Ritual and Identity: British Collections of Bronze Figurines from First-Millennium-BC pre-Roman Italy

My doctoral research project aims to develop our knowledge and understanding of schematic bronze figurines from pre-Roman Italy, using the collections available in British museums as a core data set. These simple anthropomorphic or zoomorphic bronzes are, at present, understudied, and their meanings and roles remain largely enigmatic. In view of this, my research project would seek to offer new insights into their development across time and space, as well as their ritual and social significance. This will also help museums, in Britain and elsewhere, to better contextualise and display these figurines, and to move beyond their conceptualisation as 'minor art'.
Votive bronze figurines from pre-Roman central Italy, of which schematic figurines are a subgroup, are known in their thousands, and are well represented in museum collections in both Europe and North America. Efforts have been made to catalogue, date, and provenance Italic 1 votive figurines, and they are considered as playing an important part in the celebrated 2 Etruscan metalworking tradition. The less well-known schematic figurines are included in 3 the earliest comprehensive catalogue and classification system of Archaic Italian bronze votive figurines, compiled by Giovanni Colonna. Most schematic figurines are now described by affinity to the workshops Colonna established, such as the 'Esquiline' Group (86 figurines representing male and female offerers); the 'Nocera Umbra' Group (circa 170 figurines, some representing male and female offerers, others representing Mars in a warrior stance); and the 'Foligno' Group (25 figurines, all but one representing Mars). More recently, schematic 4 votive figurines have occupied an important place in academic work dealing with Umbrian social structure. These are region-specific discussions in the service of a wider quest for 5 understanding the history of state development in Umbria.