File:Miniature Roman cult figurine of a goat (FindID 85314) (cropped).jpg

English: Cast copper alloy miniature goat figurine. This figure is cast in three dimensions. The goat is shown standing with the left foreleg slightly forward. The body is incised with curving lines to represent the animal’s hide and it has a small, stumpy upstanding tail. The horns, or possibly the ears, are elongated and sweep up and out from the goat’s head. Below the horns there is a raised moulded, undecorated band around the front and sides of the head. It is just possible to see the lentoid depressions that represent the eyes and the horizontal incised line on the muzzle that represents the mouth. Beneath the goats neck is a moulded bulge, which may represent a bell on a faintly incised collar, or may represent the goats beard. The goat is standing on a base that is rectangular in plan and section.

The figurine is 22.88mm long from tail to nose and 25.14mm high from horn to foot. It is 7.22mm wide across the body. The base is 19.14mm long, 7.8mm wide and 2.46mm thick. The object weighs 13.12g. The object has been cleaned since discovery and now has mid green patina with patches of red/brown corrosion as well as patches of the original metal colour.

      Goats and cockerels are the cult animals associated with the god, Mercury and they may have been intended to stand on pedestals flanking Mercury figurines. An almost identical goat figurine is known from the Uley shrines, Gloucestershire – thought to be dedicated to Mercury on the basis of the significant quantity of religious objects associated with that god and discovered there during excavations (Henig 1993, 101 no. 3 fig. 88). A figurine with a cock and a ram is known from King Harry Lane, Verulamium (Britannia 1972, 330 pl. xxv, b and c) and an example with a stand with a goat and tortoise is known from Augst (Kaufmann-Heinimann 1977, 105, no. 155 pls. 103-4). Other examples are known from Gallo-Roman sites such as Vicus de Pommeroeul, Hainault (Faider-Feytmans 1979, 198 no. A3,1) and Matagne-la-Petite Faider-Feytmans 1979, 197 A2, 1-3; De Boe 1982, 26 and 30, fig. 9). An almost identical figurine has been recorded with the PAS, record HAMP2606.

Astoundingly, the chance find of this figurine was accompanied by that of a figurine of a cockerel, which is almost undoubtedly connected.See record ESS-D28ED1.Other Roman objects have been found in the vicinity, which is near to a known Roman shrine.