ID | 47 |
---|---|
Images | No image in database |
Grid Ref | SP9685 |
Project type | Metal detector |
County | Northamptonshire |
Site | Brigstock |
Site Type | Religious |
Location Type | Unknown |
Context | Unknown |
Context Quality | 1 |
Site Date | Mid C3-4 |
Object Period | 0 |
Material | Bronze |
Import | No |
Place of manufacture | Local |
Ref No | NARC-81AAB5 |
Form | Figurine |
Type | Animal |
Name | Horse |
Bearded | No |
Standing/Seated | Standing |
Clothed | No |
Drapery | No |
Condition | Horse only, missing right front leg and lower rear legs |
Classical | 0 |
Quality | Stylised 2 |
Photo | No |
Illustration | Yes |
Height | 80.00 |
Length | 91.00 |
References | Dix 1986, 126-7, fig 1 [Link to Bibliography] |
Description | Statuette of a horse which can be reconstructed as originally having stood some 80mm high to the tope of the mane. The body swells to 24mm across at its widest point and is 91mm long between the tip of the snout and the surviving end of the tail. Modern abrasive cleaning has removed most of the dark green patina which covered the object when it was found, although it is unlikely that any significant surface details has been lost. A hole recently drilled into the underside of the belly to provide a means of mounting for display has revealed that the object was originally cast around a solid core which remains in place. The iron chaplets by which this was formerly suspended in the mould are preserved at the front and rear of the casting, where they have been filed down to the level of the surrounding metal. While the horse is not as naturalistically rendered as other similar objects reported from the site, it is no less vigorously characterized. The slender head, only 7mm. wide and proportionally smaller than the rest of the body, is held naturally and twisted slightly to the right. It terminates in a pronounced snout and is featureless apart from a slight know which projects at the middle of the forehead; pointed ears extend backwards at either side. The broad mane drops almost vertically onto the back of the horse behind its long, thick neck and the simple delineation of its features is more pronounced on the right side. The plain back is fairly straight and is not even slightly depressed, as might be expected if the horse had originally been designed to carry a rider. The tail rises above the rump before falling and is bent towards the end, which may, however, be incomplete; it is scored by a series of transverse grooves. All the legs except for that of the right hindquarter are broken. Of those at the front, the left was slightly curved while the right foreleg appears to have been raised and was probably bent at the knee as in the previously published examples (Dix). |
© Internet Archaeology/Authors
URL: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue31/1/figurines.cfm
Last updated: Wed Feb 29 2012