Experts could not agree on the authenticity of this sandstone statue. One claimed that the sculpture was not carved from sandstone but from ordinary cement; another group of experts said that the head did not belong to the body and that the statue was an assembly of mismatched parts.

The radiological study shows :

• the succession of strata in the rock parallel to the statue’s back and varying density characteristic of sedimentary rock such as sandstone;

• a double break in the neck and thoracic-abdominal region;

• the breaks mended by means of metal rods cemented in drill holes;

• missing fragments of sandstone filled with a low density material;

• and finally, the injection of a liquid high density resin into the cracks while the figure was still in three parts (see the blue arrows).

So it proved firstly that the statue is not made of cement, because the layering pattern is characteristic of sandstone with inclusions of iron oxide nodules, and secondly, that the head belongs to the body as the layers in the head follow the same tracks as in the body.