Trac 2000 by Davies Gwyn;Gardner Andrew;Lockyear Kris;

Author:Davies, Gwyn;Gardner, Andrew;Lockyear, Kris;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxbow Books, Limited
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

7.2Gallo-Roman stag-human images

Images exhibiting a blend of human and stag characteristics are particularly common in the east of Roman Gaul, though they occur elsewhere in the western Roman provinces. Although Pan, the slightly disreputable Greek nature-god, was depicted with goat-legs and horns (Virgil Georgics 2: lines 490–94: Ferguson 1980, pp. 17, 32), antlered images do not occur within the repertoire of the Classical world. Such iconography seems to originate in the pre-Roman Iron Age: the earliest such images occur in the rupestrine art of Val Camonica, near Brescia in North Italy, during the seventh to fourth centuries BC (Priuli 1988, p. 78, nos. 134, 136–7: Priuli 1996, p. 29, Fig. 51) particularly on the Naquane (Capodiponte) and Paspardo rocks (Fig. 7.2), where several standing human figures wearing antlers are represented. Other figures include the well-known image on the Danish Gundestrup Cauldron (Fig. 7.3), which probably dates to the 1st century BC (Olmsted 1979, pl. 2A; Taylor 1992, pp. 66–71; Kaul et al. 1991, Fig. 221), whose cross-legged posture resembles several of the Gallo-Roman images (below). A similar attitude is present on the bronze late Iron Age torc-wearing figure from Bouray (Essonne, Seine-et-Oise) (Joffroy 1979, no. 78; Green 1989, p. 91, Fig. 37) who has no antlers but whose feet are in the form of stags’ hooves, The Camunian iconography includes a variation on the standing antlered human figures, in depictions of stags bearing on their backs centaur-like riders whose lower bodies merge with those of their mounts (Priuli 1988, p. 77, nos. 133 & 135, p. 84, nos. 140–142; see Fig. 7.4).

Figure 7.2: Iron Age rock-carvings of antlered anthropomorphic figures from Capodiponte and Paspardo, Camonica Valley, Italy. ©Anne Leaver.

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