Archaeologists in the Croatian port city of Pula publicly presented a marble sculpture of a sleeping Cupid, calling it “a real little miracle among European finds” during a conference at the Archaeological Museum of Istria.
The work surfaced only weeks ago when Aleksandra Paić’s team excavated a Roman domus about three meters below Castropola Street. “We literally woke him from his two-thousand-year sleep. The feeling was incredible; it happens once in a lifetime,” said Paić, according to Jutarnji List.
The statue, broken into two pieces in antiquity, measures roughly 98 by 44 by 30 centimeters. It depicts Cupid, or Eros, lying on a lion’s skin with a small lizard at his side—a motif documented in only about twenty other European examples. Experts believe the figure once decorated a lavishly appointed room that featured mosaics, marble wall cladding, and painted surfaces.
Silvana Petešić, head of the museum’s ancient collection, noted that sculptors used fine-grained white marble of still-unknown origin. “Our Eros lies on a lion’s skin, with his head resting on a lion’s head, and is made with exceptional precision,” said Petešić, according to Blic. She added that roughly 180 similar images are known across Europe, but few are as complete. Such figures often appeared in Roman homes or on children’s tombstones, where they symbolized eternal sleep and the renewal of life.
Darko Komšo, director of the Archaeological Museum of Istria, praised the craftsmanship, calling the find “a masterpiece of ancient art, probably among the three most important sculptures we have in our collections,” according to 24 Sata. He said the discovery underscores the wealth and culture of ancient Pula, a city that “has an unbroken continuity of life longer than 2,300 years.”
The 1,200-square-meter parcel, once a private parking lot, belongs to Kaštel centar, which plans to build a boutique hotel. “We are glad that such a valuable find was discovered right on our construction site,” said investor representative Aleksandar Knežević, according to Jutarnji List. He added that although archaeology can slow development, the company supports professional preservation of heritage.
Excavation of two adjoining ancient buildings has yielded abundant marble fragments, and Paić expects further discoveries that will clarify the domus’s function and the Cupid’s original setting. Conservators have begun joining the statue’s fragments and will use laser cleaning before adding the piece to the museum’s permanent exhibition. “This discovery surpasses all previous finds in the area,” said Komšo, according to Jutarnji List.
Assisted by a news-analysis system.