Roman figurine of a dog

This cast bronze figurine, made probably by the lost-wax method, was found in the vicinity of one of the important excavated Roman townships of East Suffolk at Hacheston, near Wickham Market. In Roman cult worship, dogs were seen as agents of healing (through the licking of wounds) and as protectors of the dead. Such animal statuettes would be kept with those of the lares or household gods. British dogs were famous and were exported during the Empire, an Irish wolf-hound being used in the Circus against wild beasts. However, images of dogs are unusual and this was the only known example from Suffolk.