Roman panther found clawing open barbarian’s head in Essex

A rare Roman vehicle accessory depicting a female feline paw resting on a disembodied human head has been discovered in Britain and has been officially declared a treasure. Dating to between AD 43 and AD 200, it is the only known Roman vehicle accessory found in Britain that combines a feline and human head. This unique pattern and style lends this humble piece historical importance, and despite being a single object made of base metal, it qualifies as a treasure under the 1996 revised Treasures Act.

The copper alloy statue was discovered in 2024 by a metal detector in Harlow, Essex. Its back is flat and hollow, and its three-dimensionally modeled front depicts a large female cat crouched on its haunches, its forelimbs resting on the head of a male human. Her tail is tucked under her hips, with the curl covering the base of the tail. The animals are engraved with stylized lines of musculature. Two small circles may represent a leopard skin pattern. (The Latin word pantera also means leopard.)

The head is completely covered by a crown of hair, indicated by parallel lines from head to forehead. The beard and mustache are also drawn in parallel lines, outlining a fluted mouth. The parallel lines of the beard are also drawn at the bottom, creating an overlapping structure, like a panther’s tail. The eyes are lens-shaped and closed, with a line of eyebrows above them. The straight line below the forehead intersects with the curve above the eyebrows, suggesting a frown.

It is approximately 4.5 inches long, 4 inches high, and 1.7 inches wide. The cat’s unmodeled hollow back is filled with lead. Its flatness proves that it is an accessory to be installed on a flat surface. The relatively small size of the piece suggests that it was not mounted directly on a carriage or carriage, but rather on a strap that connected the draft animal to the yoke.

According to Greco-Roman iconography, hair and beard mark the figure as a barbarian. The closed eyes show that he is a dead savage. Dead or captured barbarians are ubiquitous in Roman art as symbols of imperial conquest, but they typically appear in battle scenes, sculptures, reliefs, mosaics, frescoes, and coins, and they are not paired with exotic beasts. The closest British equivalent is a female black panther with her front paws resting on a coat of arms bearing the face of Jupiter Ammon, long hair and beard, so not a savage at all, now in Colchester Museum.