Ancient Roman Terracotta Jewelry mold or Votive offering. This is part of a large collection of artifacts I'm helping liquidate, all purchased from reputable sources over the last quarter of the 20th century, money was no object. I'm pricing everything at a small fraction of what it cost from the galleries/auctions. Just the displays alone must've cost a small fortune. They come in a very fancy Steel/acrylic display case, case measuring 4.5" tall x 3" wide, some wear/adhesive residue to case, Artifact is 1.5" x 1.25" wide and appears to have some loss at the top and bottom, possibly part of something larger.
Votive offerings have been part of the human relationship with s and belief from pre-history to the present. Today we might light a candle, a stick of incense, lay a bunch of flowers or in some Catholic churches people still leave a wax body part by way of an offering, but in the ancient world the practice was more wide-ranging, literal and multifaceted.
The ancient Greeks and Romans offered them to a deity to bring good fortune or to grant favours and they were an important expression of their personal relationship with their s and desses. And when it came to matters of health and personal wellbeing, they were often anatomical.
