File:Roman stone head (FindID 63035).jpg

English: Romano-British head sculpture in carboniferous grit stone. This carving is roughly spherical in shape with a flat underside, which enables it to stand upright. It is approximately 18cm high, 16cm wide and weighs in excess of half a kilo. The carving of the features is fairly simple. The eyes are represented by two lentoid hollows, approximately 3cm long, with a thinly carved line above each to give the impression of eyebrows. The nose, 4.5cm long and 2.5cm wide, is carved in relief, triangular in plan and is slightly damaged, there is no attempt at depicting nostrils. The lips are also carved in relief, very thin and running in a straight line for 4cm. Interestingly the philtrum, or the midline groove in the upper lip that runs from the top of the lip to the nose, is depicted. The cheeks are bulbous and the lines that run from the cheeks, down the sides of the mouth are clear. The ears are carved in a very realistic manner and are 4cm long, 3cm wide and stand about 1cm proud of the head. The head is depicted without hair, though there is a central groove running from front to back on the top of the head that may represent a parting. The face is clean-shaven. Despite some surface abrasion, the head survives in good condition. The grit stone is a dark grey in colour. The flattened underside of the head seems fairly regular, but it is hard to say whether it was designed to stand in isolation, or whether it formed part of a much larger stone statue and was carefully removed.

Such stone heads are fairly common finds in Britain, and are often referred to as ‘Celtic heads’ in the belief that they are an Iron Age phenomenon connected with head cults. However, Dr J.D. Hill at the British Museum believes there is no evidence that Iron Age peoples in Britain had a particular cult associated with just this part of the body or a stone carving tradition. Also there is little evidence of human representation in Iron Age art until the Late Iron Age, where it was restricted to images on coins or wooden vessels.

Carvings of this type may be crude in form due to the hardness of the stone used or because of unskilled workers, and as such there is a theory that many probably date to the Medieval and even Post Medieval periods, where they are part of architectural fittings etc.

However, this particular stone head has been viewed by Roman experts at the British Museum and by Martin Henig, who are of the opinion that this head is in fact Romano-British and probably 1st century in date.

Examples of Romano-British head sculpture in this crude style can be found in Ross, 1967,Pagan Celtic Britain, but be aware that Ross does connect them with Iron Age practice, though this theory has long since been under review.