A model of a mouse

This bronze mouse was found during excavation of the legionary defences at Mermaid Yard in a context dating to c. 75-80. Regarding this find, Dr Lindsay Allason-Jones, a specialist in the study of the Roman army and Roman finds, wrote as follows:

Small three-dimensional statuette of a mouse on a flat oval ground. The depiction is stylised, with a large dot-and-ring motif representing each eye, but is immediately recognisable as a mouse. Mice are not commonly represented in Romano-British art and Liversidge was undecided whether a similar mouse found in a child’s grave at York had funerary significance or was merely a toy.

Acknowledgments: RAM Museum