Erotic images from Greece and Rome, £16.99
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Height: 15.000 cm
P&EE 1857.8-6.1
Prehistory and Europe
Chariot-racing in ancient Rome
Pottery jar with a chariot-race
This colour-coated pottery jar is decorated with a lively, though schematized depiction of a chariot-race. The event is for quadrigae, four-horse chariots, and four competitors are shown in the middle of the race. Each is helmeted, dressed in a long sleeved jerkin and trousers, and holds whips and reins. The spirited rendering of the scene, made more vivid by the varied postures of the charioteers, suggests that the potter had actually been to a similar race.
The jar was either made in the area of Colchester, or in the Nene Valley region of Cambridgeshire. The remains of a Roman circus were discovered in Colchester in 2004, and excavated by the Colchester Archaeological Trust. This is the first Roman circus ever discovered on British soil, and shows that chariot racing was familiar to at least some of the people of Roman Britain.