Wallsend vicus, Roman sculptured slab

HER Number:
822

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Wallsend vicus, Roman sculptured slab

Place:
Wallsend

Map Sheet:
NZ26NE

Class:
Religion or Ritual

Site Type: Broad:
Religious Structural Object

Site Type: Specific:
Sculpture

General Period:
Roman

Specific Period:
C2

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
Two portions (which do not join) of a sculptured slab, 14.5 x 14 inches, with die 10 x 2.5 inches. On the left is a goat, and on the right the feet of Mercury. Found in, or shortly before, 1894 near RIB nos. 1299 & 1301 (HER nos. 819 & 820), in the allotments at Philiphaugh west of the fort. An inscription reads: Deo M(ercurio) s(igil(lum) (?)) d(edicauit) et p(osuit) coh(ors) / II Ner(uioru)m pago / ...diorum; "To the god Mercury the second Cohort of Nervians from the district of... dedicated and set up this statuette". Spain added that Brand had noticed the upper part of a sculptured caduceus lying before the door of Bees Houses (Stote's House) in 1783, and suggested that this might have been another part of HER no. 822 as Brand had remarked that a mutilated statue of Mercury found between the farm house and the river "a few years before" was broken in pieces by a maid servant. Stote's House subsequently became Stott's House Farm.

Easting:
295

Northing:
657

Grid Reference:
NZ295657

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 822 >> R. Blair, 1895, Roman Inscriptions etc. Wallsend, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 2, VI (for 1893-4), p. 138 and pl. G.R.B. Spain, ed. 1930, Inscribed and Sculptured Stones, Wallsend, Northumberland County History, XIII, p. 542 no. 6 R.G. Collingwood & R.P. Wright, 1965, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, 1303 E.J. Phillips, 1977, Great Britain, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Vol. I Fasc I nos. 202, 204, pp. 67-8 and pl. 53 P.T. Bidwell, N. Holbrook & M.E. Snape, 1991, The Roman Fort at Wallsend and its Environs, p. 5 nos. 16, 20