The Silchester eagle is a Roman bronze casting dating from the first or second century CE, uncovered in 1866 at
Calleva Atrebatum in
Silchester, Hampshire, England. It was purchased in 1980 by
Reading Museum
Reading Museum (run by the Reading Museum Service) is a museum of the history of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and the surrounding area. It is accommodated within Reading Town Hall, and contains galleries describing th ...
in Berkshire where it remains on display .
History
The Silchester eagle was discovered, wingless and damaged, on 9 October 1866 by
Rev J. G. Joyce during the excavation of a Roman
basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...
where it was likely part of a larger statue.
It stands approximately high and has a hollow space inside which was accessed through a (now missing) square lid located on the top of the back of the bird. It was found buried in a layer of charred wood, leading the discoverer to believe that it might have been the
sacred eagle of a Roman legion and had been hidden for safekeeping in the rafters of the
aerarium
Aerarium, from ''aes'' (“bronze, money”) + -''ārium'' (“place for”), was the name given in Ancient Rome to the public treasury, and in a secondary sense to the public finances.
''Aerarium populi Romani''
The main ''aerarium'', that ...
(treasury).
However, more recent archaeologists have suggested that the piece may have been intended as nothing more than scrap metal by the Romans at the time that it was lost, and was awaiting being recycled when the aerarium burnt down.
The curve of the feet suggests that the eagle's
talons had grasped a globe that was probably held in the hand of a statue, possibly of Jupiter.
See also
*''
The Eagle of the Ninth
''The Eagle of the Ninth'' is a historical adventure novel for children written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published in 1954. The story is set in Roman Britain in the 2nd century AD, after the building of Hadrian's Wall.
Plot
Discharged because ...
'', the 1954 novel by
Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novel ...
that was inspired by the Silchester eagle
*
''The Eagle'', the 2011 film based on the novel
References
External links
{{Commons category-inline, Silchester Eagle
Archaeological artifacts
Eagles
Roman Britain
Ancient Roman military standards
Birds in art