I have long found fragments of ancient artifacts to be fascinating - like a piece of a missing jigsaw puzzle. Here we have a brilliantly colored fragment of a faience statuette of the goddess Venus, rising from the sea, wringing out her hair (Aphrodite-Venus Anadyomene). #MetMuseum 🏺 1/
📸 me
![One of two bronze Archaic Cretan helmets at the Met Museum, the finest pieces of a large cache of armor that came to light in southern central Crete, where they were undoubtedly made. It has a beautiful patina of bright greens and rich, deep orange-reds. The inscriptions suggest that the armor was captured as booty and offered as a dedication. This helmet depicts two long-legged horses worked in repoussé with incised details (one on each side). Small engraved lions appear on the cheekpieces. An inscription on the helmet states that “Synenitos the son of Euklotas [took this].”
Greek, Cretan, late 7th century BCE (Archaic). Said to be from Afrati, Crete.
Height: 9 5/8 in. (24.5 cm)
Met Museum, New York (1989.281.49)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4gvknr7shvnikz4ymbtf7wye/bafkreibyu7ase4654wc5jv3gwetj7dnx5vkv3u75mzv5h6smzw2oz6z3zy)
![Silver and gilt pyxis (box with lid), part of a group of three items known as the Bolsena silver. The bands of ornament on the box and alternate leaves on the pointed lid have gilding. The inscription written on the side of the cylindrical box in Etruscan must have been added subsequently. It reads śuthina, meaning "of [for] the tomb" suggesting that the objects were acquired by an Etruscan and buried with him.
The pyxis itself was originally manufactured as a luxury item in Apulia (southern Italy), likely in a Greek workshop. Marking an item as śuthina served a religious function in Etruscan burial practices. It legally and spiritually designated the luxury object as property of the deceased and the underworld deities. Once marked "for the tomb," the item was consecrated and could never be reused or stolen for the world of the living.
Height: with cover 3 5/16 in. (8.4 cm)
Apulian, possibly Tarentine, early 3rd c. BCE, Met Museum (03.24.6)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4gvknr7shvnikz4ymbtf7wye/bafkreiexikki45tndpnkqzmuho7upuipfuz2tpsaisahsflgje2etyc4ue)
