Romec. AD 140 · Milsington, near Hawick, Scottish Borders, United Kingdom
Gilded bronze leg from a Scottish bog came from a giant Roman emperor statue, curators say
Long thought to be loot dragged north over Hadrian's Wall, the Milsington leg is now linked to a horseback statue of Antoninus Pius near Hawick.
In brief 3 key points
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- A gilded bronze leg was dug from a Borders bog in 1820
- Curators now link it to a local statue of a Roman emperor
- The leg leads a new Roman Scotland exhibition in Edinburgh
A large gilded bronze leg, dug out of a bog in the Scottish Borders in 1820, probably came from a statue of a Roman emperor on horseback that stood in Scotland itself. Archaeologists at National Museums Scotland now link it to a vast statue of Antoninus Pius erected near Hawick around AD 140.
The so-called Milsington leg is the centrepiece of Roman Scotland: Life on the Edge of Empire, which opens at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The Guardian calls it the largest exhibition ever staged on the Romans in Scotland.
From loot to local statue
Earlier antiquarians thought the leg had been looted further south, perhaps from York. In their view, raiding Scottish tribes hacked it off and carried it north over Hadrian's Wall.
“We cannot visualise the conditions which would have led to its erection anywhere north of the Great Wall.”
James Curle, scholar, writing in 1932
The curators now see it differently. They think the statue was put up after the armies of Antoninus Pius took control of southern Scotland, and the leg resembles imperial statues from other frontier regions. They also think it was carefully removed rather than hacked off, and then deposited in the bog where it was found some 1,700 years later.
After it was dug up, the leg spent about 100 years in the charter room at Dalkeith House near Edinburgh, a home of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Dr Fraser Hunter, the principal curator of the exhibition, believes such statues had a strong effect on Iron Age communities, whose art showed almost no people.
“These kind of things are not only visually dominant but they look really, really alien.”
Dr Fraser Hunter, National Museums Scotland
A frontier town at Inveresk
Much of the exhibition comes from Inveresk in East Lothian, east of Edinburgh. A 2nd-century Roman fort there grew into a large town during the Antonine occupation of AD 142 to 165, the second of three Roman occupations of Scotland. The fort had the world's most northerly known temple to the god Mithras, and two newly conserved stone altars from it are on display for the first time.
One altar has slits cut into its hollow stone around the carved head of Mithras. Holes in the eyes and mouth let lamplight shine out into the dark temple. The show also includes the full skeleton of a horse buried at Inveresk, and a reconstructed earthenware bowl decorated with dolphins, stags and a hunting dog.
Hunter estimates that about 10,000 troops served across southern and eastern Scotland, including auxiliaries from places such as modern Romania and north Africa. Perhaps another 10,000 camp followers, wives and enslaved people lived alongside them.
The exhibition also follows how Roman rule shaped local peoples. Rome used silver, previously unknown locally, to buy loyalty. By the 3rd and 4th centuries, Pictish tribes had joined forces against Rome, and Hunter links the later Pictish symbols to their contact with Roman sculpture and writing.
Sources (2)
Official announcementfrom National Museums Scotland
- Bronze leg found in Scottish bog sheds new light on Roman occupation (The Guardian: archaeology)
- Gilded bronze leg of a Roman statue found in a Scottish bog goes on show in Edinburgh (National Museums Scotland)
Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars
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