This is the Apollo of Pinedo, an Ancient Roman bronze statue that was found by a group of scuba divers in the Pinedo beach in the city of València in the year 1963. Nowadays, the statue can be seen in the Prehistory Museum of València.
How do we know it's Apollo, if he's not represented with any of his usual attributes such as the lyre?
Because it was very common in Ancient Rome to make bronze copies of Ancient Greek statues, and this one has been identified as a copy of the 2nd century BC Apollo statue by the Greek artist Demetrius of Miletus.
This copy is most likely to have been made in the 1st or 2nd century AD, matching emperor Augustus' impulse to the cult of Apollo, and the same time period where Roman statues and wall paintings that have been found in different parts of the Mediterranean portraying Apollo in the same position.
And why was it underwater in the sea?
With the Roman expansion throughout the Mediterranean, it became common for Roman ships to move Greek and Roman statues by ship. This statue is believed to have been transported by a ship that suffered a shipwreck. The Roman archaeological sites in the Valencian Country have shown that there was a clientele who enjoyed imported works of art.
When the statue was found by the scuba divers, it didn't have the right leg. The fracture showed that it was broken a long time ago, maybe at the time of the shipwreck. But some months later, after a big sea storm that moved the sediments under the sea, the leg was found.
We can't know much more because this statue was taken out of its archaeological context and because archaeological research has not been allowed. This area of the coast is very polluted, with industrial waste being poured on it, so it is forbidden to swim in it because of the danger it would pose to a human's health. If archaeological research was able to happen with proper methodology, it would likely be able to tell a more precise date when the ship sunk and maybe what route it was following. But we will have to wait until the sea is less polluted or until we have technology that makes it safe.
Per saber-ne més en valencià, recomano aquest vídeo de TikTok del compte Calaix de la Història.
Photo by Joanbanjo on Wikipedia Commons. Info from the book L'Apol·lo de Pinedo available in PDF from Prehistory Museum of València.
