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Marble Foot. Ai Khanoum, Takhar Province.

1970
East of the administrative center, abutting the main avenue, there was a prominent sanctuary referred to as the Temple Within the Walls that was constructed by a Selucid king. It is one of the city's earliest structures. Judging from this fragment of an Helenistic marble sandaled left foot which is 3 times the length of a human foot, the temple was dedicated to a colossal seated cult figure fully 5-6 meters tall. It was the custom at that time to attach marble feet and hands to bodies modeled in unbaked clay around a wooden armature. Decorations on the sandal suggest Zeus' thunderbolt, but the temple is distinctly oriental in its architectural form and non-Greek in its conception. It seems likely, therefore, that the cult figure may have been a syncretic creation combining attributes of both a Greek and an Oriental (Persian) deity.
Photo: Louis Dupree

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Filename
70-77.jpg
Copyright
acku Afghanistan
Image Size
3327x2504 / 2.7MB
Contained in galleries
NATIONAL MUSEUM I - BCE (Before Common Era)
1970<br /> East of the administrative center, abutting the main avenue, there was a prominent sanctuary referred to as the Temple Within the Walls that was constructed by a Selucid king. It is one of the city's earliest structures. Judging from this fragment of an Helenistic marble sandaled left foot which is 3 times the length of a human foot, the temple was dedicated to a colossal seated cult figure fully 5-6 meters tall. It was the custom at that time to attach marble feet and hands to bodies modeled in unbaked clay around a wooden armature. Decorations on the sandal suggest Zeus' thunderbolt, but the temple is distinctly oriental in its architectural form and non-Greek in its conception. It seems likely, therefore, that the cult figure may have been a syncretic creation combining attributes of both a Greek and an Oriental (Persian) deity. <br /> Photo: Louis Dupree