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Description: | Cast copper alloy Roman dolphin mount. The dolphin is cast so that it is resting on the flattened underside of its body. The trunk of its tail then curves round and rises vertically at an angle of approximately 90 degrees, with its flukes then set horizontally at 90 degrees to the tail. The head of the dolphin is simply rendered with two parallel V sectioned grooves running horizontally around the front end of the mount, giving the illusion of a brow and the snub nose with open mouth. There is no rendition of eyes or the dorsal and ventral fins and the mount is otherwise completely plain. The original surface is almost completely missing and only a tiny patch survives with a dark green patina, otherwise the exposed surface is a light green. The mount is 21.6mm long, 10.5mm wide and 25.5mm high to the flukes. It weighs 16.96g. It is possible that the mount was soldered to another object at the flat underside, or that the tail flukes supported another object, making the object less of a mount and more of a decorative foot. An exact parallel could not be found, but the Dolphin is clearly a favoured Roman motif as the Romans admired the friendliness of dolphins towards humans (Toynbee1973, Animals in Roman art and life, Thames and Hudson, page 206). | Subjects: | Zoomorphic (Dolphin) | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | McDonald, Caroline - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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