A LEAD VOTIVE STATUETTE DEPICTING A GENIUS CUCULLATUS DISCOVERED NEAR TOMIS (MOESIA INFERIOR)
A LEAD VOTIVE STATUETTE DEPICTING A GENIUS CUCULLATUS DISCOVERED NEAR TOMIS (MOESIA INFERIOR)

Summary/Abstract: The real estate developments in Constanța have attracted in recent years a series of preventive archaeological investigations, which have led to the discovery of a rich archaeological material. These include a lead statuette discovered in the Palazu Mare district of Constanța. Here a nucleus of habitation has been identified, previously reported through various archaeological finds from the Roman period. The archaeological site of Palazu Mare has been more clearly delimited in recent years thanks to numerous surveys and preventive archaeological investigations. The chronology of the settlement (vicus?) has been placed in the 2nd-3rd centuries and the first decades of the 4th century AD. The statuette is 8.45 cm high and 2.9 cm wide and is made of die-cast lead. It depicts a male figure wearing a bardocucullus or paenula cucullata covering his entire body up to his knees. The face is rendered schematically, from which the eyes and nose can be distinguished, and on the head the divinity wears a hooded hood (cucullus). The cloak detached from the chest, where another item of clothing, probably a tunic, can be distinguished, as well as the phallic symbol of the character. Under the cloak, the feet are visible and it can be seen that the deity is probably wearing boots of campagus type (?). The back of the statue is finished, with slight traces of corrosion due to the reliable material from which it is made. The deity is placed on a pedestal, currently deformed due to the poor preservation, but suggesting the presence of a concave fixing hole. An analogy for the piece from the present study, comes from the Province of Dacia and is a terracotta statuette discovered at Budești, Bistrița-Năsăud county where, as in our case, we are dealing with the representation of a Genius Cucullatus of the ithyphallic type.Genius Cucullatus (pl. genii cucullati) is a deity of Celtic origin widespread in both the continental sphere of influence of the Celtic world and the British Archipelago. The name derives from the hood he wears on his head (cucullatus) attached to a mantle. In continental Europe hooded spirits are represented singularly, whereas in Britannia cucullatii invariably appear in threes. Although their functionality and significance are not very clear, they are unanimously considered to be fertility genies. In the Roman world, genies represented spirits that could be found in objects, totems and sometimes even people, offering protection and guidance. They are protective spirits found everywhere in the abstract sphere of humans and even gods.The rarity of the discovery is conveyed by the material from which the statue is made. Lead statues are quite rare in the Dobrudja part of Moesia Inferior.

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