DetectingWales.com

By Alexander Robertson   Published: 22:15, 27 September 2017 
 
A unique Roman 'licking dog' never before seen in Britain has been found by two metal detector enthusiasts.

The exquisite bronze figure, which measures about 8.5-inches tall and 2-inches wide, has minutely detailed eyelashes and teeth.

The dog is sticking out its tongue and experts say it is an example of a healing statue, which may have come previously-undiscovered healing temple.

It dates from AD318 to AD450 and was found in Gloucestershire where another healing temple has already been found at Lydney.

It also has holes drilled in its front paws to fix it to a base and is decorated with oval patterns.

The dog was found among 30 other items, most of which appear to have been deliberately broken possibly as they were stashed in the ground.

They were discovered earlier this month by Pete Cresswell and his brother-in-law Andrew Boughton who were out with metal detectors. DW MEMBERS!!!


Mr Cresswell, who works in a school, said: 'It's not every day you come across a hoard of Roman bronze.

'We have been metal detecting for a combined 40 years, but this is a once in a lifetime discovery.

'As soon as I realised the items were of historical significance I contacted the local archaeology team, who were equally excited by the find.


The exquisite bronze figure, which measures about 8.5-inches tall and 2-inches wide, has minutely detailed eyelashes and teeth

'It's a great privilege to be able to contribute to local and British history.'

Archaeologist Kurt Adams said: 'This Roman hoard dates to the 4th century and mostly contains items that have been deliberately broken, ranging from small vessel fittings to a large bronze statue.

'Most amazing of all is a complete and finely detailed standing dog statue, which is a unique find for British archaeology.'

Archaeologists believe the items could have been stashed by a metal worker who intended to retrieve them at a later date in order to melt and re-cast them.

The statue dates from AD318 to AD450 and was found in Gloucestershire where another healing temple has already been found at Lydney

The precious artefacts are being stored at Bristol Museum where a painstaking process of photographing and cataloguing them has begun.

They have to be kept under special conditions for insurance reasons, and after careful studying, experts will present the findings of an examination at a launch at the British Museum.

The find also includes a coin from AD 321 to 324, a face with curly hair, possibly from a vessel, and another face, thought to be from a figurine.

Some 20 fragments from a large hollow cast bronze statue that would have stood about 3ft to 4ft tall are also thought to have come from the same sculpture.

Other ancient items include a spoon, and fragments of jewellery.

Nice one, again, Neil.  I saw it last night but don't know how to pick up and post newspaper articles to the Forum.

I wondered if they were members of the Forest of Dean club and DW. Great to know they are.

Some wonderful finds coming up around there. Well done to both of them.

Amazing find, well done!

Detailed PAS record with photos, etc:

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/865434

Absolutely phenomenal find..and massive Congratulations to those who found it..
Sometimes words are just not enough !!👏👏👏👏👏👏👏...👍

Nice write up and wonderful find .👍

How  excellent amazing well found

Incredible craftsmanship, another museum piece discovered by Detectorists, May never have been discovered by any other means.

What a lovely find, and piece of Roman History.

I was desperate to reply to this post, and put some pics up because many years ago I found a number of roman coins plus some bronze dogs, with tongues out, as the above. Also a bronze figure of mercury and a stamped bronze leaf. The objects were found in North Wales, were declared as a Roman votive site and now reside in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.
Although I still have official photographs in the computer I confess that I no longer seem able to put them up on this site.
Help, and an idiots guide to do so would be appreciated. I am sure that your readers would find the comparison interesting.

I tried all day to do this.
Found 1980 in North Wales. Roman votive site inc bronze dogs, votive leaf,  bronze Mercury, coins.
All items now on display in National Museum Wales in Cardiff.

some more

Mercury

Now that is what you call a hoard. What amazing finds. No wonder you were excited and eager to share.
An experience you’ll always remember. Lucky man.

Some fantastic finds.
It again raises the question of posting photographs on this site, I have seen many comments on it in the past.
Like a lot of people I use my iPhone to record my finds.
If I want to post them on this site, first I have to use the PhotoShrinker app then because it is too big a file I have to use Image converter to change its file extension that conforms to the ones allowed on the site, admittedly it does not take long but I am a member of two other forums that let me post directly from my phone with no adjustment.
If this could be resolved, I think we may get a lot more finds to look at.

Fantastic finds - both the new ones and b.buoy's.

Shows what must still be out there. I wonder when the new stuff was buried - and why all the scrap? Was it post roman- despite the coin of Crispus - was it storm damaged stuff - to do with raids?

As to photos - I take them with my phone, which I then connect to the PC as a USB drive - and use 'Screenhunter' to snip which ever bit of the image I need - and this is saved as VGA jpg as far as I can remember - certainly file sizes in the <100k size rather than >2M size.

Thanks Probono, but you have to go home connect to your computer download the photograph, convert it with photo hunter and select as jpeg.
With my club website I can send it from the field/beach, and the web format is very similar to DW.
I am not a website expert and i can understand the size issue, but would like someone to explain the restriction.