Casgliadau Arlein

The stone is badly weathered and worn and much of the detail on the figure has disappeared. Part of the right side of the figure, including the arm, was removed when the stone was shaped for use as a threshold, and extensive tool-marks cover this surface. The worn right-hand face is also the result of its structural re-use. The top of the block is also damaged and the upper part of the right wing is missing.

Mercury is shown standing in a frontal position. Completely naked, he holds the vestiges of a small caduceus in his left hand. His wings, shown as simple horn-like projections, sprout directly from the head, but no hair is indicated. The execution of the carving is rather crude and the proportions of this squat figure are poorly represented. The trunk is rectangular and the legs are short and thick with no feet apparent. His rounded head bears large circular eyes, a nose terminating low down on the face, and a simple incision for the mouth. Representations of Mercury of varying degrees of competence are frequent in Roman Britain, both in sculpture in the round and in relief, as well as small bronze statuettes. In both Britain and Gaul, Mercury is quite frequently portrayed without a chlamys draped over one of his shoulders and an arm, and on some of the roughest sculptures, the attributes normally associated with the god are crudely rendered, especially the wings surmounting the head, which tend to take on the appearance of horn-like appendages, as in this example. Whether in some cases these protrusions are indeed horns, thus indicating a fusion of an indigenous horned god with Mercury, or merely poor representations of wings, is uncertain; but when some of the regular attributes of Mercury are present that deity is to be identified, however, 'Celtic' the style of execution. Wheeler suggested that a solid stone base about 1.2 m. square in a room of the rear range of the commandant's house indicated a domestic shrine; and it has been further suggested that this statue of Mercury, found structurally re-used in a late phase of an adjacent barrack-block, may have stood on the pedestal at one time.