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Permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum of Delphi

Ivory plate with many-figured representation
Finds from the sacred votive deposits

These are some of the most remarkable and precious votive offerings from the Apollo sanctuary. They were found in two subterranean deposits of sacred objects, where they were kept after they were damaged by fire in the 5th century BC. These votive pits contained much burnt earth and ash, but also numerous fragments of ivory, gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay, from which experienced conservators painstakingly restored these remarkable artefacts. The following are especially interesting: a life-sized bull made of silver sheets connected with bronze straps and nailed onto a wooden core, parts of three life-sized chryselephantine statues (one male and possibly two female) of the 6th century BC, an elegant 5th century BC bronze thymiaterion (incense burner), its tall shaft shaped like a woman draped in a peplos and holding a container with perforated lid on her head, and, finally, ivory plaques with mythological scenes.

Exhibit Features
Date: Classical period, 8th - 5th century BC
Place of discovery: Delphi, Sacred Way, in front of the athenean treasury
Inventory number: 10413, 10414,10660, 10415
Copyright: Hellenic Ministry of Culture
 
 
 
  Suggestive Bibliography
 
Amandry P., "Rapport preliminaire sur les statues chryselephantines de Delphes", BCH 63, (1939), 86-119
 
Amandry P., "Plaques d' or de Delphes", AM 77, (1962), 35-71
 
Amandry P., Statue de taureau en argent, Etudes delphiques, BCH Suppl. IV, (1977), 273-293
 
 
 
Other views
Finds from the sacred deposits
Chryselephantine life-size heads, interpreted as Apollo and Artemis
Female ivory head
Bull statuette