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Description: | A copper alloy figurine of a bull with three horns. The bull's legs are truncated and appear never to have been present. The angle of the rear left leg suggests that the bull was modelled in a seated position and that the legs were not further defined. The body is almost rectangular in profile at the rear end, narrowing at the thick neck to the head. The tail is oval in section and tapers at the tip. It is separated from the body and hangs downwards. The bull's face appears featureless. The face widens to the branching, upward curving horns at each side. A third horn in the centre of the head is wider (oval in section) and curves forwards. It may be broken at the top. The side horns have slightly knobbed terminals.
This figurine is likely to have had a votive purpose. The knobbed horns indicate the influence of Iron Age art styles (Green 1977, 311) and the presence of three horns may have had particular religious significance. Other three-horned bulls have been found in Britain and northern Gaul, for example a figurine from the later Roman temple at Maiden Castle (Wheeler 1943, Plate XXXI), a mount from Cookham now in Reading Museum (Read, Henig and Cram 1986) and a pipeclay figurine from a child's grave in Colchester (Green ibid. 317 plate 12.X.b). A similar figurine has been recorded by the PAS in Suffolk (SF-DCB627). | Subjects: | Three-horned bull | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Ghey, Eleanor - British Museum | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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FIGURINE
Cast copper-alloy figurine, now rather…
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