Description: Romano British copper alloy statuette of Mars. The deity is standing with an outstretched right arm, the left being broken a little above the elbow. The right hand would originally most likely have held a spear. He wears a cuirass (with two rows of scale pteruges below) over a knee-length tunic and a large, high-crested helmet. The straight right leg is broken just above the ankle, the left is complete and bent slightly backwards. The modelling of the figure is of reasonable quality; the legs are somewhat crude but the torso and the details of cuirass and drapery are better. There is heavy accretion to the upper part of the statuette which obscures the appearance of, for example, the face and right arm and hand. This is a large statuette for its type and the weight in hand suggests a highly leaded copper alloy as indeed does the colour of the metal on a scuffed area on the figurine.s backside. The quality of the piece, of competent though not excellent workmanship, suggests an insular, Romano-British workshop (PAS).
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Image: Courtesy of Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.