Asset number
801110001
Description
Silver votive plaque inscribed with dedication to Mars Toutatis by Tiberius Claudius Primus. Description: This is by far the largest known votive plaque, not only from Britain, but from anywhere in the Empire, and it is relatively well preserved. It assumes the shape of a broad leaf, tapering towards a point which culminates in a triple finial, the central point being lozenge-shaped and the surrounding two curving outwards. The right hand extension is damaged. A thick, central vein runs the length of the plaque with incised veins radiating from it at oblique angles. It bears no figure decoration but towards the lower end is a reserved ansate panel which bears the inscription, written in uneven, perforated letters. The plaque has been broken in half, about two-thirds along its length, and an attempt at repair has been made by boring four holes along each edge of the break, presumably in order to attach both halves to a backing. However, since the break is not shown in the early illustrations of the piece it must have presumably been sustained after discovery.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Using this image
Commercial use
To license images for charged-for journals and publications, and other commercial uses, please contact British Museum Images.
Contact BM images
Non-commercial use
You are permitted to use images from the British Museum website subject to our terms of use.
The image will be released to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. You can read more about the British Museum and Creative Commons here.
Download this image
New photography
If you cannot see an image that you want on the British Museum website, you can order new photography from us.
Order new image