Details

COLEM:JOS.1134

Colchester Collections

figurine, pipeclay figurine

The Child's Grave

Figurine of a recumbent old man, reclining on his left arm and scratching the back of his head with his right hand. This is one of four recumbent figurines from the Roman burial known as the Child’s Grave. They have been interpreted as diners at a symposium. In context of the burial, they have been further interpreted as diners at the funerary banquet of the deceased. Discovered in 1886 the ‘Child’s Grave’ remains a unique burial assemblage from Roman Britain because of the large and diverse collection of Central Gaulish pipeclay figurines, as well as other grave goods including glass, metal and ceramic vessels, hoard of coins and the remains of a decorative bone funerary couch. The burial included a total of 23 figurines, including ten comics: five seated, four recumbent and one standing figure; a figurine of Hercules, a triple-horned bull and bust of a child. The grave also included ten lead-glazed unguent vessels in the form of different animals: three hares, three monkeys, two lions, one ibex and one boar. With there being only a few, undiagnostic, cremated remains of the individual it leaves the question of whether the burial was actually of a child open for debate.

0050 - 0065

Roman

ceramic, pipeclay

length: 127.00 mm
height: 67.00 mm
depth: 45.00 mm