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I'm very pleased to say I got the chance to talk to the team who recovered this figurine at OxfordArchEast. Thanks to @NatTrustArch for allowing him into my PhD data!
THREAD https://twitter.com/NatTrustArch/status/1362668388083003393
THREAD https://twitter.com/NatTrustArch/status/1362668388083003393
So when I'm looking at human depictions, especially when trying to discern if they are from the Iron Age, I look at three things: hair, evidence of facial hair and facial features. These are considered both separately and together for analysis. Anything else is a bonus!
So let's start with that mullet! It's a slightly different version of the capped, streaked back hair style which is actually the most popular we see in Britain. What makes it different to other examples is the fine shape around the head.
Why the unusual front cut? Possibly an influence of Roman hair aesthetics. When you look at Iron Age coins mimicking the classical style, which occur post 25BC in southern Britain, you can see a similar style in HAMP-6E3913, a coin of Cunobelinus (ABC2870) 8AD-41AD.
But the origins of the style hark back to La Tène style figures, which is based on the hair being styled back from the hairline. Examples, with a less fine cut, include DEV-5965A6, LVPL-D8A9D2 and HAMP-997D86. As you can see, they also have a stronger hair texture.
This capped hairstyle makes up to 30% of human depictions known in England and Wales - it's one of the most popular styles used in depictions, closely followed by those with clean faces and heads.
So what about facial hair? At first I was sceptical, but when you play with the contrast on the photographs, you realise that this figurine does also sport a moustache! It's small, but definitely textured. This puts the Wimpole figure in a special class.
Despite the fact that moustachioed male warriors are the favourite way Classical authors depict Iron Age warriors, depictions of them are not common. Other examples from England include the heads from the Welwyn Burial (BM1911,1208.5), the Marlborough Bucket...
...and the Lenham Bucket (LON-E78C8A), which also provides another style alternative with the truncated faces. That means we only have individual 7 depictions of moustachioed males in Eng and Wales, out of 89 human depictions I've been able to find.
Then we have the torc. Though we have images on coins of both torcs being worn (e.g. SUR-107972 ABC219 pictured below) and being depicted (e.g. ABC1310 Verica Neck Torc Silver Minim), we don't have other human depictions in Britain of torcs being held in wider art.
This once again puts the Wimpole in a special class.
So what is he? A god? A regular joe? Can we even tell?
So what is he? A god? A regular joe? Can we even tell?
As you can see from the other moustachioed figures, they all share this streaked back hair style. Therefore the moustache, as well as the torc, are important indicators to show this is not a depiction of an average person of Iron Age society.
Coupled with the fact these depictions appear in high status contexts (mainly richly furnished graves), all this evidence indicates the importance of this moustachioed male character. We can't be sure this is a depiction of a living person of the time...
...nor can we be 100% sure that the moustachioed male represents of an idealised leader in Iron Age society. We also have no clear evidence that he is a deity. But we can say it is a character of high status, and that this would have been an important object at the time.
Therefore, though we can conclude that he represents someone of importance, the Torc-Bearer of Wimpole still represents many mysteries about art in Iron Age society that we are yet to solve.
