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A Priest's Sceptre from the Romano-Celtic Temple at Farley Heath, Surrey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

R. G. Goodchild
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Extract

The Romano-Celtic temples of Britain, unlike those of Gaul, rarely provide evidence of their dedications and the nature of the cults practised within them. At Silchester (Insula XXXV) and also at Worth, Kent, fragments of statuary found within the temple cella have been suggestive, although not conclusive. The remaining examples yet excavated in Britain (some eighteen in all) have been far less communicative: not one has yielded an inscription or votive object which would leave no doubt as to the identity of the god whose worshippers frequented it.

Since our knowledge of the local cults popular in the civilian areas of Roman Britain is so limited, an object which, though found ninety years ago at Farley Heath in Surrey, has hitherto escaped publication deserves belated recognition not only for its own sake, because it displays very curious features, but also for the light that it may throw on the subject.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 1938 , pp. 391 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1938

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References

page 391 note 1 Archaeologia, lxi, 206.

page 391 note 2 Klein, W. G., ‘Roman Temple at Worth, Kent’, Antiquaries Journal, viii (1928), 76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 391 note 3 This excludes, of course, the temples at Lydney and Benwell: the former is not Romano-Celtic (in the architectural sense), whilst the latter is in a military area.

page 391 note 4 Aubrey, , Natural Hist, and Antiquities of Surrey (1672), iv. 79–81Google Scholar.

page 391 note 5 Published at Guildford in 1850, but merely a reprint of a letter sent to the Society of Antiquaries while the excavations were still in progress.

page 391 note 6 Hawkes, C. F. C., ‘Excavations at Colchester in 1935’, Trans. Essex Archaeological Society, xxii (1936), 46Google Scholar.

page 391 note 7 Dr.Bodenig, R., ‘Ein Treverersdorf in Coblenzer Stadtwalde’, Westdeutsche Zeitschrift, xix (1900), 1Google Scholar (plan reproduced, in Ant. Journ. viii (1928), 315)Google Scholar.

page 392 note 1 British coins have also been found abundantly on the Heath, but the absence of Iron Age pottery suggests that the site was visited rather than occupied in pre-Roman times: this may indicate the existence of a sacred site long before the construction of the Romano-Celtic temple.

page 392 note 2 In the ‘Nightingale Album’ in the Haverfield Library, Oxford (vide infra).

page 392 note 3 Proc. Soc. Antiq., 1st ser., i (1849) 317Google Scholar.

page 392 note 4 Tupper, Record of Farley Heath, 25.

page 393 note 1 I am indebted to Miss M. V. Taylor for drawing my attention to this album, and for supplying the photograph (pl. LXXVIII). The artist, in this instance, seems to have been Tupper himself and not Nightingale.

page 393 note 2 Rostovtzeff, M., ‘Commodus-Hercules in Britain’, Journ. Rom. Stud., xiii (1923), 91 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pl. III.

page 393 note 3 Corder, P., ‘A Romano-British interment from Brough, E. Yorks.’, Ant. Journ. xviii (1938), 68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 393 note 4 Mr. Hawkes has kindly supplied me with full-size photographs of the strip itself, from which pl. lxxvii is reproduced.

page 395 note 1 It is possible to interpret both these objects as axes, but in view of the obvious tongs in juxtaposition, the ‘hammer’ interpretation is more attractive.

page 395 note 2 The slanting cross-pieces seem to militate against its being a trident.

page 395 note 3 Chesters Museum Catalogue (1907), p. 322, no. 114.

page 396 note 1 British Museum, Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain, p. 63, fig. 27.

page 396 note 2 V.C.H. Oxfordshire, ‘Romano-British Oxfordshire’ (forthcoming). Information from Miss Taylor.

page 396 note 3 Toutain, J., Les Cultes païens (1907), i, 388, 391Google Scholar.