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Antler Roundel Pendants from Britain and the North-Western Roman Provinces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Stephen Greep
Stephen Greep
Affiliation:
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
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Extract

Pendants are frequent finds on sites of the Roman period. ‘Daily life was deeply penetrated, perhaps dominated, by supernatural considerations … in consequence talismans are common’. They were used for a variety of purposes; not only individuals, but houses, walls and even towns could be protected by them. This short paper concentrates on one particular type of pendant, manufactured from the crown or burr of red deer antler which is found predominantly on sites in the North-western provinces of the Empire. Whilst a small number of these pendants have received limited attention, discussion has centred primarily on the presence of a phallus as a decorative motif (Types 4-7 below) and the lesser known, but more common, undecorated forms (Types 1-3 below) have been relatively ignored.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 25 , November 1994 , pp. 79 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Stephen Greep 1994. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 G.C. Boon, Silchester: The Roman Town of Calleva (1974), 170.

2 For summaries of material from Gaul see Hatt, J.J., Lebel, P., and Joffroy, R., ‘Talismans gallo-romains en bois de cerf ou d'elan trouvés dans les tombes’, Rev. Arch, de I'Est el du Centre-Est vi (1955), 55–66Google Scholar; Hatt, J.J., Parruzot, P. and Roes, A., ‘Nouvelles contributions à I'étude de médaillons et pendentifs en corne de cerf’. Rev. Arch, de I'Est et du Centre-Est vi (1955), 249–54Google Scholar; Faider-Feytmans, G. and Lebel, P., ‘Talismans en bois de cerf trouvés dans les tombes merovingiennes’, Rev. Arch, de I'Est et du Centre-Est vii (1956), 138–43; J.-C. Béal, Catalogue des objets de tabletterie du Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine de Lyon (1983) (cited as (1983) in Catalogue)Google Scholar; Béal, J.-C., ‘Medaillons, anneaux et fusaioles gallo-romains en bois de cerf à Clermond Ferrand’, Bull. Hist, et Scient. de I'Auvergne xii (1983), 370–86Google Scholar (cited as (1983a) in Catalogue). For the evidence from the Netherlands see Hottentot, W. and Lith, S.M.E. van, ‘Römische Amuletten aus Hirschhorn in den Niederlanden, Helinium xxx (1990), 186–207.Google Scholar

3 Hist. Nat. VIII, XLIX. 112-19.

4 Grant, A., ‘The significance of deer remains at occupation sites of the Iron Age to Anglo-Saxon period’, in Jones, M. and Dimbleby, G. (eds), The Environment of Man: The Iron Age to Anglo-Saxon Period, BAR 87 (1981), 205–14.Google Scholar

5 M. Henig, Religion in Roman Britain (1984), 186.

6 M. Green, The Gods of the Celts (1986), 184.

7 G.Webster, The British Celts and their Gods under Rome (1986), 118.

8 Unpublished, Greek and Roman Department of the British Museum. I am grateful to Catherine Johns for bringing this piece to my attention.

9 Green, M., The Religions of Civilian Roman Britain, BAR 24 (1976), pl. XIXc.Google Scholar

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13 Hist. Nat. XXVIII. 257 and IX. 163.

14 ibid., XXVIII, 36.

15 De Lingua Latina VII. 97.

16 On the function of phallic representations see, for example, Henig, op. cit. (note 5), 166-7; Johns, op. cit. (note 12), 62-75; Turnbull, P., ‘The phallus in the art of Roman Britain’, Univ. London Inst. Arch. Bull, xv (1978), 199–206; Webster, op. cit. (note 7), 99 and 119.Google Scholar

17 Johns, op. cit. (note 12), 75.

18 Boon, op. cit. (note 1), 170, lists ‘an appliqué in the form of a bull's head holding a phallus in its mouth; the emblem terminates in a clenched fist with the thumb protruding through the fingers …’.

19 Johns, op. cit. (note 12), 73; Henig, op. cit. (note 5), 186.

20 Johns, op. cit. (note 12), 72-3. For a possible second representation see Hottentot and van Lith, op. cit. (note 2), Abb. 6, 11.

21 Braithwaite, G., ‘Romano-British face pots and head pots’, Britannia xv (1984), 99–132, fig. 1,7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Mosaic from Sousse, Tunisia: G. Fradier, Roman Mosaics of Tunisia (3rd edn; 1989), 86.

23 Vertet, H., ‘Médaillons en come de cerf du Département de l'Allier’, Rev. Arch, de I‘Est et du Cenlre-Est ix (1958), 243.Google Scholar

24 see also Hatt, Lebel and Joffroy, op. cit. (note 2), 55-66.

25 ibid., figs 17-18.

26 The closest parallels known to me in bronze are two unpublished examples of bronze roundels with phallic central decoration, very similar to those forms now under discussion, from Vindonissa (unpublished, Vindonissa Museum, Brugg) and Colchester (unpublished, Colchester and Essex Museum). The well known series of military belt plates were affixed in the same way, e.g. Grew, F. and Griffiths, N., ‘The Pre-Flavian military belt: the evidence from Britain’, Archaeologia cix (1990), 47–84.Google Scholar

27 e.g. Kocztur, E.. ‘Ausgrabungen im siidlichen Stadtviertel von Gorsium (Tackmargittelp)’, Alba Regia xiii (1974), pl. 47, 307Google Scholar; Meates, G. W., The Roman Villa at Lullingstone, Kent 2, Kent Arch. Soc. Monograph 3 (1987), fig. 60, 433.Google Scholar

28 Béal, op. cit. (1983), (note 2), 279; Kaenel, G., Recherches sur la période de La Tene en Suisse occidentale: Analyse des sépultures, Cahiers d'Archeologie Romande 50 (1990), pl. 22, T.4.1.Google Scholar

29 Hills, C., The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Spong Hill, North Elmham I, East Anglian Arch. 6 (1977), 30 and fig. 136.Google Scholar

30 A. Roes, Bone and Antler Objects from the Frisian Terp Mounds (1963), pl. LVI, 3.

31 e.g. Béal, op. cit. (1983), (note 2), with many further references.

32 ibid., 279.