Lot 96B
Roman, Imperial Period, River Danube, ca. early 3rd to early 4th century CE. An intriguing lead votive plaque known as a "Danubian Rider plaque" featuring a complex iconography relating to the pre-Christian religions of the Lower Danube region. Intended to be read from the bottom up, the lowest layer represents earth or the mortal world with symbols of the 4 elements - a lion for fire, a kantharos for water, a bird for air, and a snake for earth - and a cult meal just above with a nude couple walking to join on the right. A goddess presides over the meal, flanked by a pair of horsemen or warriors. Finally, at the top is Sol Invictus, the sun god, in a quadriga or 4-horse chariot with celestial serpents in each corner. The iconography of these plaques indicates a syncretism between Danubian Celtic and Eastern religious and mystical beliefs, which spread throughout the Empire in the second and third centuries. Several researchers have attempted typologies of these lead votive plaques; this example is considered Ertl B3. Size: 3" W x 3.75" H (7.6 cm x 9.5 cm)
Lead was regularly used for votive items and curse tablets throughout the Roman Empire as it was considered a magical metal that was connected with offerings, luck, and the dead. Plaques like this have almost exclusively been found along the Danube limes, from Dacia and Moesia Inferior, through Moesia Superior and Pannonian Inferior where they are most common, and into Pannonia Superior and Noricum. This distribution pattern has caused some researchers to attribute them primarily to the Roman military, while others have assigned them to the general population of immigrants from eastern lands (Asia Minor, Syria and Greece) who settled in the Balkans in the late second and third centuries.
Cf. Metropolitan Museum of Art (21.88.175) and Museum of Fine Arts Boston (1996.357).
Provenance: ex-private J. Connell collection, Massachusetts, USA
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#175300
- Condition: Chipping and fissures to peripheries with some small areas of loss, and expected softening of detail and abrasions, all commensurate with age. Nice remains of relief imagery and rich patina throughout. Old collection label on verso.
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