Imports and imitations? Some observations on Archaic kouroi discovered in the Black Sea region

This paper deals with fragments of Archaic Greek sculpture discovered in archaeological contexts in the Bosporus and Black Sea regions. Its aim is to provide a brief overview over the disparately published material as well as to discuss the problems of assigning cultural influences on sculptural works and possible biases within the discussion of the provenance of sculpture. These biases stem mostly from ancient written sources often long postdating the phenomenon known as the 'Great Greek Colonisation' and which usually suggest a strong connection between apoikiai and their respective metropolises. Very often, attributions to cultural 'styles' as well as certain dates are a consequence of stylistic analyses. These problems are going to be illustrated on the basis of a few selected examples of statues of kouroi discovered in the Propontis and Black Sea regions. Further on, both possibilities and problems/limitations of scientific provenance analyses of ancient marbles are brought to discussion.