On October 9, 1866, Reverend J. G. Joyce discovered a bronze sculpture of an eagle during the excavation of a ruined Roman basilica at the Calleva Atrebatum site in Silchester, England. Damaged and wingless, it appeared to have once been part of a bigger statue. As the artifact was found in a layer of charred wood, archaeologists theorized that it might have been one of the lost aquilae, the sacred eagle figurines of the Roman legions, and had been buried in a treasury for safekeeping. Recent research, however, suggests that the…
