Bulls appear in a variety of forms, including two Apis bulls and six three-horned bulls. The bull figurines from Britain include both naturalistic pieces, such as Bull 795 from Cirencester, and simple, stylised, almost cow-like figures such as Bull 232 from Dolphinton, Lanarkshire. The Apis bull, identified by the sun-disc between his horns (310), is associated with the Egyptian god Osiris.
The three-horned bull is a Romano-Celtic symbol which originated in Gaul, and there are some 40 examples from that region, particularly in eastern Gaul (Boucher 1976, 171; Green 1989, 180). The bull is usually shown standing, with his tail curling up over the back and resting on the left flank (302). Bull 914 from Weaverham, Cheshire, has deeply socketed eyes that probably held glass insets. The use of glass insets on a Gallo-Roman figurine type is further evidence for the use of this decorative technique on early Roman British figurines. Two figurines (301 from Waddon Hill, Dorset, and 757 from Holbrook, Suffolk) have a dorsuale around the body. The dorsuale is a decorated band which is usually associated with the preparation of animals for sacrifice (Worrell 2006, 450). A Gaulish example of a three-horned bull wearing a dorsuale comes from Glanum (Bouches-du-Rhône) (Green 1989, fig. 82). Among the three-horned bulls is the unusual and unique example from Maiden Castle, Dorset, in which the bull carries a draped female deity, a human-headed bird and another, now headless, figure (167).
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