A colossal marble head of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius has been discovered lying face down in rubble filling a bath house in the ancient city of Sagalassos in Turkey.
Sagalassos, situated in the mountains of south-central Turkey, was once a thriving urban centre. But devastating earthquakes in the 6th and 7th centuries forced the site to be abandoned.
Marcus Aurelius spent much of his reign, from 161AD-180AD, fighting Germanic tribes along the Danube. But he is also remembered as one of the foremost Stoic philosophers.
Project leader Professor Marc Waelkens stands by the lower legs of the Marcus Aurelius statue, giving an idea of the sculpture's colossal scale.
The emperor wore exquisitely carved army boots covered with a lion skin and decorated with tendrils and shields.
The 1.5m-long (5ft-long) right arm and hand is cupping a broken globe, which was probably once crowned by a gilded bronze "Victory" figure.
In 2007, a statue of the emperor Hadrian was also found in the bath house. Archaeologists think statues of three emperors, along with their wives, adorned niches in the room.
The marble head of Faustina the Elder - wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius - was found in August 2008. All images courtesy of Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project.
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