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Once part of a monumental Roman-era equestrian statue, a gilded bronze lower leg and foot found in a bog in Milsington, Scotland, in 1820 will be a highlight of a new show at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The artifact, which dates to approximately 140 CE, was originally thought to have been looted by Scottish tribes from a site further south. But experts new believe that it came from a sculpture erected locally by Roman conquerors.
A study of statue fragments from Roman Scotland has shown that imperial statuary was a feature of Roman frontier forts, making a Scottish origin for the sculpture more likely. In addition, a new analysis by National Museums Scotland shows the bronze limb was carefully detatched from its parent statue, suggesting that the monument was deliberately dismantled rather than destroyed.
Archaeologists now think that the statue depicted the Roman Emperor Antonius Pius, who led Rome’s second major military campaign into Scotland. Under his leadership, Roman forces built the turf Antonine Wall across what is now Scotland’s Central Belt; attacks by Caledonian tribes forced a retreat south to Hadrian’s Wall less than a generation later.
“It offers us a tantalizing glimpse into the kind of grand monuments which once stood in southern Scotland and shows the importance Pius placed on his victories in Scotland,” Fraser Hunter, the principal curator of the upcoming exhibition, “Roman Scotland: Life on the Edge of Empire,” said of the remnant. “But it begs the question: Where is the rest of the statue?”
“Roman Scotland: Life on the Edge of Empire” is at NMS in Edinburgh from 14 November to 18 April