The centuries have not been kind to ancient artifacts, especially works of art.
Museums across the world are filled with examples of statues and sculptures that are damaged in some way, often missing limbs or showing signs of dilapidation.
However, the Romans deliberately created statues without heads, for a practical reason.
The Romans like to be flexible with their artistic displays.
If you build a sculpture of a popular hero, what happens if the hero becomes unpopular?
The solution is simple: you pop their head off and replace it with whoever the latest social icon or hero is.
This was a cheap way to replace your art.
Headless sculptures are among the most iconic features of Roman art and archaeology.
But rather than being incomplete due to misadventure, some of these sculptures were created with detachable heads.
This is because the Romans, ever the pragmatists, liked to be free with their artwork.
This inbuilt flexibility was particularly important for Roman culture, as the act of
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