 Tanagra figures had not been much noted before the end of the 1860s, when ploughmen of Vratsi in Boeotia, Greece, began to uncover tombs ranging in date over many centuries.The main finds especially from the 4th and 3rd centuries BC were secured in 1874.Inside and outside the tombs of the Hellenistic period—3rd to 1st centuries BC—were many small terracotta figures.