Details

COLEM:JOS.1138

Colchester Collections

bust, pipeclay figurine

The Child's Grave

A pipeclay bust of a young boy, with chubby cheeks and dimples. He has prominent ears and a distinctive hairstyle, shown to be brushed forward in straight lines, with wavy strands at the back. There may be drapery indicated on the right shoulder, but the bottom of the shoulders is damaged. This is one of ten pipeclay objects from the Roman burial known as the Child’s Grave. It is unknown whether this eponymous bust is an actual representation of the deceased. Portrait busts of the deceased, known as imagines, were important in Roman funerary rites. This clay bust may have acted as a cheaper substitute.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

height: 95.00 mm