Research
Romans carefully dismantled statue of emperor when they withdrew from Scotland 1,800 years ago, leaving only his foot behind
Live Science · By Kristina Killgrove ·
The Brief
- Only a lower right leg survives from a larger-than-life statue of Roman emperor Antoninus Pius that once stood in Scotland.
- Experts have reconstructed what the entire sculpture looked like.
- The Romans carefully dismantled the statue when they withdrew from Scotland about 1,800 years ago, and the reason is still unclear.
Why it matters
The study shows how Roman forces may have handled imperial monuments when they gave up a frontier region, and it offers a reconstruction of a lost sculpture from Roman Scotland.
Who’s affected
- archaeologists and historians of Roman Britain
- readers interested in Roman frontier history
- #roman-empire
- #archaeology
- #scotland
- #sculpture
- #antoninus-pius
All that remains of a larger-than-life statue of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius once erected in Scotland is a lower right leg. Experts have now reconstructed what the entire sculpture looked like but are still unsure why it was carefully dismantled over 1,800 years ago. The…