why are some ancient sculptures headless?

Answer 1

Because the heads fell off, or were taken off.
The head is connected to the body only by the thin neck, so it's vulnerable to falling off. Especially if the statue was knocked over. Same reason some ancient sculptures don't have arms or legs.
The other reason is that sometimes the heads were taken off. If you had a statue of a king, then the king that reigned after him would sometime take off the head of the statue to show that the previous king does not reign anymore. Or to put his own head on.

Some archaeologists say that the Sphinx in Egypt actually had a different head on it when it was originally built. It probably had the face of the ruling Pharaoh. The Pharaoh that cam after him re-carved the head so that it would show his own face. That's' why the head of the Sphinx is so much smaller than it's body.

Answer 2

To begin with, the original Asian sculptures are heavy and bulky. When local thieves want to steal these sculptures to sell off to foreigners, these thieves usually operate on the hush and in small numbers. So, these thieves 'behead' the sculptures and make off with the heads rather than leave empty handed.

When European explorers or artefact collectors encounter these sacred sculptures, the objects either come in the form of the mere head or the headless bodies. Thus artists try duplicating the sculptures in such forms for subsequent rounds of sale.

Answer 3

Someone else said this too--I remember learning somewhere that they were headless because the head was very hard to sculpture--alot of detail. I imagine doing everything from the head down was hard enough.

Answer 4

It's just further evidence of evolution. Humans didn't develop heads until 200BC so all statues with heads are younger than this. This doesn't mean statues after 200BC all had heads, some were still done in the older classical headless style or were statues of earlier headless people or evolutionary throwbacks..

Answer 5

the head is too much detailed for them that's y they skipped the head for example the Venus of willendorf Germany was almost headless the head was represented by a sphere=first attempt of sculpting a head later on you can see some statues with more elaborated details and stylized eyes.but with times the heads of the statues were sometimes skipped on purpose or broken from the neck (weak point).

Answer 6

I always thought the heads got knocked off by accident sometime through the years. You think they were made headless?...

Answer 7

age and deterioration mainly. and due to conflict between countries. if you are in NYC, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. in the Greek/Roman aream you will see that all the statues of men were "castrated" because after christianity came into play in Greece, the ruling force found those sculptures to be obscene, and had the penises removed. i learned that from my ceramics professor.

Answer 8

When you destroy a statue, it falls over and the head is broken off.

others were decapitated as a sign of anger and hatred towards the ruling class.

Answer 9

They didn't start out headless.....they're old......they're weathered, and they got broken. They're ancient.....just like some of us-----hehehe!

Answer 10

That factor's 5000 years previous. damn. i contemplate whether Noah carved that one. suitable around that factor there could have in elementary terms been approximately 20 human beings in the international. What are the possibilities of looking that, eh? i contemplate whether the ark replaced into suitable around there someplace, too?