File:227 Roman figurene top (FindID 74296).jpg

English: Figurine of a copper-alloy animal, perhaps a dog or horse, likely to have functioned as the base of a candle-holder. The animal has a solid plain cylindrical body (30mm long, 9mm wide, 11mm tall), which is slightly concave in the centre. There is a set of legs at either end which are made from a single rectangular strip that runs straight down from either terminal of the body (13mm tall, 7mm wide, 2mm thick). There is slight evidence that there may have been a grooved line running down the centre of each of the rectangular plates denoting a pair of legs for both the front and hind section. On the hind section of the body, on the top part of the terminal there is a slight bump, which may represent a tail. The top of the front section of the body is expanded to form a neck. The head (9mm long, 5mm wide, 8mm tall) is simple with a horizontal slot for a mouth, a triangular snout, which is stepped, two diagonal slots representing the eyes and a rectangular projection behind which has a slot running down the centre representing the ears. There is a collar behind the head. There is an oval hole (4mm by 5mm) drilled through the body, one-third up from the head, off centre.

The artefact is in good stable condition. However, it is missing almost all of its original surface and has a mid to light green patina. 42mm long, 32mm tall, 9mm wide.

There are a number of similar examples on the PAS database, including NARC-6F6352, which retains a flaring socket. Others include HAMP2802, LVPL-05B5E4, YORYM-395444, BERK-3F1C48, NMGW-E6C122 and NMS-6F7566. They have been identified as medieval candle-holders from a stag-shaped parallel found in a context of c. 1270-c. 1350 in London (Egan 1998, no. 425, fig. 116). The socket, however, is an unusual flaring shape.

It is possible to find some similar free-standing horses in the Roman world, but the parallels are not particularly close. An example of a well-modelled horse with raised foreleg and detachable rider, wearing a cavalry-type helmet and raising one arm, was found at Brigstock, Northants and dated using pottery to the second century AD (Ross, 1967, 49, 325-6, fig. 186). An example made of clay from Speikern in Germany dates to the sixth century BC (Aldhouse-Green, 1992, 57).

It is therefore possible that this object should be dated to the Roman period, but the balance of probabilities is on the side of a medieval date.