Archaeologia Bulgarica XVIII, 2 (2014), 53-62 A New Marble Statue of the Three Graces from Ravna (Timacum Minus) 1 Nadežda GAVRILOVIĆ / Slobodan DRČA Keywords: Three Graces, statues, Ravna, iconography, Antonio Canova A marble statue of the three Graces “was found in 1932, during the archaeological excavations in the locality of Ravna (Timacum Minus), at the depth of 1.20m” 2 . This statue’s history from 1932 to 1959 is not known. Although photographic negatives confirm that it was a part of the permanent display of the antique collection in the National Museum in Niš (eastern Serbia), the statue was recorded as missing during the revision of the collection’s artefacts in 1959. At that time, it was determined that the statue is missing, and it was considered lost until its accidental rediscovery in 2010 in Mediana 3 . The discovery of the statue and its description Alongside very important architectural and archaeological finds (as triclinium B, mosaic with geometric and floral ornaments, vast trac- es of fresco-painting etc.), this marble statue of the three Graces was rediscovered during the systematic archaeological excavations of the villa with a peristyle in Mediana in 2010. The figural group was found during the review of ceramic material from previous archaeological campaigns among fragments of ceramics from the excavations of the 1960s 4 . The examination of the statue confirmed the presence of its Niš inventory number (inv. #41), written behind of the right knee of the leftmost Gratia. This discovery quickly led to the unravelling of, to put it mildly, the extraordinary journey of the statue. As suggested above, very little is known about the three Graces statue from Ravna. In the analysis that follows, we determine the iconographic, chronological, and stylistic characteristics of the statue, and we also try to establish its possible context based on connections between the three Graces and deities Zeus/Jupiter and/or Aphrodite/ Venus, statues of whom were also found in Ravna. The three Graces statue is of white marble and presents three nude female figures (fig. 1, 2), shown frontally (dimensions 12 x 13 cm) 5 . The group is preserved in a fragmented state, and the heads and lower parts of goddesses’ legs are missing. The three Graces are shown in mutual embrace: the Grace in the centre hugs the goddess on the left with her left arm, and rests her right hand on the right shoulder of the Grace on her right. The left arm of the left goddess is bent at the elbow and laid above the chest of the central figure, while her right hand was probably laid on the back the middle Grace. The right arm of the rightmost Grace is also bent at the elbow and rests on the left shoulder 1 This paper is the result of au- thor's work on a project of Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia, ti- tled “Romanisation, Urbanisation and Transformation of Urban centres of civil, military and residential character in Roman provinces in the territory of Serbia” (evidentiary #177097). 2 The information was found in the in- ventory books of the antique collection of National Museum in Niš; the author was Aleksandar Nenadović, the curator and, later, director of National Museum of Niš. 3 In the inventory book of the antique collection of National Museum in Niš from 1959, it is stated that “the statue is missing,” but how the statue disappeared (and how it ended up among ceramic material in Mediana) are questions that remain unanswered. 4 We would like to take this opportu- nity to express our thanks to senior cura- tor from National Museum in Niš, Vesna Crnoglavac, who was not only present during the discovery of the Three Graces statue, but was also involved with most dedication and patience, in acquiring in- formation about the statue, and who is, further, the author of the photos of the statue presented in this paper. 5 The dimensions of the Ravna statu- ary group are: height (from the neck of the Grace in the centre to the left leg of the Grace on the right side) 13 cm; width (from the left to the right Grace) 12 cm.