The Mâcon Treasure : an exceptional discovery

The eight statuettes brought together here were reproduced in 2004, based on the original items, which are conserved at the British Museum in London. They were probably part of a set that was originally much larger. The specimens discovered in Mâcon, in 1764, by a worker on the construction site of the Hôtel-Dieu building, belonged to a major treasure hoard. Buried in the third century, it also included plates, jewellery and several thousand gold, silver and bronze coins.

It was sold and some items were melted down, while others were acquired by collectors. One of them, the Englishman Richard Payne Knight, bought the statuettes and a plate around 1790, later bequeathing them to the British Museum, in 1824. They were made by a second-century Gallo-Roman workshop and represent deities worshipped in household altars. Jupiter, holding a lightning bolt in his right hand, is accompanied by a goat. Luna, the moon goddess, can be recognized by the small crescent on her head. Four depictions of the god Mercury are evidence of a votive practice that gave significant importance to commerce. One of the most finely crafted items, Tutela Panthée, holds a double horn of plenty crowned by busts of Diana and Apollo. Her wings are topped by a crescent moon and the seven deities of the week: Saturn, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. The last figurine, probably made a little later, in the third century, is a guardian spirit holding a hook and a horn of plenty.