Silver, 15.46 grams, 37.69 mm. 1st century BC-1st century AD. The boar was a sacred animal in many parts of ancient Europe, admired for its stubbornness and its dangerous tusks. This figurine shows the foreparts of the animal - face, forelegs and the bristly mane. Behind the tusks there is a circular transverse piercing. It is possible that the figurine was intended to form part of a miniature religious display. In the Lexden tumulus (Colchester, Essex) a group of figurines was found, among them a bull and a boar, probably dating to the mid-1st century AD and imported from Gaul. Reference: Green, M.J. The Gods of Roman Britain Princes Risborough, 2003, p.8ff. Very fine condition. Provenance: from an old English collection, found Continental Europe. This item is accompanied by an XRF ancient metal test certificate from Oxford X-ray Fluorescence Ltd.