Pipeclay, figurine

A pipeclay figurine of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Recovered from a Roman child's burial.

Statuettes like this were mass-produced in the Roman period, with many made in the workshops of Cologne and the Allier Valley, Gaul. It is likely that these figures were intended for religious practices, either for use in a household shrine or as gifts to the gods, to be deposited at temples and sacred sites. It has also been suggested that children may have used them as toys.