Avenches – Roman Museum – Permanent Exhibition

First Floor Religion
Roman Religion
« Mars Gradivus, father ... my mother country and its citizens, ... glorious warrior; as he was
rightly so ordered (?) in his dream, Sextus Tetricius offers you this donation »
Late 2nd or early 3rd century AD.
Catalogue of inscriptions: no. 24.
14. Jasper intaglio. Head of Mercury and two letters: TI, standing for Tiberius?
Early 1st century AD.
15. Nicolo intaglio. Satyr holding a flute in his left hand and a crook (pedum) in his right,
and wearing a fawn skin (nebris). There is a star at the bottom on the right.
Early 1st century AD.
16. Garnet intaglio. Dancer in the retinue of Bacchus. In his right hand, he is holding a
cantharos and he has a fawn skin (nebris) draped over his arm. With his left hand, he is
waving a staff embellished with ribbons (thyrsus). A tipped over wine crater is lying on the
floor on the right-hand side. Early 1st century AD.
17. Cornelian intaglio. Minerva holding a lance in her left hand and the sheath of a sword
in her right. Her shield is placed on the ground in front of her. 2nd century AD.
18. Bronze owl; bird associated with Minerva.
19. Bone pin with bust of Minerva.
20-22. Three bronze coins with Minerva depictions. 1st century AD.
23. Apollo. Bronze statuette. 2nd century AD.
Statue of the Goddess Minerva (1)
Head, right forearm, feet and fingers of the left hand; marble. Original height of statue:
2.8 m.
So-called acrolith statue. Only the visible parts of the statue are sculpted in marble.
Remnants of wood in the groove at the neck and an iron hook on the forearm of the
statue indicate that the rest of the body was probably made of wood and was hidden
under a dress made of cloth. Minerva is wearing armour decorated with a marble head of
Medusa. The helmet on Minerva’s head bears a face with closed eyes.
The fragments of the statue had been carefully buried in a so-called favissa, a type of
ritual ditch inside a building right beside the forum. This building might have been a
library or a meetinghouse. As the goddess of wisdom, of the arts and of science, Minerva
was often placed in that kind of location. 2nd century AD?
The two mosaic glass discs, found nearby, may have been used to decorate a wooden
chest.
Display case 21
Fragment of sitting statuette, limestone. 2nd – 3rd centuries AD.
This representation of Jupiter resembles the cult statue of Jupiter Optimus Maximus,
which stood in the temple of the Capitol in Rome.
This statuette may have adorned a column similar to the one found in Mayence (see
drawing on the other side). Should this assumption be correct, the original height of the
column would have been 3.9 metres approximately.
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First Floor
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