Model wheel of copper alloy
Roman, mid- 1st-4th century AD
Found during excavations by Winchester Museums Service Archaeology Section at Victoria Road, Winchester in the mid- to late 1970s
This model wheel came from a cremation burial in the cemetery outside Roman Winchester's north gate. The person in the grave was also accompanied by three pots, a brooch, two mirrors, two beads, one of glass and one of amber, two armlets, one of ivory with a silver ring, two glass unguent jars and food offerings in the form of cuts of pork or ham, and lamb. The cremated remains were in a wooden box, the metal fittings for which had survived nearly 2,000 years of burial in the ground.
The model wheel represents the celtic Jupiter (Taranis, the sky god). It may originally have been strung on a necklace with the beads, or, more likely, placed separately in the grave as a good luck token or symbol of power. The age and sex of the person are unknown, but the presence of mirrors, armlets and beads suggest a woman or a female child.
