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Description: | A small cast, copper-alloy figurine of a ram dating to the second or third century AD. The head is conical in shape with integrally cast ribs representing the ears and curling horns. There are two indentations for the eyes, which may originally have been filled with glass insets. A groove and dot represent the mouth and nose. The body of the ram is simply rendered with its surface appearing slightly stippled, perhaps an intentional effect intended to represent wool. The genitalia of the ram are integrally cast. The legs are also simply rendered. The front right leg of the ram is slightly bent and forward of the front left leg, suggesting movement, whilst with the back right leg is also similarly positioned. The hooves of the ram are picked out as single grooves. The tail is hemispherical in section, long and reaches the hocks of the ram. The figurine measures 47mm in length, a maximum of 12mm in width, 34mm in height and weighs 45g.
As an attribute of the god Mercury, rams are fairly common as figurines from Roman Britain. A similar example is known from the excavations at Caerleon (Fox 1993, 112). It is possible that this figurine was originally mounted as a group alongside Mercury and his other attributes, the cockerel and the tortoise, like the example from St Albans' King Harry's Lane excavation (Green 1976, 207). It is therefore interesting that a small copper-alloy tortoise (FAPJW-??????) is also present amongst the finds in the Piercebridge deposit. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | 100
300 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Philippa Walton | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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