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‘Singing Stones’: Contexting Body-Language in Romano-British Iconography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

Miranda Aldhouse-Green*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Cardiff [email protected]

Abstract

Two stone sculptures from Caerwent — a disembodied human head and a seated female figure — are the focus of this article. Using icon-theory, it is proposed that the Caerwent sculptures (albeit recovered from different chronological horizons) were perhaps produced at the same time, maybe even by a single stonemason. Issues of materiality, including choice of stone and style, are seen as key to their understanding, in terms of Silurian identity and religion. Moreover, the emphasis on mouths and ears invites interpretation of these images as those of speaking and listening Oracles, conduits between earthly and spiritual worlds.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

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