d) Iconography

The celebrated bronze statue of Sequana, dated 1st c. AD, was discovered together with the bronze statue of a faun in a riff of the cliff overhanging the site by Corot in 1933.¹⁸²⁵ These statues may have been hidden there in a time of insecurity, possibly when the first Barbarian invasions swept the area in 275 AD.¹⁸²⁶

The representation of the goddess is very classical: she wears a diadem, a chiton* and a pallium* (fig. 12).¹⁸²⁷The only element which is of indigenous character is the boat on which she stands. Its peculiarity resides in its stern which is in the form of a duck tail and in its prow which is in the shape of a duck head, holding a round fruit, a pearl, a cake or pellet in its beak.¹⁸²⁸ Similar images of ducks with a cake or a pellet in their beak have been found at Ashby-de-la-Launde (Lincolnshire), Rotherly Down (Wiltshire) and at the Iron Age hillfort of Milber Down (Devon), where the duck is represented swimming, for the water-line is drawn along its body (fig. 13).¹⁸²⁹ Terracotta figurines of ducks in skiffs were also discovered in Vichy (Allier) and Pourçain-sur-Besbre (Allier) in funerary tombs of children.¹⁸³⁰ In the representation of Sequana, the duck obviously symbolizes the water of the river.¹⁸³¹ Deyts argues that this statue must have been offered by merchants, traders or boatmen, who wanted to honour the protectress and benefactress of water-borne trade on the River Seine.¹⁸³² This would suggest that the cult of Sequana was not related to healing only but also to commerce and waterways. She may have simultaneously presided over sick pilgrims and tradesmen.

Fig. 12: Statue in bronze of Sequana standing on a boat with a duck-headed prow (Sources-de-la-Seine). H. 0.615m and weight: 7.560 kg. In the Musée Archéologique de Dijon. Deyts, 1985, p. 8.

Fig. 13: Bronze duck with the demarcation of the water-line along its body, holding a pellet or a cake in its beak, discovered in the Iron Age Milber Down Fort (Devon). Green, 2004, plate 15, fig. 2.

The 1st-century AD statue in limestone, found by Baudot in 1832, representing a goddess seated in a chair and wearing a pleated tunic, might also be a representation of the goddess Sequana, for it was found in the room facing the first sacred spring (see fig. 22).¹⁸³³ Moreover, the sitting position is a mark of pre-eminence generally reserved for deities. This room might thus have been a small temple or canopy* where pilgrims could come, collect their thoughts and pray to the goddess. The head and arms of the statue are now missing (fig. 14).

Fig. 14: Stone statue discovered in 1832 by Baudot at the Sources-de-la-Seine, representing a seated draped goddess: Sequana? Deyts, 1994, pl. 58, n°2.