The Lefkandi Centaur is a prime example of ancient clay working in Greece and has been of recent interest to me to try and reconstruct the figurine to have a better understanding of how it was constructed in antiquity and the necessary methods used by ancient craftsmen. The Lefkandi, or also known as the Euboea Centaur was discovered in the year 1969 by the British School at Athens and was excavated in a cemetery known as Toumba in Lefkandi, Euboea. The original clay statuette is 36 centimeters (14.2 inches) tall and 26 centimeters (10.2 inches) long and is the largest terracotta figurine and earliest of a centaur discovered in the region of the Aegean (Fig. 1).
The method that we wanted to attempt while constructing the hollow cylinder for the centaur is a slabbed sheet of clay that we then roll over a paper mold, and the paper mold would allow the equine body to solidify without collapsing on itself (Fig. 2&3). With the horses’ body complete, it was time to sculpt the human body and head and put it all together (Fig. 4). The centaur was completely built and loaded into the kiln, and this is where we experienced catastrophic failure during the firing process (Fig. 5-7). Though we lost the statuette replica during the firing process we learned so much regarding the size, and time ratio needed to hav a successful firing. We are currently rebuilding the failed project, so that our efforts are not in vain (Fig. 8). The purpose of this project was not only to better understand how this kind of statuette was created in antiquity, but to also provide the University of Arizona with a viable specimen for later study and research interest for students.
All photos by Dillon Scott Britten
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Fig. 1. The Lefkandi Centaur and dimensions.
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Fig. 2. Slab rolled onto newspaper mold. |
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| Fig. 3. Dillon Scott Britten and Cynthia Jones patting the clay to form hind legs of centaur | Fig. 4. Sculpting the human body and head |
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| Fig. 5. Eleni Hasaki and Noah Simmons pictured with the completed centaur | Fig. 6.Centaur loaded into the kiln |
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| Fig. 7. Broken centaur. | Fig. 8. Centaur rebuild project |