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A Group of Bronze Models from Sussex in the British Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Extract

The group of small bronze models which forms the subject of this paper entered the British Museum in 1854 with the purchase of the Croften Croker Collection. They were said to have been found in a tumulus in Sussex, without any further details being given.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1966

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References

page 50 note 1 Department of British and Medieval Antiquities. Accession number 1854. 12–27. 76–86.

page 50 note 2 Accession register 27th December 1854.

page 50 note 3 The Negotiators Britanniciani mentioned in inscriptions from Cologne (C.I.L. xiii, 8164a) and Middleburg (C.I.L. xiii, 8793) in themselves would be sufficient to prove this even without the mass of Rhenish pottery and glass scattered throughout the ruins of Roman Britain.

page 50 note 4 Cumont, F., Textes et monuments figureés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, ii (1896), 526Google Scholar.

page 50 note 5 Bonner Jahrbücher, 149 (1949), 102Google Scholar.

page 50 note 6 Palladius, Opus Agriculturae, includes saws in his list of farm equipment.

page 50 note 7 For the contents of these and the other groups see the Tables on pp. 55, 56.

page 51 note 1 Miss Joan Kirk in publishing the material from Woodeaton, Oxon., produced a formidable list of model axes from various places (Oxoniensia, xiv (1949), 32 ff.Google Scholar).

page 51 note 2 e.g. Woodeaton, , Oxoniensia, xiv (1949), 32 ff.Google Scholar, and Frilford, , Oxoniensia, iv (1939), 13 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 51 note 3 F. Cumont, Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, ii, 526.

page 51 note 4 Cf. ‘serpents, sacred’ in Oxford Classical Dictionary.

page 51 note 5 N.H. xxii, 32.

page 51 note 6 N.H. xviii, 294, and also xviii, 303, on using a toad to protect a granary. Although the models are often identified as frogs they could equally well represent toads.

page 51 note 7 C. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, pp. 69 ff.

page 52 note 1 Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'archologie chrétienne et de liturgie, vi, cols. 1810–14.

page 52 note 2 L.I, V, 5. Its main fury is directed against the Manichaeans.

page 52 note 3 Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, xv, col. 2447, and xiii, col. 2749, fig. 10008.

page 52 note 4 e.g. Walters, British Museum Catalogue of Bronzes, 159, no. 874. Walters no. 875 (provenance unknown; from the Payne Knight Collection) is shown on pl. xvi).

page 52 note 5 Cf. Sabazius in Oxford Classical Dictionary. Cf. also Cumont in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1906, 63 ff., for a discussion of the connexion between the mysteries of Sabazius and Judaism.

page 52 note 6 iv, 4, 1.

page 52 note 7 iii, 64, 2.

page 53 note 1 Book vi of the Aeneid is full of references to doors and both Pluto and Hecate are said to have had the keys of Hades amongst their attributes (cf. Smith, Dict. of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, ii, 319, and Rich, Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 174). Also Rev. i, 18, ‘and I have the keys of death and Hades’.

page 53 note 2 In a fresco in the tomb of Vincentius, a priest of Sabazius, in the catacomb of Praetextus, Vibia, his wife, is shown being led by her good angel through a doorway to the feast of the blessed. This doorway is the only piece of architectural background shown in the scene and it clearly has a purpose there (cf. Wilpert, Pitture delle catacombe romane, ii, tav. 132).

page 53 note 3 They are shown on a sarcophagus at Rome which probably dates from the third century, and on another of slightly later date from Aries (Cabrol, op. cit. iii, col. 1862, fig. 3011). The reference is derived, of course, from the passage: ‘And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. xvi. 18 and 19).

page 53 note 4 Cumont, Afterlife in Roman Paganism, 35.

page 53 note 5 Wilpert, Pitture delle catacombe romane, ii, tav. 132.

page 53 note 6 e.g. The Egyptian Collections in the British Museum, p. 143, fig. 48, which shows the heart of the scribe Ani being weighed against the feather representing truth. The Egyptians believed the heart to be the seat of intelligence. In medieval iconography St. Michael, who acquired many of the functions of Mercury, is shown as the archangel of justice with a balance in scenes of the last judgement (Émile Mâle, L'Art religieux du XIIe siècle en France, p. 414).

page 53 note 7 Roscher, Lexicon, iv, 247.

page 53 note 8 Walters, British Museum Catalogue of Bronzes, p. 160, no. 875.

page 54 note 1 Cf. J. Curie, Newstead, A Roman Frontier Post and its People, p. 334 for references. Sabazius was commonly identified with Jupiter in the western provinces (e.g. C.I.L. xiii, 1, 1496, from Vichy); cf. Ch. Picard in Revue Archéologique (1961), pp. 153 ff.

page 54 note 2 Cumont, Afterlife in Roman Paganism, p. 154, assumes that these models have this meaning. The ladder as a symbol is discussed at length by Legley, M. in ‘Le symbolisme de l'échelle sur les stèles africaines dédiées à Saturne’, Latomus, xxiii (1964), 213 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 54 note 3 Cumont, Afterlife in Roman Paganism, 35.

page 54 note 4 St. Peter's keys and the balance of St. Michael have been mentioned above.

page 54 note 5 Roscher, Lexicon, iv, 247.

page 54 note 6 F. Staehelin, Die Schzveiz in römischer Zeit, pp. 551 ff.

page 54 note 7 For France cf. Roscher, Lexicon, iv, 246, and for Belgium cf. Comment la Belgique fut romanisée, p. 101 and fig. 66; cf. also Revue Archéologique (1961), 153 ff.

page 54 note 8 Information from Professor Sheppard Frere.

page 54 note 9 Staehelin, Die Schweiz in römischer Zeit, pp. 549 ff., Abb. 160–4.

page 54 note 10 Trans. Cumb. and West. Ant. and Arch. Soc., N.S. xv (1915), 148Google Scholar and pl. iv, 55.

page 54 note 1 They are all figured, together with our example, in B.J. 149 (1949), 98Google Scholar, Abb. 2 and 100, Abb. 4. For the Roman plough in general cf. Manning, , ‘The Plough in Roman Britain’, J.R.S. liv (1964), 54 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 54 note 2 Varro, R.R. 1, xxix, 2.

page 57 note 1 Cf. B.M.Q. xxiii (1960–1), pl. xlixc, for the head of a Roman adze-hammer of this type from London.

page 57 note 2 Cf. Germania, 23 (1939), 56Google Scholar, Abb. 2, 1 and 4, 1; Sammlung Niessen, Cöln, Band II, Taf. CXXIII, 414; Praehist. Zeitschrift, xviii (1927), 285Google Scholar, Abb. 27, 14; B.J. 149 (1949), 98Google Scholar, Abb. 2, 9 and 10.

page 57 note 3 Cf. Arch. J. xiii (1856), pl. 1, fig. 9 for a fourth-century axe-head of this type.

page 57 note 4 B.J. 149 (1949), 98Google Scholar, Abb. 2, 18.

page 57 note 5 Prach. Z. xviii (1927), 285Google Scholar, Abb. 27, 15, an example with a ‘beard’ and long edge; Sammlung Niessen, Cöln, Band II, Taf. CXXIII, 4111, an example which splays out towards the edge.

page 57 note 6 Germania, 23 (1939), Abb. 1, 3; Sammlung Niessen, Cöln, Band II, Taf. CXXIII, 4115, a rather stylized example.

page 57 note 7 Gummerus, H., ‘Darstellungen aus dem Handwerk auf römischen Grab-und Votivsteinen’, Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich-Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Band XXVIII (1913)Google Scholar, Abb. 20 (an altar in the Capitoline Museum, Rome) and Abb. 22.

page 59 note 1 Germania, 23 (1939), 56Google Scholar.

page 59 note 2 B.J. 149 (1949), 94 ff.Google Scholar, Abb. 3.

page 59 note 3 Germania, 23 (1939), 56Google Scholar, Abb. 1, 2*; Abb. 2, 2*; Abb. 3, 2*; and Abb. 4, 2; B.J. 149 (1949), 94 ffGoogle Scholar. Abb. 2, 1; B.J. 162 (1962), 397 ffGoogle Scholar. Abb. 3, 2*; Sammlung Niessen, Cöln, Band II, Taf. CXXIII, 4084. The examples marked * are virtually identical with the Sussex models, the others are very similar.

page 59 note 4 Model slide keys: Germania, 23 (1939), 57Google Scholar, Abb. 2, 5 and 6, and Abb. 3, 3 and 4; Sammlung Niessen, Cöln, Band II, Taf. CXXIII, 3704; B.J. 162 (1962), 397 ff.Google Scholar, Abb. 3, 9. Model lever-lock key: Praeh. Z. xviii (1927), 285Google Scholar, Abb. 27, 13. Wheeler, London in Roman Times, pl. xxx, shows actual keys of these types.

page 59 note 5 e.g. Germania, 23 (1939), 57Google Scholar, Abb. 2, 6 and Abb. 3, 3 and 4.