Greek Sculpture
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!).
Stone Age
Bronze Age
Dark Age
Archaic
Severe
Classical
Hellenistic
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.
