Sculptures - Sulis Minerva

S u l i s M i n e r v a

Sulis Minerva
This head of Minerva belonged to the life-size bronze image of Minerva from the Temple of Sulis Minerva.
Towards the beginning of the forth century, the Sanctuary of Sulis Minerva was despoiled, presumably by Christians.
There was a brief revival, as a dedicatory inscription records:

This holy spot,
wrecked by insolent hands and cleansed afresh,
Gaius Severius Emeritus, centurion in charge of the region has restored to the Virtue and Deity of the Emperor

Early in the eight century, workmen digging a sewer turned up Sulis Minerva's gilded bronze head in the south-west corner of the baths.
As the jagged edges round the neck bore witness, the head had been violently hacked from its body.
Some say that this had been done to destroy the very essence of the Goddess's power, others that that same essence had been preserved by careful burying, to protect it from those who would destroy it.
Bronze, Roman period
Bath, Roman Museum

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Detail

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