From the Shell to its Content: the Casting Cores of the Two Bronze Statues from Riace (Calabria, Italy)

Abstract

The two bronze statues found off the coast of Riace (Statue A and Statue B) are among the few complete bronze Greek originals dating back to the 5th centuryBC. As the casting cores were expected to impair the conservation of the inner bronze surfaces, the core residues were removed by micro-excavation, revealing that both statues were built with a peculiar slab manufacturing technique. This paper describes the results of petrographical, chemical and palaeontological analyses conducted on the cores. There are structural and compositional differences in the materials used for the two statues. The bulk of the material used to manufacture each core appears to be very homogeneous in both cases. Nonetheless, modelled features of the casting cores with different petrographic and chemical composition were identified in both statues. A preliminary attempt was made to restrict the possible areas of provenance of the bulk material used for the cores, by matching petrographical information with the geology of southern Italy and Greece. The statues appear to have been manufactured in Greece; some areas, including the plain of Argos, in the north-eastern Peloponnesus, are more likely candidates than others.