This small marble harp player is in many ways a mystery. He is similar to other figures discovered in the Cycladic Islands, a circle of islands near Greece, about 4,500 years ago. Most were found in cemeteries, and some came from what may be religious structures. Few houses have been excavated, so we don't know if the figures were used at home. We don’t know what the ancient people living there called their islands, because their writing has not been discovered. Archaeologists must interpret Cycladic culture by studying their buildings, artifacts, and art. We don’t even know whether the sculptures show humans or gods.  

Most of the sculptures are flat figures of women, but some men are represented, including warriors and musicians. Only about a dozen sculptures of harpists are known, as well as some men playing reed instruments, such as pipes. All the figures have simple, elegant shapes.

The abstract qualities of Cycladic sculpture and their apparent white simplicity (due to faded colors) strongly influenced modern artists (such as Picasso and Modigliani) in the 1900s. This led to greater interest in Cycladic art. Although that might sound like good news, unfortunately, archaeological sites were looted, and much information was lost.

The harpists sit on stools or chairs. They rest the bottom of the harp, or its sound box, on one thigh. Some musicians seem to play or sing. This harpist is not playing, since he rests his right arm along the sound box. His left hand stretches forward and holds the frame of the harp. Since his head is tilted up slightly, some people think he may be singing. This sculpture might be one of the earliest images of a bard, a musician with a stringed instrument, singing or chanting a story.

Many years after this figure was carved, the bards described in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey told tales of exciting adventures, describing heroes’ courage and honorable behavior. Bards sang of victories in competition and combat. They described heroes’ encounters with monstrous beings.

Proportions and shapes repeated within and across figures show that many Cycladic sculptures were measured with a compass. The completed sculptures were carefully smoothed and polished. An artisan’s tools included emery, pumice, and obsidian for chipping, grinding, smoothing, and incising. On some figures, surviving paint shows facial features, hair, jewelry, and patterns. The pigments are mineral-based and include red, blue, green, and black. Because the paint is fragile, though, mostly it has faded away. The stone surfaces with and without color have also become worn over the centuries.

Luckily, evidence of pigment has survived on the figures in two ways. First, some color slightly penetrated the stone and is still visible even if the surface is worn. Second, some thickly painted areas were especially protected. Even once the color did finally wear off, the once-painted areas were less worn than unpainted areas. Upon close looking, those areas remain raised slightly higher than the unpainted stone. The raised areas that were once painted are sometimes called paint “ghosts.”