ID | 816 |
---|---|
Images | |
Grid Ref | TQ3279 |
Project type | Excavation |
County | Greater London |
Site | Southwark |
Site Name | Old Sorting Office, Swan Street |
Site Type | Large town |
Location Type | Ritual? |
Context | Ditch 1431 |
Context Quality | 3 |
Site Date | C1-3 |
Context Date | C1 |
Object Date | C1? |
Object Period | 1 |
Material | Bronze |
Other finds from site | Ritually deposited pottery |
Import | Yes |
Place of manufacture | Gaul? |
Location | Museum of London |
Ref No | SWN98 [1277] <70> |
M/F | Male |
Age | Mature |
Form | Figurine |
Type | Deity |
Name | Hercules |
Bearded | Yes |
Standing/Seated | Standing |
Attributes | Yes |
Attribute description | Lionskin, ?club missing |
Clothed | No |
Drapery | Yes |
Drapery description | over left arm |
Condition | Missing right arm and lower left leg |
Classical | 1 |
Quality | Classical 3 |
Photo | Yes |
Illustration | Yes |
Height | 59.00 |
Length | 0.00 |
Parallels | South Shields (297) |
References | Beasley 2006, 33, fig. 9.11 (Wardle unpublished report) [Link to Bibliography] |
Description | Male figure, nude with a well muscled body, and drapery over his left arm. The right arm is also outstretched and broken below the elbow. The head is bearded and the eyes and mouth deeply indented, making the features distinctive, despite corrosion. The right knee is bent as if leaping, the other broken below the knee stretches downwards. A circular-sectioned bar projecting from the underside of the left leg appears to be an attachment, perhaps joining the figure to others in a group or to a support. The reverse is well-modelled, suggesting that the figure was intended to be seen in the round, but there are many corroded raised lumps which obscure the detail. The back of the head bulges out but is quite smooth, perhaps representing a head dress rather than hair and although the detail is lost, the general profile resembles a lion's head. There is, however, no obvious indication that the paws are tied under the chin in the conventional way. The drapery on the outstretched arm could also be a lion skin, particularly in view of the projections on the lower edge, which although indistinct, may be claws (Wardle) Ritual nature of site, early agricultural then wells/shafts and ditches. |
© Internet Archaeology/Authors
URL: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue31/1/figurines.cfm
Last updated: Wed Feb 29 2012