The “Stargazer” was unearthed in 1900 by Frank Calvert (1828-1908) during his excavations at the site of Kilia, at the Gallipoli peninsula in Eastern Thrace. It is a rare type of anthropomorphic figurine that gets its name from the strong tilt of the head backwards, with the eyes looking upwards. On the flattened head, eyes and ears are rendered in relief.
The figurines are small, their height ranging from 6 to 23cm. Kilia-type figurines are on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Getty Museum in Malibu, while fragments have been excavated at Aphrodisias and other sites of western Turkey.
U.S. Consul at the Dardanelles and amateur archaeologist, Calvert excavated many sites in the Troad and the Gallipoli peninsula, including Kilia. According to Susan Heuck Allen, author of Finding the Walls of Troy (1998), though Calvert was the one to identify the walls of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann always denied Calvert’s contribution to his discovery of the Homeric city.
And though Calvert’s “Stargazer” was included in the catalog of his private antiquities collection compiled in 1902, its whereabouts were lost for many decades until John Caskey, Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (School, hereafter), identified it in the School’s archaeological collection, and published it in the American Journal of Archaeology of 1972.
The figurine must have come into the possession of the American School probably in the late 1920s or early 1930s. It was thought that it was likely brought to Athens by Francis Bacon (1856-1940), architect of the excavations at Assos in the Troad, who had married Calvert’s niece, Alice, and maintained close relations with members of the School.
The uncertainty of the times probably led Francis Bacon to the decision to deposit the “Stargazer” at the School. There is evidence that he visited Athens in 1931. We suppose that during this trip he handed the “Stargazer” to then Director of the School, Rhys Carpenter. One year later, in 1932, Richard Stilwell, the new Director, found it on his desk without any indication of how it had got there.
WORDS | Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan
Doreen C. Spitzer Director of Archives
American School of Classical Studies at Athens
IMAGES | American School of Classical Studies at Athens