Casgliadau Arlein

(b) A bolster carved with a six-petalled rosette on the front. From the top left-hand side of the altar, but no join survives. It is very weathered. (c) This fragment is broken along the bottom edge and at the back. It was found in association with (b) and it is likely that it forms part of the same altar. Although no join survives, it is almost certainly a small pediment that would have been situated at the top of the altar between the two bolsters and in front of the focus. A smal bust occupies a shell-shaped niche within the pediment. For its size it is quite well carved, but unfortunately the features are barely discernible for it has suffered badly from weathering. Despite the over-massive shoulders, the faint traces of what is perhaps a peplos suggest a female personage. As parallels, an altar from Housesteads dedicated to Mars, the two Alaisiagae and the Emperor Severus Alexander has a small bust in a pediment between the bolsters, and an altar to Mars from Balmuildy has a helmeted bust in a semi-circle. Elsewhere, two altars from Stockstadt also bear small busts situated between the bolsters, and both of these can be identified as representations of the deities to whom the altars are dedicated; one to Mercury and the other to Jupiter. Whether the Caerleon bust was intended to represent Salus can only be conjectured when no attributes are present. Early 3rd Century AD.