figurine; bound captive
Description
A small Roman copper-alloy anthropomorphic figurine representing a bound captive. The naked captive is crouching with his legs drawn up and together and his elbows on his knees. His arms are flexed with the hands clasped together. The posture is dictated by the shackles the captive bears: a rope connected his neck, hands and feet, with a loop around these three areas, but this is now missing on this example except at the neck. The fibres of the rope are delineated by diagonal mouldings. The lower part of the legs below the knees has been lost. The area between the legs, arms and stomach is solidly cast, with the limbs moulded. A large circular perforation travels horizontally through the stomach from side to side. This is met by a perpendicular circular perforation travelling vertically from the captive's head to his bottom. The back is facetted. The head appears relatively large and has moulded features including eyes, nose, jaw line and hair. The nose is stubby. The eyes are small and sub-circular, defined by a ring of removals around them. The ears are sub-triangular with triangular removals within. The hair is styled in a distinctively 'Celtic' tonsure with the hair brushed back from the forehead and delineated by incisions. The hair is depicted as being shaved behind the crown. The artefact has corroded to a mid-grey colour.
Seventeen bound captive figurines have been found across the empire and classified by Ralph Jackson. This find represents the most northerly example of Jackson's (2005, 145) Type II figurine found in Britain to date. The artefact is paralleled closely by an example found in London (ibid., 145; ref. 11), and even bears the same shaved head, hairstyle and perforations.
Such objects were clearly meant to be mounted through the perforations, though to what end is uncertain. The argument that they represent slaves is convincing (see Jackson 2005). Although more are coming to light through metal detecting (see NLM2845, DENO-9632F6, DUR-3DB631, DENO-EB7C77 on the British Museum portable antiquities database) few have been found in secure archaeological contexts. A broad date in the 2nd or 3rd century has been suggested (ibid., 148) and the Mumrills find must date to the period of the occupation of the Antonine Wall 142-160AD. To date, bound captive figurines have only been found on the Rhine/Danube frontier and in Britannia (see ibid., 147; fig. 6).
See full details
Public comments
Be the first to comment on this object record.