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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
Miranda Aldhouse-Green*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Cardiff UniversityAldhouse-GreenMJ@cardiff.ac.uk
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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.

Keywords

articonographyheadsidentitymaterialityoraclereligionsculpture
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 43 , November 2012 , pp. 115 - 134
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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