FIGURINE

Near complete cast copper-alloy figurine of a horse of Roman date.

The horse is modelled in a reasonably naturalistic manner with the horse being stocky around the body and neck with proportionately short legs.The legs are arranged to show the horse in the action of walking forwards with the left-hand side legs taking a forward step with the front leg bent and raised off the ground and the back leg being straight. The right-hand side legs have the back leg as bent and pushed out behind the rear of the horse and the front leg extended and straight out in front of the horse. The muscular details of the legs, especially the upper thighs of the back legs are moulded in relief helping to give the horse its more naturalistic appearance. The lower extremities of both the front legs have been lost through damage or corrosion.

The underside of the horse shows a rounded protruding chest area which then slopes upwards and inwards towards the lower abdomen area between the rear legs of the horse. The horse has simplistically moulded male genitalia protruding from between the two rear legs which is visible from both sides when the horse is viewed in its walking position. The tail of the horse extends at an initial right-hand to the buttocks, as if the top is wrapped, and then drops at a slight diagonal to the left towards the floor and almost at the same level of the hooves. The tail has a gentle undulating wave along its length and is wider at the bottom than the top making it appear flared, which again adds to the overall naturalistic appearance.

The back and trunk of the horse is plain except for the groove of the casting seam which is notably incised along the length of the spine area but elsewhere has been filed smooth due to being raised following the casting process. This filing process is notably evident along the length of the nose of the horse which has been flattened across the bridge from the ears to the snout with the traces of transverse striations from the filing process still visible. The head of the horse is naturalistically moulded with relief detail of the mouth, nostrils, jawline, cheeks, eyes and ears. The ears are sub-triangular in form and cocked forwards. From between the ears and along the length of the crest of the neck the mane is moulded to a peak with simplistic incised grooves running diagonally down to either side of the neck delineating the hair of the mane.

The overall condition of the horse is very good and it has a mid-greenish-brown patina although this has been lost in patches with patches of light-green corrosion. In addition the figurine has patches of a dark layer of rough brown corrosion, possibly partially ferrous in nature, along the upper parts of the lower back. This corrosion may be associated with the original existence of a 'rider' figurine which accompanied this horse statuette. Horse and rider figurines are known group of figurines from Roman Britain with a number of separate riders and horses as well as still paired sets having been reported to the PAS. For examples of 2 differing horse and rider figurine sets, the latter actually cast in one-piece, see: SF-99E3E4 & YORYM-C2A231.

On this present example it is notable that effort has been made, through moulding and later filing to create a slight step at the point where the front of the thighs of the rear legs adjoin the main body of the horse. Aside from being part of the moulding of the thigh areas this may also have served the purpose of holding a rider figurine in position.

It is difficult to date such figurines precisely and therefore this item has been dated broadly to the Roman period AD c.43-410.