Archaeologists have uncovered a female statue dating back to the Roman period in the Hellenistic city of ancient Blaundos in western Turkey.

The statue, standing at 1.90 meters tall, is missing its head and arms. It is believed to be approximately 2,000 years old and was discovered during excavations that have been ongoing since 2018 near the Temple of Demeter in the Ulubey region, south of the modern city of Uşak.

Once it has been properly restored, the statue is expected to be displayed in the Uşak Archaeological Museum in about 5-6 months, according to Sabri Ceylan, the director of the local branch of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, speaking to Anadolu Agency.

Ancient Blaundos, known as Mlaundos when Macedonian soldiers of the Seleucid Empire settled there, is located about 40 kilometers south of Uşak and 200 kilometers east of Izmir. While many of the larger inland cities of Asia Minor, such as Sardis and Hierapolis, have been extensively excavated, smaller cities like Blaundos, which remains relatively well-preserved, are still largely unexplored. Blaundos was inhabited from the Hellenistic period through to the Byzantine era, and it appears to have been abandoned during the Middle Ages.