A “very rare” clay figurine of the god Mercury, one of fewer than 10 ever found in Britain, has been discovered at a previously unknown Roman settlement that once sat next to a busy harbor – but is now 10 miles from the sea down
The site of the settlement, in the modern hamlet of Small Hythe (or Smallhythe), near Tenterden in Kentnow sits between fields, but was once an important link in the Roman empire’s import and infrastructure network in southern England and the Channel.
The coastline in this part of Kent has changed dramatically since the Roman era, thanks to large-scale land drainage and reclamation and the silting up of a once wide estuary. In the 1990s, archaeologists discovered the site of A medieval shipyard in Small Hythe which once was visited by King Henry V.
The discovery that it had also previously been the site of a Roman settlement, together with the artefacts found there, was “very exciting”, according to National Trust archaeologist Nathalie Cohen.
The settlement was small in scale and modest in prestige, Cohen said. “It’s not Roman Londinium, it’s not Cirencester. It’s a small settlement by a port.” That said, “it would have been essential in the logistics chain for the export of wood and iron [south-east England] and importing materials from the mainland”.
Other finds from the site include a tile stamped with the mark of the Classis Britannica, the Roman fleet in Britain, underscoring the importance of the waterfront site.
However, the undoubted star find is the figure of Mercury – the god of the fine arts, commerce and financial success – of which only the head remains, with its characteristic winged headdress. While models of the god are more common in metal, “it’s incredibly rare to come across a head of a statuette of Mercury in pipe clay,” Cohen said.
Pipeclay figurines were made of clay in the areas of modern-day France and Germany and were imported, but most found in Britain are of female deities, usually Venus.
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Rather than appearing in a large temple, experts believe the statue will likely have a more modest use. “Pipeclay figurines were used mainly by civilians for private religious practice in household shrines and sometimes in temples and the graves of often sick children,” says Matthew Fittock, an expert on ceramic figurines Roman Britain.
Interestingly, it appears to have been broken on purpose, perhaps indicating a ritual significance, he said. “Rather than pieces being discarded because they were broken, there is evidence to suggest that the deliberate breaking of some figurine heads was an important ritual practice, whereas whole figurines are usually found in graves.”
