Roman Legionary Votive Statuette of a Wild Boar

A naturalistically rendered cast bronze statuette of a wild boar, dating to Roman Imperial Times. The animal is portrayed standing on four legs, with facial and anatomical features, such as eyes, ears, tusks, prominent spinal crest and coat, rendered through a series of incised lines. Bronze statuettes in the form of deities or animals would have been placed in temples or domestic shrines as votive offerings. This particular example might have belonged to the personal shrine of a soldier, as the boar was a common symbol across different Roman military legions. The famous Legion X Fretensis, stationed in Judaea, adopted the boar as a symbol, often depicted on inscriptions and stamped on roof tiles.