What the heck is a lek?
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
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This enigmatic face is thought to be Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and revelry. The tiny glass piece would have originally hung from a highly-decorated Roman wine glass.
Roman drinking glasses were often decorated with likenesses of Bacchus and his attendants – male satyrs and female maenads.
The tiny glass head was found during the excavation of a Roman settlement to the north of Poole.
Archaeologists speculate that the glass head originated at Lake Legionary Fortress about four miles west from where it was discovered. This was occupied by the Second Legion Augusta, as part of the Roman conquest of South-West England.
The head had been carefully buried beneath a mill stone, with a layer of shale on top. Someone carefully and deliberately buried it, but why?
It’s believed that after the glass head had broken off the vessel, it was found by local Celtic people. The care with which it was buried suggests that they gave it a new spiritual significance, and used it in a ritual burial.
When Wessex Museums commissioned Ann-Marie James to create a contemporary art exhibition, she chose one object from each museum as her inspiration.
At Poole Museum she chose the Roman glass head. She said:
“The Roman poet Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’, which recounts ancient myths, has been a recurring theme in my practice. So rather than work directly with the glass head, I chose instead to work with imagery from Ovid’s text.
“In the myth, Bacchus’ companion, Silenus, drank too much wine and became lost. He was taken to King Midas who then returned him to Bacchus. As a reward, Bacchus gave Midas the power of turning everything he touched into gold.”
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.
The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!