The Knucklebone Player at The British Museum, London

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The young woman playing knucklebones proudly wears a crown on her head, a flowing chiton that has slipped down her shoulder, and a beautifully draped himation at the back, its folds meticulously crafted. As is evident from numerous similar figurines, she must have been tossing the knucklebones onto the ground with her right hand, which has since vanished, while grasping the phormiskos containing them in her left hand. This distinctive pose of the kneeling woman was initially mistaken for that of a woman picking flowers, but this piece provides compelling evidence of an evolution compared to early examples from vase-making workshops. The back of the statuette, carefully worked, reveals that artisans had fully mastered the use of bivalve molds. Modeled in three dimensions, the figurine has lost the stiff, frontal pose characteristic of earliest works from the mid-4th century BC.