The section of a fluted Ionic column in the center of this room stood over fifty-eight feet high in its original location at the Temple of Artemis. The delicate foliate carving on the capital is unique among extant capitals from the temple, and the torus (foliated base), with its vegetal scale-like pattern, is also exceptionally elaborate. This capital is slightly smaller than others found at the site, indicating that it does not belong to the outer colonnade. Two similar pairs of columns (marked in red on the plan shown nearby) stood in the east and west porches. The column, displayed here with most of the shaft omitted, was probably originally from one or more of those pairs. Alternatively, it may be from the cella (inner room) or from the inner back porch. Parts of the fluted shaft are restored, and the profiled base below the torus is a copy of the original.

From Sardis (Butler 1925, p. 65).

Butler, H.C. 1922. The Excavations, 1910-1914. In Publications of the American Society of the Excavation of Sardis, edited by W.H. Buckler and C.N. Read. Leiden: Brill, vol. 1, pt. 1, pp. 52-3, ill. p. 46.

Butler, H.C. 1925. Sardis. Vol. 2, pt. 1, Architecture: The Temple of Artemis. Leiden: Brill, p. 65, figs. 73-76, pls. B, C, Atlas pls. VIII-XI.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1926. "The Classical Collection: Rearrangement and Important Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 21(4), pt. II: pp. 7, 10-11, fig. 1.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 321ff., fig. 224.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1933. "The Department of Classical Art: Extension and Rearrangement." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 28(2): p. 32.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1934. A Guide to the Collections. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 44.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1939. A Guide to the Collections. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 47, illus.

Richter, G.M.A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 109, n. 30.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3: pp. 91-92, fig. 36.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 55, pp. 74-75.

Picón, Carlos A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 208, pp. 181, 446.