ROMAN SCULPTURE

Small stone sculpture of a female goddess nursing an infant (Dea Nutrix). It is complete except the head. The female is draped in dress and cloak and breast-feeding a small child. This suggests the representation of another form of Mother Goddess as a "nursing mother", i.e. Dea Nutrix. Statues like this one but made from clay were mass-produced in Gaul and exported to Britain - they all show the young goddess seated in a high-backed wicker chair nursing one or two infants.An unusually complex fourth-century infant grave excavated in Baldock, Herts., in 1988 produced a complete Dea Nutrix figurine. Whilst not uncommon as site finds, Deae Nutrices are less frequently encountered as grave gifts in Britain than in Gaul.Gilbert R. Burleigh, Keith J. Fitzpatrick-Matthews and Miranda J. Aldhouse-Green: A Dea Nutrix Figurine from a Romano-British Cemetery at Baldock Britannia, 37 (2006), 273-94NB The statuette is currently on display in Senhouse Roman Museum, Maryport, Cumbria and could not be taken off display for a better image or measurements. The images here given have been taken with kind permission of the Senhouse Museum Trust.