The so-called "torso of the Stagnone", a calcarenite torso belonging to a male statue, was discovered on July 13, 1933 in the waters of the Stagnone Lagoon of Marsala (Trapani). The discoverv was entirely accidental. As told by Paolino Mingazzini, the Superintendent of western Sicily and first editor of the work, "when repairing the rudimentary wooden jetty in the Contrada Spagnola from which boats departed to cross the Stagnone Lagoon and arrive on the island of Mozia, some workers noticed a boulder in the shallows that could damage their boats a few meters from the pier. Deciding to remove it, they tried to make holes using an iron poker intending to reduce it into more manageable pieces, but stopped when they realized that they were dealing with a statue, and indeed proceeded to drag the statue onto dry land.
After a few months in the Marsala Town Hall, the torso reached the National Museum of Palermo The Giornale di Sicilia of July 23, 1933 immediately reported the news of the discovery: "As we have announced in recent days, the torso of an athlete has been found by some fishermen in the sea area that runs along the Contrada Spagnola, along the Stagnone Lagoon Canal..
The torso belongs to a statue which was originally more than 2 meters tall (2.3 - 2.4m); the figure, with a bare chest, wears an Egyptian type skirt (shenti) created with engraved vertical folds supported at the waist with a belt. The right arm is extended along the side, while the closed fist holds a roll; three deep furrows indicate the fingers.
The anatomy of the chest is made with a few strokes; the shoulders are broad and strong. The left leg is brought forward, as indicated by the progress of the folds of the skirt, slightly wavy in the rear.
The statue, albeit made locally - as evidenced by the local calcarenite - proposes an iconographic scheme of Egyptian type, already known through other types of artifacts (full-relief statues, ivories, bronze statuettes) and, due to its stylistic features, is part of the panorama of Phoenician-Cypriot art from the archaic period (6 century BC.).
The original site of the statue's placement is not confirmed, although some discoveries of architectural elements in the waters of the Stagnone allow us to hypothesize the existence of a sort of Egyptian type little temple (naos) within which the sculpture, perhaps depicting a deity, was probably placed.