the Greeks carved โ which a finished statue hides.** โ **The problem with the finished**: **the final surface is polished** โ **erasing every trace of the process**; you see the result and not how it was reached. โ **What the unfinished shows you**: **(1) the sequence** โ the sculptor worked the block **from all four faces together**, progressively, not face by face; **so you see parts at different stages on the same statue**. **(2) The tools** โ **the marks of the point chisel** for roughing out, **the claw chisel** for shaping, **the flat chisel** for smoothing โ **each leaving a distinctive signature**. **(3) The guide lines** โ marks drawn to control the proportions. โ **Why this one was left**: **the kouros is colossal and cut from Thassos's own quarry** โ โ **and it was most likely abandoned because of a flaw or fracture in the stone**, which was common; **the quarries are full of abandoned work**. โ **The value**: you stand in front of **a moment of work halted** 2,500 years ago.
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**A small refurbished museum beside the agora, holding a huge kouros carrying a ram** โ in the middle of Limenas. It is **the island's museum**, showing what was found in ancient Thasos: **marble sculpture** (here in local marble, which is fitting), **inscriptions**, **pottery**, **coins**, and **tools from the quarries and mines**. โ **Its best-known piece is the kouros**: a colossal archaic youth carrying a **ram** โ 6th century BC, **and unfinished**; โ **and the incompleteness is an advantage**: **you see the chisel work** and the carving method in its stages. โ There is also a **head of Dionysus**, Hellenistic and Roman sculpture, and finds from the temple of Aphrodite. โ **The museum has been refurbished**, with modern display and air conditioning. โ But it is **small** โ an hour is enough.
A colossal unfinished archaic statue carrying a ram.
Finely carved local marble from the classical period.
The marble-cutting equipment that built the island's wealth.
Limenas, 64004 Thassos, Greece