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A Gilt-Bronze Arm from London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2010

Justine Bayley ,
Ben Croxford ,
Martin Henig  and
Bruce Watson
Justine Bayley
Affiliation:
English Heritage, Justine.Bayley@english-heritage.org.uk
Ben Croxford
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, bc256@cam.ac.uk
Martin Henig
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, martin.henig@arch.ox.ac.uk
Bruce Watson
Affiliation:
MoLAS, Bwatson@molas.org.uk
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Abstract

The left hand and forearm from a slightly over life-size bronze or copper-alloy arm was excavated during 2001 at 20–30 Gresham Street, within the City of London. It was discarded in a quarry pit, which fooded with groundwater turning it into a pond and was subsequently backflled C.A.D. 60–70. The arm was presumably part of a public statue, perhaps of an emperor or god, which had been deliberately broken up. The Boudican revolt of A.D. 60/1 is one possible context for the destruction of Roman statuary in London, but the end of Nero's reign, some ten years later, is another period when any statues of this very unpopular emperor could have been broken up. The article includes a catalogue of previous fnds of bronze statuary from London (where more fragments of arms and hands have been recovered than anywhere else in Britain), the results of metallurgical examination of the arm, and a discussion of iconoclasm in Roman Britain.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 40 , November 2009 , pp. 151 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Justine Bayley, Ben Croxford, Martin Henig and Bruce Watson 2009. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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