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Description: | A cast copper alloy Roman bird mount, probably an eagle, possibly a raven or crow. The style of the eagle is quite stylised and is stood upright, with its wings folded in and legs slightly splayed forward. The back of the bird forms an oval platform with fine cross-hatching in a central panel, and fine grooves continue on the side of the neck. The head is moulded and has a thick hooked beak and the eyes are slightly bulbous. The underside of the bird is hollow and has traces of iron forming a circular platform. The surface of the mount has an incomplete and slightly pitted heavy dark grey/green patina. It measures 35.13mm long from the beak and to the lower tail, 15.47mm wide from foot to foot, 29.82mm from the foot to the top of the head and weighs 21.4g.Sally Worrell (PAS Finds Advisor) suggests the object may be a staff terminal, and the traces of iron on the base makes this a more probable identification than a furniture fitting which may be soldered on to furniture or vessel. The object is of Roman date.The PAS database has an almost indentical object from Chieveley, Berkshire (BERK-291567). Other objects which represent eagles or birds on the database include NCL-23BB33, NARC-BE3893, WMID-06C406, BERK-3D4CE1, NMS-F46436, LIN-383C86, HAMP-3E0708 and GLO-25D251. Other eagle figurines are illustrated in Green (Green, M. 1976 A Corpus of Religious Material from the Civilian Areas of Roman Britain B.A.R. No. 24) Plate VIII Nos. k and l.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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