Athens – National Archaeological Museum (Doves)

I thought initially that these were pigeons, which struck me as a strange thing to make a figurine of. They’ve actually doves, not that there’s much difference between them and pigeons, and they were found in the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Daphni and they date to the fourth century BC.

As another of my little asides, near to where these were found, and also in Daphni, is a monastery on the outskirts of Athens which was built on the former site of the sanctuary of Apollo. Some of the remains were taken by Lord Elgin and sold to the British Museum where they are still located today. However, the British Museum doesn’t display them, so it’s questionable to me why they’re holding them, surely a provincial museum somewhere would be better to have them where they could be seen. Having said that, the British Museum apparently don’t display 99% of their items, so this isn’t an unusual situation and perhaps it really is the case that no museum wants them on a long-term loan.