He sculpture of the archaic greek style is evidently influenced by ancient egypt as the commerce between the two countries was flourishing during this period the sculptor worked almost exclusively with point chisels punches and stone abrasives to create the statues and this technique did not allow for much flexibility in regards to the pose or surface qualities. The greeks of south italy and sicily naturally accepted the archaic style of sculpture in the main following the lead of european greece though often belatedly this backwardness was certainly not due to poverty or inertia and the chief reason may have been remoteness from supplies of marble so that the local workshops had to make do much longer with the inferior medium of limestone. In ancient greece sculpture underwent a profound development in style over the course of several centuries in what came to be known as the archaic classical and hellenistic periods the. Bs ridgway the archaic style in greek sculpture princeton university press 1977 1978 pp xix 336 69 illus gbp2980 volume 99 r m cook