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Sculptures from a Romano-British Well in Gloucestershire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Helen E. O'Neil  and
J. M. C. Toynbee
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Extract

In the autumn of 1957 a well, from which three altars and five pieces of sculptures were recovered, was excavated by the writer in the Farnworth Gravel Pit, Great Chessells, Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire.

The well is the fifth to be found in the gravel pit, where remains of circular hut-floors, ovens, a corn-drying oven, and other domestic sites, accompanied by many potsherds, coins, and other objects of Romano-British date have come to light during the last 25 years. One rectangular building, 40 ft. long and 28 ft. wide, with foundations of masonry, was also uncovered and appeared to be the chief house of the village, while a whole series of superimposed drainage-ditches, outlining small fields, lay on the eastern slopes of the ground towards the Fosse Way, the latter just skirting the settlement, on its way to Bourtonon-the-Water, a mile distant.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 1-2 , November 1958 , pp. 49 - 55
Copyright
Copyright ©Helen E. O'Neil and J. M. C. Toynbee 1958. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 I am very much indebted to Mr. L. F. Farnworth of Stow-on-the-Wold for permission to excavate and record the finds in his gravel pit and for help from Mr. C. L. Halford, the driver of the mechanical navvy, and from Mr. H. Packer. I wish also to record my gratitude to Professor J. M. C. Toynbee for her help in the identification of the sculptures (Part II), to Mr. W. T. Jones for the photographs of the sculptures, and to the Ministry of Works for financial help.

2 6-in. O. S. Map, Glos., XXIX N. W.

3 Report by H. E. O'Neil forthcoming.

4 It was first located in August, 1957, after the removal of top soil by the mechanical grab, as a very small patch in a larger area of dark earth in the yellow gravel. The larger dark area, 12 ft. in diameter, proved to be the width of the top of the shaft, while the uppermost courses of the masonry of the well were found to lie only 16 in. below the modern ground-surface.

5 Essays in the Study of Building History, in memory of B. H. St. J. O'Neil, forthcoming.

6 The substantial stone column-fragments and other architectural pieces found in the well's vicinity suggest the one-time presence of a building of some pretensions.

7 Clifford, E., ‘Roman Altars in Gloucestershire’, Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. LX (1939), 297–300Google Scholar; cf. Archaeologia LXIX, 1917–1918 (1920), 180–2Google Scholar.

8 Clifford, o. c, pl. V, fig. 9; pl. VI, fig. 11; pl. VII, fig 12.

9 ibid., 303, pl. VII, fig. 12.

10 Toynbee, J. M. C., ‘Genii Cucullati in Roman Britain’ (Collection Latomus xxviii, 1957Google Scholar), pl. LXII, fig. 2; pl. LXIII, fig. 1; pl. LXIV, fig. 1; pl. LXV, figs. 1–4.

11 See Deonna, W. in L'Antiquité Classique XXIII, 2, 1954. 403 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Clifford, o. c, 300, no. 2, pl. I, fig. 2.

13 ibid., 300, nos. 3, 4, 5, pl. II, figs. 3, 4; pl. III, fig. 5.

14 ibid., 305, pl. XVI, fig. 30.

15 Toynbee, o.c.

16 ibid., 460, no. 3, pl. LXIII, fig. 2.

17 See W. Deonna, De Télesphore au ‘moine bourru’, etc., 1955.

18 Much the same type of costume is worn by a pair of standing Celtic (?) gods, one bearded, the other beardless, carved in relief on either side of a rectangular stone block, dedicated by one Taurus to Apollo and Sirona, at Luxeuil (Luxorium) in eastern France (Espérandieu, E., Recueil général des basreliefs, statues et busies de la Gaule romaine VII, 1918, 50–1Google Scholar, no. 5317). In both cases the chest is completely nude and the garment is swathed in a single roll round the body, but at a point lower down than our no. 7, and its lower edge only reaches to just above the knees. There is a very crude bronze figurine from Woodeaton, Oxon., almost certainly female and thought to represent a Celtic goddess, which is naked to the waist, but lacks the swathing of the drapery (Kirk, J. R., ‘Bronzes from Woodeaton, Oxon.’, Oxoniensia XIV, 1949, 31Google Scholar, no. 1, pl. VIB).

19 The writer is very greatly indebted to Mrs. O'Neil, who made these discoveries, for the kind permission to study and publish them.