Details

LOT 0623

Roman Lead Plaque with Figures

2ND CENTURY A.D.

1 1/2 in. (11.1 grams, 40 mm).

Obverse with a beaded border and one loop enclosing an image of three figures: at the centre Minerva wearing a crested helmet and with a shield at her feet, on the left Abundantia with a frond in her bent arm, on the right Mercury with cap and caduceus; reverse with concentric rings. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Private collection, 1980s.
From the collection of a London antiquarian.

Literature

Cf. for votive or commemorative medallions in lead of the same typology (but with the image of the winged Victory and other divinities) Beutler, F. et al., Der Adler Roms. Carnuntum und die Armee der Cäsaren, Bad-Deutsch-Altenburg, 2017, items 101-103, and 625-630, for type.

Footnotes

The lead medallions were worn as elements of protection from the gods represented on them, but also used by soldiers as seals. Several lead medallions with images of emperors, male deities (Mars), military heads and imperial initials were found in the military chancellery of Carnuntum. The presence of loops on our specimen points to its use as a prophylactic medallion.