LATE ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 475 B.C.

Depicted here is a standing nude warrior, his torso and right leg shown frontally but with his relaxed left leg turned out, his head in profile to the left. He holds a spear in his raised left hand and an oval shield over his right shoulder, and wears a crested Corinthian helmet high on his head. A mantle is draped over his left shoulder and cascades down below his arm. As with most devices on Archaic gems, the figure was originally framed by a hatched border, here only preserved below his feet. The style is late Archaic but bordering on the early Classical, the body modeling similar to the palaestra scenes in relief on a marble base found in the Kerameikos (see N. Kaltsas, Sculpture in the National Archeological Museum, Athens, no. 95). For other gems of similar style see nos. 259-265 in Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems.