File:FIGURINE (FindID 769606).jpg

A cast copper-alloy figurine of a bird, probably a raven, of Roman date.

The bird is standing. Its beak is curved and open and it is carrying a wide rounded pellet in the open beak. There is a gap between the rear angle of the beak and the pellet. The eyes are recessed circles under the brow. The wings are represented on the back of the figurine in a folded, non-flight position, splayed out slightly from the shoulders and tapering back towards the tail, with the bird's right wing overlying the left. Both wings are decorated to represent feathers; the shoulder area of the wings are cross-hatched, whereas the main body of the wings have long curving marks to represent wing feathers. There is no further decoration on the figurine. The tail is short and squat, and quite crude, again with no decoration.

Both legs of the bird appear to be incomplete. The left leg is possibly broken below the knee (shown by a slight groove), and although the end of the leg is neat and right-angled, the break is not smooth. The right leg is thicker than the left, and is clearly broken above the knee. The weight of the piece suggests that it was set into a base, as even if the feet were present the piece would surely have tipped forwards or backwards.

The figure stands 43.31mm high at its current highest point. From beak to tail the figurine measures 75.05mm. At its widest point it measures 33.00mm. The shoulder of the wings at their widest point measure 18.11mm, their length 38.77mm. The tail at its widest point is 11.33mm wide. From tip of the beak to the back of the head measures 25.85mm. The pellet between the beak measures 6.12mm in diameter.

Similar examples are illustrated in Green's 'Small Cult-Objects from the Military Areas of Roman Britain', 1978, plates 66-72, from Chesterholm, Chesters, York and Corbridge. Similar examples on the database include WMID-06C406, BERK-3D4CE1, NMS-F46436, LIN-383C86, HAMP-3E0708 and GLO-25D251.

In Roman mythology the raven usually represents Apollo. Martin Henig has seen an image of this figurine, and comments that the pellet in the beak is probably a seed or berry, and that the bird is likely to be from a staff or sceptre terminal. He has contributed a number of parallels, commenting that the closest is likely to be from the Felmingham Hall hoard, Norfolk, now in the British Museum (1925,0610.8). This is very similar, with short legs and a pellet in the open beak, but is a more elongated, slender bird. It is considered to have Celtic affinities as well as a Roman date, and was found in a hoard with a similar small bird standing on a globe (1925,0610.7). See a summary of research on the Felmingham Hall birds at <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1365550&partId=1&searchText=felmingham&place=25479&page=1.">http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1365550&partId=1&searchText=felmingham&place=25479&page=1.</a>

The bird on a globe from Felmingham Hall was thought to have originally formed the top of a staff or sceptre and another similar but smaller bird, this time with a curving beak, was found on a fragment of iron shaft at Butterfield Down, Amesbury, Wiltshire. There is also a copper-alloy sceptre terminal with a bird from Willingham Fen. Other detached bird figurines include one from Brize Lodge Farm, Ramsden, Oxfordshire (Henig and Chambers 1984, pp19-21, fig.1 and pl.1). They can include a variety of species such as eagle, raven or dove. The missing feet are a common feature to all.

Henig suggests that "It is probable that they would have been used away from shrines in processions designed to bless the fields and propitiate the gods who looked after the community" (Henig in Rawlings and Fitzpatrick 1996).

M.Henig and R.A. Chambers, 'Two Roman bronze birds from Oxfordshire', Oxoniensia 49 (1984), pp19-21

M.Rawlings and A.P.Fitzpatrick, 'Prehistoric sites and a Romano-British settlement at Butterfield Down, Amesbury', WANHM 89 (1996),1-43