When old statues and busts are discovered, how do the archaeologists and historians know who they are?
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There might be a plaque near it that just *says* who it’s depicting.
There might be other already-known depictions of the same person.
There might be records of someone creating a statue of Soandso in a specific place at a specific time, which all match the statue you just found.
a lot of “context clues” of secondary sources are used. where was the statue found; who used to own the place where it was found; how old is it? who do we know about that would have been revered or had status enough to create the statue of in the first place.
Very often, they don’t. There is no lack of “anonymous” statues.
Statues of Gods or mythical heroes are pretty convenient, because such characters almost always have a “tell”. Some attribute that is systematically associated with them.
If a Greek statue shows:
_ A dude with an eagle -> probably Zeus. Becomes certain if there is also a thunderbolt hidden somewhere
_ A trident -> Poseidon
_ A lion skin -> Heracles
_ A woman with some wheat -> Demeter. Could also just be some peasant, but then context should help make the difference between a Goddess and a commoner.
And so on. Some like Hermes’ Caduceus are particularly famous. But almost all major mythological characters have their own attributes to help distinguish them.
And it’s not just Greek Gods. That works for a lot of civilizations. If you find a statue of a guy with an eagle in a church, you can bet that’s Saint John.
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