Great Walsingham Assemblage

The Walsingham assemblage is exceptional in both its quantity and quality, and points to the existence of a temple site within the area of a Roman ‘small town’ on the north Norfolk coast. The range of objects is wide including a figurine of of Minerva, a naturalistically modelled ram and two cockerels, both attributes of Mercury and silver and bronze finger rings. The objects comprise a mix of explicitly religious material and items not traditionally associated with ritual practice. They point to a potential cult area to Mercury within the Roman town. Their discovery at the Walsingham site forces us to re-evaluate our understanding of the practices of religious devotion in Romano-British life.