FIGURINE

A Roman cast copper alloy figurine and stand of a leopard dating to the period c AD 43 - 410. The figure of the leopard is standing left with the tail curled between its legs and over the rear right foot. The tip of the tail ends in a tuft which is decorated with three diagonal incised lines. The head is slightly turned to face forward and is intricately decorated. The ears project outwards and the internal ear flap is recessed. The top of the head is broadly flat and undecorated before dropping sharply towards the muzzle, the brow ridge is decorated with five vertical incisions and five vertical ridges. The eyes are intricately decorated with the recess around the eye depicted and a circular recess to depict the pupil. The muzzle is decorated with two parallel bands of dots. Below the nose are six symmetrical curved incisions formed in two sets of three incisions depict the whiskers. The mouth is slightly open and the tongue and front two teeth are visible. The figurine features an incised pattern of spots across the muzzle, head, back and legs, which distinguish it as being a leopard rather than a lion. The spots are irregular in form, some are oval, others are circular. The body of the leopard is hollow with a broadly rectangular cavity 15.10mm deep, 29.47mm long and 7.49mm wide. Within the hollow behind the head lead is visible. Both front legs are incomplete, the feet are missing due to old breaks. A circular perforation on the base suggests that the front left paw would have had a circular perforation with iron rivet which would have connected the front lefts to the top of the base. The rear left leg is complete, the rear right leg is incomplete. The rear left foot features a rivet hole with the corroded remains of the rivet visible.

The base is now broken into four separate parts as the result of old breaks. The base is circular in plan and broadly hourglass - shaped in profile. The bottom of the base is c. 45.31mm in diameter. This bottom section tapers so that the interior forms a broadly semi-circular hollow 19.05mm deep. The bottom of the hollow features a large amount of corroded iron. The exterior of the base consists of a broad lip 3.37mm high and 2.55mm wide. This is followed by a tapered section 16.35mm in height. The base then extends into a pillar, the interior of which is filled with iron corrosion. The pillar measures 20.88mm in diameter. The base then tapers out into a slightly concave circular platform on which the leopard figurine would have been mounted. The platform is 46.12mm in diameter and features two rivet holes directly opposite one another which correspond with the position of the rivet hole in the foot of the leopard. The platform features a large amount of iron corrosion across its upper surface with a circular hole filled with corroded iron c. 17.24mm in diameter in the centre which corresponds with the internal diameter of the pillar which forms the lower part of the base.

The figurine of the leopard measures 77.75mm in length (nose to tail), 22.32mm wide at its widest point (across the flanks), 3.76mm at its narrowest point (width of the tail), c. 55.48mm high (head to foot) and weighs 185.11g.

The four fragments that make up the base collectively weigh 113.36g.

Julie Shoemark

Wiltshire Volunteer

Thanks are extended to Dr Ralph Jackson for his help in identifying the figurine