Greek Sculpture for Kids - Greek Sculpture from the Stone Age to the Hellenistic Period

Greek Sculpture

nike of samothrace

Not very much Greek sculpture has survived for us to see. You might think it would last well, being made mostly of limestone and marble, but both limestone and marble can be burned and turned into lime, which is one of the ingredients of cement. In the Middle Ages, most Greek statues were not valued, and they were burned in lime kilns to make cement. Practically all big Greek archaeological sites have medieval lime kilns in the middle of them.
Some Greek sculpture is known from Roman copies which have survived. Greek sculpture is divided into seven main periods, though we are not always sure which period a statue belongs in. (Watch out! These time periods do not match up with the pottery ones!).


Here's a video from an AP Art History class about Greek sculpture:


To find out more about Greek sculpture, check out these books on Amazon.com or at your library:

Ancient Greek Art, by Susie Hodge (1998)- for kids ages 9-12.

Greek Art and Archaeology (3rd Edition), by John G. Pedley (2002) This is NOT a children's book, but it has a lot of good information and is pretty readable. Plus, the author is really an expert in this field.

The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction, by William R. Biers (revised edition 1996) Like Pedley's book, this is NOT a children's book, but Biers writes very clearly and has a lot of good pictures.

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