The leg of a Maastricht Diana
Author: Harry Lindelauf
Photography: Municipality of Maastricht
These are the favourite Via Belgica finds of the experts. Discover what archaeologists answer to our question: what is your favourite Roman find along the Via Belgica in South Limburg? The answers are varied and surprising. From a bronze Diana leg to spectacular sandstone ash chests. In ten episodes we present the choices of experts. In the seventh episode:
Wim Dijkman— Curator at Centre Céramique Maastricht
The favourite find of Wim Dijkman, curator at Centre Céramique Maastricht, arrives in a very contemporary way at the editorial office by iPhone. His favourite was found in 1969 under the Vrijthof in Maastricht during the construction of the underground car park. It concerns a 28-centimetre-large part of a bronze statue. The artwork lies in a small cellar of marlstone blocks along the Via Belgica under today’s Vrijthof in Maastricht. The findspot is in the corner of the Vrijthof at the height of the ING bank building and the restaurants on the east side. Here four different, partly overlapping, traces of the Via Belgica in the direction of Tongeren have also been found.
Found under the Vrijthof in Maastricht: part of a bronze statue of Diana.
Stunning elegance
The Romans built here, on a raised strip along the road, several wooden houses. The cellar where the statue fragment was found belongs to one of those houses. Near the leg, two other fragments in bronze from other statues were also found. These are fragments forming the folds of a cloak.
The Diana statue is stunningly elegant thanks to the detailed depiction of a beautifully decorated laced boot with a fold-over of lion skin and, at the top, the edge of a short tunic.
The statue dates from the first or second century. It is regarded as a representation of Diana, the goddess of the hunt.
