Greek Bone Dancer Figurine with Articulated Limbs, 3rd Century BC
The oldest preserved example of a Greek articulated figurine made of bone.
The popularity and significance of the kalathiskos dancer in the ancient world is evident in this small articulated figurine made of bone. It represents a young girl with a small kalathos (headdress) on her head; she wears a short pleated skirt and seems to be nude to the waist. We encounter this type of dress in a number of terracotta figurines beginning in the late fourth century BC.
Very small and extremely fragile, this figurine certainly could not have been a toy, but rather an amulet or charm of some sort. It comes from a tomb at Tarentum that is dated to the third century BC by the other objects found with it. This particular figurine is very important because it seems to be the oldest example of its kind.
Representations of these dancers in different types of media were widespread in the ancient world and they may have been linked with a fertility cult, the goddess Demeter or possibly a marriage ritual.