Colossal marble head emerges at Trajan’s Forum

A colossal marble head has been discovered under the Forum of Trajan in Rome. The head depicts an adult male with a thick head of wavy hair and a concentrated expression.

It was unearthed in an excavation of the Via Alessandrina on the southern end of the Imperial For a the spot where the Porticus Trisigmentata, a monumental colonnade with three aisles and marble columns 40 feet high, once stood. The Porticus just north of the Basilica Ulpia was the imposing opening of Trajan’s Forum, built by Apollodorus of Damascus between 107 and 112 A.D. It housed statues, reliefs and trophies captured in battle.

The head may have been part of a colossal statue in the Porticus, but it was not discovered in its original location. It was part of a medieval layer of brick and lime mortar. It had been reused as building material in the construction of a foundation centuries later.

The face has not been identified yet, but archaeologists hypothesize that it may be a depiction of the god of wine Dionysus. A similar head with attributes of the god (ivy leaves and flower clusters) was found at the site years ago. Another possibility is that it is an imperial figure, perhaps Trajan or one of his successors. The fine carving, the intensity of the facial expression, massive size and high quality of the marble marks as official imperial statuary. It has features in common with formal portraiture of Trajan — the proportions of the face, the bone structure, the upward-slanting eyes, the wavy hair — from the central years of his rule between 105 and 115 A.D., overlapping the period when the forum was built.

The sculpture will be studied and conserved in the coming months. Petrographic analysis may answer some questions about its origin. When the study is complete, the head will go on display in the Museums of the Imperial Forums.

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