File:Illustration of a copper alloy Roman figurine of a sleeping African boy (FindID 141318).jpg

English: Cast copper alloy figurine. The figurine portrays a sleeping young African boy seated with his right leg bent in front of him and his left leg bent at an angle of approximately 45 degrees and placed horizontally (as if along the ground). The right arm is bent close to the body and the flat hand is resting on the knee. The left arm is bent at a right angle, resting along the left thigh, with the hand loosely clenched. The hands are moulded with all of the digits realistically portrayed. The right foot has a rounded end, without portraying the individual toes. The left foot is missing. The break edge is worn, suggesting damage occurred in antiquity.

The head of the sleeping boy is tilted to the right and rests on the right hand. The hairstyle is afro in that it is tightly curled. Both ears are realistically moulded. The brow is moulded, with the closed eyes rendered by raised lenticular lines. The nose is also realistically moulded. The moulded mouth shows the upper and lower lips parted and slack. There is an off-centre circular socket at the top of the head, due to the angle of the head. The socket is 6.28mm in diameter and approximately 7mm deep.

The chest is moulded with slightly raised pectorals with the right nipple surviving and the left missing due to damage. The belly is slightly protruding (though not ‘pot-bellied’) with a faint impression of the belly button. The penis survives and is resting against the left bent leg. The testicles are visible when the figurine is viewed from below. The back is moulded with prominent shoulder blades and a shallow groove down the spine. The buttocks are flat and divided by a slight incised line.

The original surface survives with a mid green patina, although there are significant patches where it is missing, exposing light green surfaces. The figure is 57.42mm high, 38.2mm wide and weighs 163.6g. The head is 22.68mm long (top to chin as it is angled), the torso is 42.74mm long, the front leg is 35.72mm high and the arms are 29.12mm and 26.22mm long respectively.

Hausmann (1962, ‘Hellenistische Neger’ in Athenische Mitteilungen 77) explains that the figures of Africans were a popular decorative motif in the Hellenistic period in Greece 323-31 BC, possibly with origins in Egypt. Viewed against symbolic types of figures, they were seen to have a tragic, but comical role and the use of the African could be regarded more in a ‘mythological’ context rather than an expression of the reality of slavery. Figures and heads of Africans were originally made into ceramic bottles, with the complex form providing a maximised volume within. They were also made into cast figurines in the same mythological tradition. The figures are often shown with ivy and other ornaments that link them with the Greek god Dionysius (the Roman god Bacchus), the god of wine, amongst other things. Hausmann illustrates a number of 4th and 3rd century BC examples of sleeping boys curled against wine amphorae, reminiscent of bottles also showing the figures of reposing satyrs, making a strong link with the Dionysian myth.

The examples of bottles and bronze figurines show many typical characteristics of the figures that are also illustrated in the example recorded here. These are primarily the close curls of the hair style and the distinct flat, bottom.

An alternative theory, kindly put forward by Donald Bailey (pers.comm) suggests that the figure may be a more straightforward representation of an African slave boy having fallen asleep waiting for his master at a party, whom he will later guide home by lamplight. Some such figures are shown with lamps and the other figures shown asleep with amphorae may be a suggestion of the party taking place ‘off stage’ as well as a cue to Bacchus.

Snowden (1970, Blacks in Antiquity. Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience, Cambridge, Massachusetts, page77) illustrates a close parallel of the figurine recorded here, suggested to be a Hellenistic original. However, the object recorded here is unlikely to be a Hellenistic original surviving as an heirloom in Roman Britain, but, as Dr Martin Henig kindly suggested, a 2nd century AD copy.

The function of the circular depression to the top of the head is currently unknown to the recorder. It has been suggested by Dr Henig that it may have held a soldered iron loop, so that the figure acted as a steelyard weight, perhaps reflecting a link with slavery and the weighing and trading of goods. However, though the depression is certainly central to the figure, enabling it to hang straight, other figurative steelyard weights normally have an integral copper alloy suspension loop. Also, knowing that the African figure is possibly more mythological than actual, it may be hasty to make the link with slavery (see previous comments).

The possible connection with the figures of Africans with lamps may suggest that this is the function of the object. Don Bailey suggests that the depression may have held a soldered spike which in turn held a candle. However, this candle would have been so slender it seems unlikely. More likely perhaps is that the depression held some sort of lamp arrangement. The flat base of the figure may suggest it was soldered to a base, which would have made the whole set up more stable. However, a parallel for such a lamp could not be found.