The Museum's collection includes many clay and terracotta statues. The terracotta statuettes were popular in ancient times in Greece and its colonies, and varied in size and design. They were found sometimes in religious
temples, in graves and in household sanctuaries, and consequently the statuettes are generally identified as offerings. The ancient Greeks began already to create small clay figurines shaped in the form of human beings and animals in the neolithic age (6,000 – 3,000 B.C.E.). During these early periods the figurines were solid and flat, and almost two-dimensional. One was a body looking like a sheet with two short arms, a neck shaped like a board stretching out straight and upwards from the shoulders. The head is deeper than the body and is stretched behind downwards and ends with a flat hat (polos).
The nose protrudes and the eyes are indicated by small bumps on both sides o the nose (which appears like a pinch in the clay), and the women's appearance actually differed with two protrusions. A more plastic description was sometimes used to decorate the statuette, which was made with bright clay with dark lines.
During the Greek and Roman periods (800 – 400 B.C.E. and shortly after the Christian era began), the nature of the statuettes gradually changed and became much more plastic.
The production in the mixed communities, which had been established around that time and were composed of Greek settlers alongside the native populations whose origins differed, was characterized by the working of terracotta statues. We know for example of the molding techniques of terracotta from casts, which were produced in Sicily at local workshops from the material available nearby, and were also used by additional craftsmen. However, their design was different and new characteristic patterns were created. Their different design and decorations of the elements shown testify to the dialog between religions and cultures that existed among Greeks, Sicilians, Sicanians, Elymians, Phoenicians, And among all the region's population. In general, the statuettes developed and became more three dimensional, their faces fuller and rounder, and a sort of smile spread over their faces.