Le Sculpted decorative elements

The decorative carvings of both the bath house and the theatre are only known thanks to several sculpted blocks.

From the baths came the scroll of a Corinthian style capital which would have topped a corner pilaster decorating the upright of a bay.

Recent excavations on the site of the second theatre have revealed some items of architectonic design within the frons scaenae. Amongst them can be seen a fragment of a carved crown consisting of a broad doucine decorated with a foliage of inverted leaf bouquets below a vertical band. The discovery of scrolls from the pilaster capitals demonstrates that a Corinthian design must have accompanied this crown.

Two right-angled carved faces of the pilaster have also been discovered.

On one of them, foliage composed of a main stem is partially girdled in a wide bract whilst a secondary stem forms a scroll at the centre of which opens up a large pistil in a posy of leaves and petals peopled with small animals such as owls and dogs.

On the other face is a design of compartmentalised vertical panels in which mythological scenes alternate with floral candelabra.

Statuary and Public Cults

A religious and funerary conservatism is discernible running through the subjects of all the sculpted images. The large number of statues representing gods or heroes is evidence of the regard for the indigenous cults. Five headless statues of the god, ranging from 17 to 52 cms high, have been found.

Originally this god, the earliest known god from the Gaulish pantheon, wore a toque, that most Gallic of jewels, around his neck whilst holding a bag or purse in his hand from which he was pouring out the contents. Certain depictions show him crowned with a stag's antler endowing him with the power and regenerative qualities of the most prestigious animal in the Gallic forests.

Other gods, recovered mainly from the temple courtyard, were associated with this god or hero. Without being entirely contemporary, it seems probable that they coexisted at a particular point in time. So it is for Mercury, god of travellers and merchants, inventor of all the arts and considered by Caesar to be the greatest god in Gaul.

Other divinities worshipped in Argentomagus included Apollo, Serapis who belonged to the Egyptian pantheon and Cybele , the Grandmother of Mount Ida in Phrygia and personification of Nature.

Amongst the various subjects who remain anonymous, is a small iron mask whose almond-shaped eyes are carved in relief.

Also worthy of note are six rolled or folded tablets in lead, discovered in a box made from tiles, on which are engraved the words of a prayer invoking the help of a protective goddess and a spell against an enemy.