ROMAN STRAP FITTING

250

Copper alloy. Belt fitting. An anthropomorphic casting, flat at the top, developing a slightly concavo-convex form below as it develops a heart-shaped form subdivided by a vertically incised line. The reverse bears an integral rectangular staple for attachment to a strap of c.16mm width. The upper part portrays a standing human figure with small head and broad shoulders, probably armoured. The extended arms of the figure hold objects resembling hammers, clubs or axes. Incised diagonal lines converge from lightly scalloped edges of the shoulders towards the waist of the figure; a single ring and dot is placed on each hand, and on the lower parts of the implements they grasp. The treatment of the shoulders suggests lorica segmentata: the continuation of the lines from shoulders to waist resembles the 2nd-century Antonine Croy Hill relief, apparently depicting three legionaries (Bishop and Coulston1993, fig. 69). However, both this object and two others from the same site more closely resemble Late Roman or Dominate belt fittings of the later 3rd or 4th century AD (ibid., fig. 126). An alternative interpretation, that the figure represents Hercules with club and draped in lionskin, has kindly been offered by Kevin Leahy, albeit Hercules is invariably depicted as armed with a single weapon. The form of this find suggests a military association, reference to the conventional representation of soldiers, and gives some insight into how the later Roman soldier was regarded and depicted by an unusually lively form of portrait. Length: 54.04mm, Width: 36.42mm, Thickness (maximum): 4.17mm, Weight: 17.74gms