T he Otterbourne Roman Standard Head

T H E O T T E R B O U R N E 'R O M A N ' S T A N D A R D H E A D
In 1744, on thereabouts, some labourers were excavating a sand-pit on the. out skirts of Otterbourne, when at a depth of about twelve feeet they uncovered a round metal medallion some three and a quarter inches in diameter. One side was blank, but on the other was engraved the head of an autocratic looking man, his hair reaching down to the nape of his neck and surmounted by a la urel wreath. Around the periphery a legend read ' J U L I U S C A E S A R '. Unaware of the apparent importance of their discovery, one of the workmen trudged home later in the day and left the find on a shelf in his humble cottage. There it languished for some fifty or sixty years - or so the story goes.