File:Horse head (FindID 1013510-1120694).jpg

• 1 x copper alloy plumb bob (finder 1)
• 1 x copper alloy horse and rider figurine (finder 1)
• 1 x copper alloy and iron horse head probable key handle (finder 2)
• 1 x copper alloy probable sceptre head in the form of a bust (finder 1)

Plumb bob

A complete copper-alloy plumb bob, conical and solid with a blunted tip. The flat top bears concentric circular grooves. Projecting from its centre is a neck (11.6mm diameter at its narrowest) with concave sides, topped with a domed fungiform terminal (25.9mm diameter) with a flat underside. A circular hole (4.4mm diameter) at least 21.5 mm deep pierces the centre of the top of the domed terminal. Another circular hole crosses transversally through its neck (3.3mm diameter). The holes likely relate to the object’s suspension.

The plumb bob has a smooth green patina with no decoration or marks, apart from a few small patinated dimples. 72.7mm long, 40.9mm diameter. 282g. Finder 1.

Horse and rider figurine

An incomplete and worn solid copper-alloy figurine of a horse and rider, cast in one. The rider sits astride the horse. The rider’s head is ovate, the face having very worn but quite well-modelled features in the right proportions. A helmet is delineated by moulded lines, with a worn and damaged crest.

The right arm extends sideways at shoulder height and turns up at the elbow, the thinning forearm being broken at the wrist. A spur of twisted metal extends from the break towards the head. The patina is missing, revealing brass. This would have held a now lost spear.

The left arm extends forwards from the body of the rider just above waist height to the side of the horse’s head, also reducing in diameter below the elbow. It terminates in a globular upward projection, a likely attachment for another element, probably a shield.

The rider wears a belted and sleeved(?) tunic, with paired brace-like vertical lines on the back and chest perhaps rendering some decoration of the garment. Wear may obscure further detail in the middle. Beneath the prominent waistband is a pleated kilt. The legs are thick and appear a little short compared to the body. There may be a trace of footwear on the right leg.

The horse is modelled in considerable detail, although some has been lost to damage to the top of the head, including parts of the leaf-shaped recessed ears and mane. The mane is a raised crest, decorated with parallel incised lines. Unusually the disc-like eyes stand in relief proud of the face, perhaps indicating that the horse wore a chamfron with eye protectors. Details of the horse’s bridle are also modelled in high relief, including a nose band, head band, and strap behind the ears which joins the others and leads to a bit. The reins, laying on the neck, would have run across the space between the chin and chest to join the bit, but these elements are now missing. The breaks are patinated.

Also moulded is the girth as well as straps round the forequarters and rump and under the tail. All three extend from the same place, just behind the rider's thigh. The straps carry phalerae (discs) on each shoulder and haunch. The saddle is represented as two short prongs or ‘horns’ behind the rider. The horse’s right foreleg is lifted and the left foreleg straight, as if the animal is stepping forward. Both front hooves are missing, but the breaks are patinated. There is also a deep crack across the knee of the horse's left foreleg. The back legs are both bent, as if the horse is moving at a canter. The right leg has a deep crack across the lower portion. Muscles and bone are visibly modelled and the hooves are delineated by an incised groove. Projecting from the base of the rear hoofs are rounded pegs or extensions, perhaps to slot into a base. The tail, damaged at the tip, hangs following the line of the back legs and carries longitudinal incisions to suggest the strands of hair.

The figurine has a smooth grey green patina, rougher and lighter over the damaged areas. It is 73.7mm long, 30mm wide across the rider's shoulders, and 86.8mm high. 222g. Finder 1.

Horse head key handle

An incomplete solid copper alloy zoomorphic handle, in the form of a horse protome (forequarters). Iron corrosion covers the flat face where the horse is truncated at the shoulder, with the corroded remains of an iron shank about 5mm long and 7.5mm across.

The head is modelled in some detail, in particular the mane, eye and nostrils. A groove runs down the centre of the mane, incised on either side to mark its strands. The eyes are pointed ovates, set slightly lopsidedly on either side of the head, above which are the ovate ears laid flat against the mane. The nostrils are formed of shallow ovals. Below them is a wide mouth with teeth perhaps bared, but not defined in the moulding. There is a flattened facet on the front of the lower part of the neck, perhaps post-depositional damage, but patinated. The two forelegs extend forward from the animal, perhaps giving the impression of the horse in motion at a canter, though this is also a common position of legs in these protome figures. The forelegs terminate in moulded hooves, with recent damage to the tip of one. The object has a smooth grey green patina. 52mm long, 17.7mm wide and 48mm high. 90g. Finder 2.

Direct parallels are not yet known to us but and what survives of the shank suggests its square profile, as would be expected for a key and the handle has very close echoes of known zoomorphic key handle types. Some key handles represent horses in the form of a head emerging from a calyx (Artefacts CLE-4111). Others are in very similar animal protome form, including panthers and lions (Artefacts CLE-4054; CLE-4125).

Sceptre head bust

An incomplete hollow copper-alloy stylised male bust with detailed modelling of hair and facial features. The top of the head is domed and smooth, with hair and beard forming a continuous wide fringe around the face. Twisting short tufts of hair curl up from the temples, swept back and arranged somewhat symmetrically in the centre. Curvilinear incisions represent individual strands. The ears are represented as single spiralling curls, expanding at the spiral’s inner terminus and standing proud of the head.  The short beard and moustache are similarly modelled to the hair, the beard lengthening towards the chin where it bifurcates in two principal curls.

The lentoid eyes are emphasised with an incised outline, turning downward at their outer extremities. The pupils are perforations 5.8mm and 6mm in diameter. These may originally have held separate coloured elements but there is no surviving evidence for this, nor on the reverse. The eyes are framed by prominent curving brows which extend into the high ridge of the sub-triangular nose with slightly recessed nostrils at its base. The slot-like mouth is framed by thin lips modelled as two straight raised ridges, slightly parted.

The ‘step’ or raised line where the neck widens to join the thin spatulate chest plate may represent some form of clothing. Three rivet holes are visible on the front of the chest plate, with a break on the rim of the plate extending to join with the central hole. A narrow crack also runs between this rivet hole and another to its left. The undamaged hole is 2.7mm diameter. The other two are larger. The rivet holes suggest a means of fixing the bust to another element.

At the sides of the neck are the remains of two copper alloy rivets, one on each side, next to the opening in the back of the bust.  They project both outside and inside the wall of the neck. These would have allowed the separate backplate to be attached, and there are no other fixings for the backplate evident. The interior of the head has a rough surface.

The backplate, now detached, is a 1mm thick sheet of copper alloy and has a torn rivet hole of 2.5mm diameter that articulates with the rivet on the bust's left. The sides of the backplate are bent round the outside of the neck and cover the whole of the opening in the back of the bust from the rivets upwards.

A line of differential patination on the back of the head shows how far the backplate reached when attached, and there is a matching line on the back of the backplate. The backplate’s edges are damaged, with some parts missing, and it is torn across the middle. This looks to be more recent damage with the broken edge showing as a brassier colour. The backplate is 63.9mm long, 40.6mm wide and 7mm thick as bent to fit round the neck. 13g. It has a pitted dusty grey green patina. The edges of the backplate would have been visible from the front when in position on the back of the head. 

The hole at the base where the backplate and front of the sceptre head meet would have allowed for the entry for the pole or staff on which is was mounted.

The bust has a smooth olive-green patina and, noting the damage to the backplate, is otherwise in very good condition. It is 130mm long, 78mm wide across the shoulders, 63mm wide across the upper head, 44mm thick across the nose, 51mm thick across the upper head and 23mm thick across the neck. 417g. 

Discussion

The following discussion incorporates comments from John Pearce, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, King's College London, with additional comment by Martin Henig, Institute of Archaeology, Oxford University.

Plumb bob

The plumb bob is of a similar form to many from Roman contexts including an example from the Pitt-Rivers collection of the British Museum: <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.britishmuseum.org%2Fcollection%2Fobject%2FG_1975-0429-6&data=04%7C01%7Cjohn.pearce%40kcl.ac.uk%7C10d405d7cb91469c0f6608d886716b31%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0%7C0%7C637407168987283786%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=PAj78VaTAH2OchSnTvfzBSdY3Y%2F4dxPR%2Bf67AC8Q5lg%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1975-0429-6</a>. They were used by surveyors, carpenters etc.

Martin Henig notes the following parallels. ‘It ‘the plumb bob] conforms to the Roman shape cf. Boon, Silchester. The Roman Town of Calleva (1974) pp.200 and 227, fig.35 no.8 from Silchester and J.-P. Adam, Roman Building. Materials and Techniques (1994),p.42 fg 84 from Rome.’

Horse and rider figurine

Horse and rider figurines are documented in more than 25 examples in Britain, this being the northernmost yet known (most are in a zone extending from north Lincolnshire to Wiltshire) (Durham 4.4.1). Integrally cast examples are not common and tend, like this one, to be modelled with slightly greater finesse, as seen in the facial features, details of dress and harness and so on (see also CAM-88F808). To judge from other examples and from the figures in other media to which the horse and riders are related, the raised right hand probably held a spear and the left had a shield attached to it. All of these figures differ slightly in their details and this is no exception, above all in the detailing of the horse harness. The god is usually taken to be a provincial translation of the god Mars.

Sceptre head bust

The size of the head, its portrait features which resemble those of Antonine emperors - Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus (AD 138-192), and the evidence for its being mounted all give this object an affinity with the terminals in the form of bearded male heads argued to be parts of sceptres or similar portable images of the emperor (Esposito 2019). The stylization of the portrait is remarkable, especially the hair, and is similar in spirit to other examples, especially the Steane (Brackley), head (<a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffinds.org.uk%2Fdatabase%2Fartefacts%2Frecord%2Fid%2F252426&data=04%7C01%7Cjohn.pearce%40kcl.ac.uk%7C10d405d7cb91469c0f6608d886716b31%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0%7C0%7C637407168987293777%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=fmERuzzEzQKp6e7Nw76PzxTKO%2BsZEIv975EoD%2B08ETI%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank">BERK-E24C84</a>; Walker 2014). This latter is thought to depict Marcus Aurelius and a similar attribution is possible for the current example, though its stylization makes a definitive identification impossible. Like the horse and rider, again this is the northernmost find of an object of this type. With the exception of the Mars sceptre heads from a burial at Brough-on-Humber, other finds are all from eastern and central England south of the Humber  (Esposito 2019: 37-47, fig. 3.16, p. 63). The presence of the sceptre head gives the deposit a likely second century date or later.

Association

Dr Pearce suggests two possible reasons for this group of material being found together.

1. The diverse nature of the objects, a key handle, sceptre tip, plumb bob and figurine, suggest an interpretation as a miscellaneous collection of scrap bronze, some of which comes from a ritual context. Compare for example the ‘near Gloucester’ hoard, recently found by metal-detectorists (Coombe and Henig 2020).

2. A more likely possibility is that this is a ritual deposit. Sceptres in the form of emperors, gods, animals etc are likely priestly regalia and have been recurringly documented in structured deposits of likely votive origin. Most examples come from the environs of the Fens, and instances from temple sites are occasionally known, e.g. Wanborough Surrey (Esposito 2019). The horse and rider figurine would also fit a votive context, given its likely identification with Mars. The presence of the horse protome from the key handle might also be explained through its secondary use as a substitute votive for animal sacrifice.

Similar deposits with which the Ryedale group could find parallels include the 1857 discovery at Willingham Fen, Cambridgeshire, initially published by Rostovsteff and Mattingly  (1923) and the 1844 discovery at Felmingham Hall, Suffolk. The former comprised sceptre heads, including one head in the form of Antoninus Pius (rather than Commodus), two horse and rider figurines, other mounts in human and animal form and other fittings and beads, likely deposited together in a wooden box.. Similarly the Felmingham hall assemblage, deposited in a clay cauldron, included a copper alloy head of Jupiter, also in two pieces with a rivet for attachment at the neck, as well as other figurines, bases and mounts, spears, a miniature wheel and rattles (Esposito 2019: 67-72).

The plumb bob is harder to parallel in assemblages of this type but reasons for its possible placing in a votive deposit can be suggested. In use in construction, its presence might be explained as a foundation offering related to some act of building related to the putative shrine from which the other pieces derive. Martin Henig notes:

‘Measuring instruments are often shown on dedications of tombstones for example , showing the monument was dedicated sub ascia, see CSIR 1. 9, my North-West Midlands fascicule , no.39.[p.15 and pl.16; no.63 on p.22 and pl.22; the words used on no,33 pp.12-13,pl.15 though no plumb bob shown...

I suspect this [a plumb bob] was always a key object for demarcating sacred space with accuracy...It occurs in a number of Biblical verses with this connotation...and for quite an obvious reason..how else can an architect measure accurately?’

Alternatively, as a key component of the groma, the main survey instrument, the plumb bob’s presence might be an offering made during rituals associated with landscape re-organisation. In this connection the presence of the plumb bob has echoes of another find in the same region, the Piercebridge plough group, a copper alloy statuette found in the early 19^th century and now in the British Museum (BM 1879,0710.1). The composition of the plough team, a cow and bull yoked together, suggests that this object is a likely votive model of the scene in which the furrow is cut to form the line of the pomerium, the symbolic boundary for towns of chartered status, realised on the ground in Britain in the ditches, banks and walls which made up urban circuits (Manning 1971). The Ryedale group is somewhat closer to such towns than the Piercebridge find, with Aldborough being c. 20 km to the south-west in the vale of York. As well as creating town boundaries other surveying operations which might need a ritual sanction can be conjectured. It has proved hard to find convincing traces of the regular parcelling up of expropriated territory (centuration) in Britain but other changes within the wider setting of the find might provide a context for survey operations. The alignment of roads running to the frontier in the north and branching west and east into the Pennines and vale of Pickering respectively, would have required survey in advance. The presence of garrisons, for example at Malton to the east, the development of villas (Beadlam and Hovingham are also only a few kilometres east of the findspot) would all have likely seen expropriation and re-allocation of land with concomitant measuring and marking out and perhaps divine approval through sacrifice.

It may be possible to test these conjectures further if fuller context information becomes available.

References:

Artefacts: Encyclopédie collaborative en ligne des petits objets archéologiques <a href="https://artefacts.mom.fr/">https://artefacts.mom.fr/</a>

Coombe, P. and Henig, M. 2020. ‘The Gloucester hoard of Roman bronze’, Britannia 51

Durham, E. 2012 Depicting the gods: metal figurines in Roman Britain, Internet Archaeology 31. <a href="https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.31.2">https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.31.2</a>

Esposito, A. 2019. Performing the Sacra: priestly roles and their organisation in Roman Britain, Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 53, Oxford

Manning, W. H. 1971. ‘The Piercebridge Plough Group’, The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 35, 125-136.

Rostovtseff, M. and Mattingly, H. 1923, ‘Commodus-Hercules in Britain’, The Journal of Roman Studies 13, 91-109

Walker, S, 2014, ‘Emperors and Deities in Rural Britain: A Copper-Alloy Head of Marcus Aurelius from Steane, near Brackley (Northants.)’, Britannia 45,.223–24