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| Elegant creature |
Twelve and half centimetres high he stands, found in 2011 and recently restored this beautiful enamelled Roman cockerel is second century AD. But it is the circumstances he was found just outside Cirencester in a Roman cemetery. Placed next to the head of a two year child, the love of the parents stand out, and also the laughter of the child as he sees this elegant, arrogant cockerel, not quite a toy but a thing to look on and marvel. Even now after all those centuries ago we can capture the sadness but also the happiness of a child accompanied into the otherworld with his favourite plaything.
Cirencester Roman Cockerel 'best find' in forty years.
Oh Thelma - yes indeed - sadness is there in the story and in the cockerel.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if things dug up in the future will tell the same stories about our generations.
Every picture tells a story and what a story that piece of grave-goods told. You can imagine the parents' distress at their child's death, but at least he was buried with his favourite thing. It reminds me of a burial in the far far North (Iceland or Shetland perhaps) where a baby was buried cocooned in a swan's wing . . .
ReplyDeleteA whole book could be written on grave goods I think, just read this morning about a 6th century burial of an old man with a 5 year old child in his arms, and a lame dog buried at his feet, now that is maudlin........
ReplyDeleteWhat an absolutely beautiful thing Thelma.
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