Man with tight, curly hair. Near Eastern. Ptolemaic Period.ca. 125-100 BCE. Turkish ‘Bigio Morata’ marble. Possibly made in Turkey but blends Egyptian & Hellenistic style. Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund (#70.59). Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Museum. Public Domain.

A young man. Roman Imperial Period, ca. 50-100 CE. Pentelic Marble (near Athens). Made in Rome. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (#88.643). www.mfa.org. Public Domain.

Head of man with Arab/North African & Greek ancestry. Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 180 CE. Marble head from western Turkey (either Greek or Asiatic work) broken off from a larger sculpture. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Edward Perry Warren (#28.861). www.mfa.org. Public Domain.

Marble sarcophagus fragment depicting a groom alongside a horse & the god Eros. From Greece (specific context unknown), ca.100s CE. Courtesy of the Menil Collection (#1977-24.DJ). Public Domain.

Head of a man (from a broken marble statue). Hellenistic or early Roman imperial period, ca. 200s-100s BCE (so dated because the head is in motion, looking to the side, a popular sculptural style in this era. Later statues tend to have stationary, front-facing subjects, sometimes with a slight tilt of the head). Provenance unknown. Courtesy of the Menil Collection (#1971-34.DJ). Public Domain.

Antefix (architectural ornament) of a man’s head. Terracotta. From Italy, Cerveteri (Etruscan). Classical period, ca. 480-460 BCE. Image courtesy of the Menil Collection, Houston TX (CA7009). Public Domain.

Head of a boxer (with swollen face and cauliflower left ear). A votive offering found at a sanctuary near Tarentum, a Greek colony in southern Italy. Greek, Classical period, ca. 400-300 BCE. Courtesy of the Getty Open Content Program (Obj. 82.AD.93.18). Public Domain.

Portrait of a child (from a larger sculpture). Marble. Roman, made in Italy, ca. 150-200 CE. Courtesy of the Getty Open Content Program (# 71.AA.462). Public Domain.

Originally identified as a child of African heritage, scholars now wonder if his portrait features merely reflect the era’s sculptural style (i.e., he may not be ‘black’). Ultimately, it is problematic to rely upon ‘racial’ features (stereotypes!) to ‘read’ skin color in ancient art. We must exercise care as we rebut the racist assumption that ancient Greeks & Romans were ‘white.’

Head of a man with abundant curly hair. Made of granodiorite by an Egyptian sculptor, it combines Egyptian & Greek sculptural features (marking it as Hellenistic, ca. 331-30 BCE): the unpolished hair, eyes, & the black granodiorite are Egyptian. His remaining facial features are ‘Greek’ style. The head is likely from a statue made in the ‘Egyptian’ manner: striding forward, wearing an Egyptian kilt. From Luxor, Egypt. Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (# 22.226). CC0 1.0 Universal Deed (Public Domain).

Statue of Emperor/Tetrarch Maxentius as Pontifex Maximus. Roman. Made of Proconnesian marble, ca. 307-312 CE. Image taken by Criscombat (own work) at the Ostia Archaeological Museum (Inv. 51). CC0. Public Domain.

As Tetrarch, Maxentius ruled Southern Italy, Sicily & North Africa. He was the son of Emperor Maximian and Eutropia. (Maxentius’s sister Fausta married Constantine the Great). Maximian’s family was from Pannonia, a province abutting northeastern Italy. Eutropia was Syrian. (See also the Villa Romana di Casale mosaics in Sicily).

Marble relief depicting a stableboy leading a horse. From Athens, Greece. Hellenistic period, ca. 300 BCE. Photo courtesy of Furius, taken on Feb. 22nd, 2023 at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek (New Carlsberg Glyptothek). IN 463. CC0. Public Domain.

Marble sarcophagus fragment of a man’s head. Roman; mid-Imperial (Severan period), ca. 200-225 CE. Find spot is unknown. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Greek and Roman Art dept (the Rogers Fund 1918, 18.145.57). Public Domain.

Upper right corner of a marble sarcophagus with the head of an African youth (male or female?) and a maenad. Made of Phrygian marble. Roman; mid-Imperial Severan, ca. 1st quarter of the 3rd c. CE (200-225 CE). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Greek and Roman Art dept (the Fletcher Fund, 1928, Obj.28.57.3). Public Domain.