“Unearthed Secrets: Mysterious Face Emerges from Ancient Libyan Villa Walls, Revealing a Dark Past”
The Plaster Mold Of A Human Face Found At A Villa In Ptolemais
Republic of PolandThe plaster face mold was found during excavations of an ancient house, dubbed the House of Leukaktios, which archaeologists initially uncovered in 2001.
According to Science in Poland, archaeologists from the University of Warsaw recently returned to Libya after a 13-year break in their work. During their excavations in the summer of 2024, the Polish Archaeological Mission to Ptolemais made a number of exciting discoveries — including an “enigmatic” plaster mold of a human face found amid the ruins of an ancient house.
This “surprising find,” molded from hydraulic plaster, was found on the wall of a cistern. Though it clearly depicts a human face, it has few other defining attributes, making it something of a mystery to archaeologists. However, the Polish Archaeological Mission to Ptolemais suspects that it may be a sign that the house where it was found was once owned by Libyans, as opposed to one of the Romans who presided over the area at the time.
“The face discovered in the cistern has a certain similarity to human faces carved on the walls of the Libyan sanctuary in Slonta, south of Cyrene,” explained Piotr Jaworski, the head of the archaeological team. “It cannot be completely ruled out that the owner of the house, or at least the people involved in creating the image, were of Libyan origin.”
Piotr Jaworski/University of WarsawArchaeologists excavating the house in the ancient city of Ptolemais.
Jaworski continued: “Thanks to epigraphic sources, we know that at least from the 1st century B.C.E., the citizenship of the Greek cities of Cyrenaica was also granted to the quickly assimilating representatives of the Libyan elites. However, this is only speculation for now.”
Post Comment