NOTES AND SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS 
the Archaeological Institute in London 
(Archaeological Fournal 8, 1851, 318), the original of 
which ‘had been brought to him by a shepherd who 
said he had found it lying on the green sward in one 
of the “tinings” or enclosed pasturages on Salisbury 
Plain in the neighbourhood of an ancient 
encampment ... Numerous coins and a bronze 
figure about 3 inches in height had been found near 
the spot which is situated on Charlton Down, near 
Devizes, the property of Lord Normanton. A large 
tract of the Downs at this place seems to have been 
covered by habitations; vestiges of buildings are 
clearly to be traced upon it.’ The settlement in 
question is the well-known Romano-British 
settlement recently surveyed by the R.C.H.M. and 
published by English Heritage (McOmish et al, 
2002). At times it has been incorrectly stated to lie 
in the adjacent parish of Rushall. The encampment 
which is mentioned is, of course, Casterley Camp 
hillfort; the bronze figurine is probably to be 
equated with the 2% inches high figurine of 
Mercury published as from Rushall Down, at one 
time in the Society’s museum (accession no.362) 
but missing since 1940. 
Although there is no certainty, the cast of the 
plaque in lead recently acquired by the museum 
may well be either the same as that exhibited by the 
Revd E Wilton, or it may be another cast from the 
same mould. It is most unlikely that a lead cast 
would have been made of this plaque after it 
entered the museum collection, while it is perhaps 
unlikely to have been cast on more than one 
occasion in the period before the museum acquired 
it. It is possible that the cast was made perhaps at a 
time when the Revd.Wilton did not own the 
original, or because he wished it to be better known 
and appreciated by other antiquaries or collectors. 
It is uncertain whether or not the Revd Wilton 
already owned the plaque in 1851 or indeed in 1853 
when he exhibited it at the temporary museum set 
up at the inaugural meeting of the Society 
(WANHM 1, 1854, 62) but it is probable that he did 
do so. He is recorded as the plaque’s source in the 
early catalogues of the collections (Cunnington and 
Goddard, 1911, 352; 1934, 215). There is, however, 
no record of his donation of it to the Society either 
in the list of donations published each year in the 
Society’s journal or in the early manuscript list of 
donations to the Society’s collections. It is probable 
that the plaque was included among the ‘greater 
part of the collections of the late Revd Wilton’ 
297 
acquired in 1871 and recorded almost casually in 
WANHM (13, 1872, 222). Possibly the collection 
was purchased although there is no record of this in 
the Society’s minutes. 
In spite of the importance of the plaque it was 
not properly published for many years and by then 
its original findspot had been forgotten. 
Presumably because Revd Wilton owned an 
important collection of finds from West Lavington, 
the parish of which he was the incumbent, it was 
assumed that the plaque too came from the same 
area (Goddard 1909, 173f; Cunnington and 
Goddard 1911, 354). This error was later corrected 
by Goddard (1914, 377) but by accident was 
repeated in the second catalogue of the Society’s 
collections (Cunnington and Goddard 1934, 215). 
Although correctly published as from Charlton 
Down by L V Grinsell (1957, 55), the incorrect 
findspot has nevertheless occasionally been 
perpetuated, for example, by Toynbee (1964, 333) 
and Green (1976, 22). At the present day the 
findspot is invariably correctly given. 
It is beyond the scope of this note to discuss 
either the iconography of the Minerva plaque or its 
artistic importance, both of which aspects have 
been considered elsewhere and surely will be again 
in future studies of the archaeology of the Roman 
period in Wiltshire. 
Bibliography 
CUNNINGTON, M. E., and GODDARD, E. H., 1911, 
Catalogue of Antiquities in the museum of The Wiltshire 
Archaeological and Natural History Society at Devizes, 
part 2. Devizes: WANHS [2nd edition 1934] 
GODDARD, E. H., 1909. Notes on some Roman Objects 
found in Wiltshire. The Reliquary and Illustrated 
Archaeologist 15 (3), 169-175 
GODDARD, E. H., 1914. A list of Prehistoric, Roman 
and Pagan Saxon Antiquities in the County of Wilts 
arranged under Parishes. WANHM 38, 153-378 
GREEN, M., 1976, A Corpus of Religious Material from the 
Civilian Areas of Roman Britain. Oxford: British 
Archaeological Reports 24 
HENIG M., 2001, ‘Art in Roman Wiltshire,’ in Peter Ellis 
(ed.), Roman Wiltshire and after: papers in honour of Ken 
Annable, 107-126. Devizes: WANHS 
McOMISH, D., FIELD, D., and BROWN, G., 2002, The 
Field Archaeology of the Salisbury Plain Training Area. 
Swindon: English Heritage 
TOYNBEE, J.M.C., 1964, Art in Britain under The Romans. 
Oxford: Oxford University Press 
WANHS, The Museum, 41 Long Street, Devizes SN10 1NS 
