Description

Summary: 1 bronze figurine, complete, depicting vulcan, from North Bradley, Wiltshire.

Research results

A Romano-British copper alloy figurine depicting Vulcan, god of metalworking and fire, found by a metal detectorist in 1989 in North Bradley, and purchased by The Wiltshire Museum.

This figurine was examined by Durham (2014), who notes the similarity of the figure to a group of figurines found at Southbroom, Devizes, in 1714 (now in the British Museum) and other figurines from Motcombe and Henley Wood. She suggests that the distinctive stylised depictions of Graeco-Roman and Romano-British deities, which similarly combine classical and British Iron Age influences, may suggest that the figurines were all products of a single, or small number, of workshops in the south of Britain during the early Roman period.