Roman, Bronze Jug

This jugs oval body merges into a short flaring neck with an everted rim. It has a delicate narrow base and curving handle with central rib. The body and neck are cast as a single piece. The handle terminates in a volute, beneath is a triangle with the bust of a man, with a beard and tunic fastened by a brooch. Two spirals on either side of his head curve and end below in two spirals above a palmette. The top of the handle ends in a thumb size scallop shell support, on either side of which are two stylized bird's heads with long beaks emerging from volutes. Underneath this are several concentric circles. This type of jug was made in southern Italy from the mid-first to the third-century AD.