On the evening of January 18, a 32-year-old Greek man went to the police with an unusual object he said he found in a plastic bag among trash cans near the northern city of Thessaloniki.

It was a headless and armless statue depicting a female form in flowing, draped clothing.

Police he announced on Wednesday that the statue is believed to originate from the Hellenistic period, after the death of Alexander the Great, from 323 BC. Kr. until about 31 BC.

The discovery prompted an investigation among Greece’s crime, trade, antiquities and heritage units into its origins and how it could have ended up in the trash.

The discovery of ancient artifacts in surprising places is not uncommon in a country as rich in history and archeology as Greece. Relics are often unearthed during construction projects, such as those for preparation 2004 Olympic Games and excavations of the subway system.

“This is not the first time” that civilians have handed statues to police stations, Vasilis Tempelis, a spokesman for the culture ministry, said in an email on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Culture has completed a preliminary examination of the statue and concluded that it falls under Greek laws protecting antiquities, police said. A three-member committee will try to determine its composition and date.

AP said statue is about 31 inches tall.

Ph.D. Bert Smithprofessor of classical archeology at Oxford University and Bilkent University in Turkey, said the statue appeared to be a small figure of a goddess.

“The small size is typical of such marble votives placed to deities in shrines or temples,” he said in an email, basing his observations on official photos of the statue.

“People prayed to the deities and gave them dedications as a sign of gratitude for their favor,” said Dr. Smith. “Small statue figures, like this one, would be an expensive dedication by a private person.”

The figure’s clothing, which shows a heavy woolen one-piece garment, is called a peplos by archaeologists, and was the usual clothing of deities. But the hands and head of the statue were lost in the past.

“The hands could tell us what the character was doing and what attributes he might have been wearing,” he said. And the head? “In the long later history of the figure it was knocked down by the hands.”