The very short hair and the broken cartillage of the ears indicate that this head belonged to either a statue of Herakles or a victorious athlete. The Romans often created decorative works by carving the heads of well-known Greek statues on busts or on rectangular herms. The surface of this piece has been severly cleaned and the back may have been re-cut in modern times.

  A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, and a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual. These may be of any medium used for sculpture, such as marble, bronze, terracotta or wood. A parallel term, aust, is a representation of the upper part of an animal or mythical creature.

Sculptural portrait heads from classical antiquity are sometimes displayed as busts. However, these are often fragments from full-body statues, or were created to be inserted into an existing body.