Casgliadau Arlein

A small chip from a pipeclay figurine of Venus. The chip comprises the four fingers and thumb of a hand and compares with complete figurines where Venus stands with the back of this left hand laid at ther side and over a fold of clothing. Such figurines were manufactured in Central Gaul and at Cologne in the first and second centuries and are not uncommon finds on military sites. Examples are known in particular from the legionary fortresses at Caerleon, Chester and York. These figurines are commonly interpreted as representations of a Celtic mother goddesses and they were certainly made for a Celtic market. They may have served as fertility symbols, or perhaps to bring good luck in childbirth, as some types depict the Venus with children. The fragment comes from the upper sediments of the drain (of the later second or third centuries) which also produced a profusion of bone hair-pins etc to indicate the presence of women in the baths.