The Mercury Stone

3D Model

The Mercury Stone

Roman

Found at Little Chester, Derby

This carved stone figure is thought to depict Mercury, the Roman god of merchants and travellers. It was found at Little Chester, Derby, and may have adorned a private shrine in the Roman settlement of Derventio.

So long as the Imperial Cult was also worshipped, the Roman Empire could be surprisingly tolerant of other religions. In provinces like Britannia, some local gods seem to have merged with the incoming Roman ones in a process known as syncretism. People worshiped these hybrid gods alongside ancient local deities and new cults.

Depictions of Mercury were popular throughout Roman Britain, and the god may have become syncretized with a Celtic horned god of fertility, Cernunnos.

The lines on our sculpture’s head might be the wings on Mercury’s helmet, or they may represent Cernunnos’ horns.