Man discovers a 2,000-year-old Greek treasure in a street trash bag: “It likely wasn’t the temple’s main statue”

According to a official police statement, a resident discovered an 80-centimetre marble statue in the shape of a woman with her head cut off next to a rubbish bin in Neoi Epivates, on the outskirts of Greece’s second-largest city. The man quickly handed it over to local authorities, who contacted the city’s archaeological department to assess its historical relevance.

A piece from the Hellenistic era

According to an official report by experts, the statue dates back to the Hellenistic era, a period between approximately 320 and 30 BC, which was marked by a flourishing of art and culture following the conquests of Alexander the Great. The statue was sent to archaeologists for further examination and was eventually handed over to the local antiquities authority for preservation and study. Local law enforcement bodies launched an investigation to try and determine who disposed of the sculpture and managed to identify a man who was later briefly detained for questioning, but was released within a few hours without charge.

Such accidental discoveries are very common in Greece, a country renowned for its ancient heritage and often occur during the construction of buildings or public works. Another recent instance last December saw workers installing gas pipelines near Athens who discovered a Roman statue of Hermes buried in a pit filled with bricks in the city of Acropolis.

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