Description

Summary: Roman stone block from a built tomb, depicting three standing female deities, the Fates - Klotho, Lachesis and Atropos, found at St Mary's School in Calne.

Research results

A Romano-British relief sculpture found during building work at St Mary's School, Calne, around 1990; the block had been used in the foundations of a summerhouse next to St. Prisca's Schoolhouse, but its significance was not realised until much later. Although resembling the three Matres (mothers), which are fairly commonly depicted in Romano-British sculpture, these figures have been identified by the Rev. Professor Martin Henig as the three Fates, based on their attributes. The figure on the left is Klotho, who holds her distaff from which she spins her thread, in the centre is Atropos holding her scales, and Lachesis reads from a scroll on the right. The fates measure, weigh and judge a human life respectively, and Henig suggests that the frieze was probably originally part of a funerary monument of the latter second century.

The stone has been examined macroscopically and sampled for thin-section analysis by Dr Kevin Hayward FSA, who identifies the source of the stone as being the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Limestone scarp centred on Box, 10-12km west of the find spot. Whilst local sources of similar stone were avalaible, the outcrop at Box is of a higher quality and is better suited to more intricate carvings. It seems likely then, that this, rather than economic factors, was the primary motivation in selecting the stone to use for this carving.