1. A small wooden figurine, 13cm high, first brought to wider attention when shown to the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1902. It was in the possession of Rev. D.L. Davies, Vicar of Talgarth as was 'stated to have been found at Strata Florida' (anon 1903, 286). At the time it was considered to have been an North American import. 

2. Now recognised as an important example of an Iron Age wooden figurine, probably deposited in a wetland environment as a votive offering. It would have been portable, unlike some of the larger wooden figures known from the Iron Age like the Ballachulish figure. The key recent work by Treadway (2021), see below. No recorded findspot. Grid reference is approximate only.

Summarised from Treadway 2021:

The figurine re-emerged as part of the Carmarthen Museum's collection and remained uncatalogued until 1970. (Van der Sanden and Turner 2004, 870. It was not until the piece was reviewed by Bryony Coles (1990, 1993) that the figurine was thought to have been made local to Britain. Nigel Nayling obtained the radiocarbon date, dating the figurine to the Late British Iron Age from 43 BC to 67 AD (GrA-15317) (Van der Sanden and Turner: 89). The figurine has been suggested by Coles (1993) and Van der Sanden and Turner (2004) to be the depiction of an adolescent female due to the partial perforation on the front of the piece (Figure 1; see also other examples). The figurine is significant as the statuette was whittled from boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and according to Godwin (1975), box only grows in southern England, as well as ‘…north and north-eastern Spain, south and central France, the Balkans, the Caucasus and north-west Turkey’ (Van der Sanden and Turner 2004: 90). 

3. Currently on display in Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum.

T. Driver, RCAHMW, April 2024

References:

Anon., 1903. Wooden Figure Fiound at Strata Florida, Cardiganshire. Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. III, Sixth Series. pp 284-286. https://journals.library.wales/view/4718179/4719477/351#?xywh=-1203%2C315%2C4669%2C2338 

Coles, B., 1990. Anthropomorphic wooden figures from Britain and Ireland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Volume 56. London: Cambridge University Press, 315-333. 

Coles, B. 1993. Roos Carr and company. In Coles, J., Fenwick, V. and Hutchinson, G. (eds), A spirit of enquiry – essays for Ted Wright. Exeter: WARP, Nautical Archaeological Society and Maritime Museum, 17-22. 

Godwin, H. 1975. History of the British flora. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Poucher, P., 2009. ‘Wetland margins survey: Cors Fochno’, unpublished report, No. 2008/114. Llandeilo: Dyfed Archaeological Trust. 

Treadway, T. 2021. What's in the Watery Box? The Strata Florida Iron Age Figurine. The Pallasboy Project: Phase 2, Anthropomorphic Figurines. Guest Blog Post March 9, 2021. https://thepallasboyvessel.wordpress.com/2021/03/09/whats-in-the-watery-box-the-strata-florida-iron-age-figurine/

Van der Sanden, W., and Turner, R., 2004. The Strata Florida Manikin: How Exotic Is It? Journal of Wetland Archaeology, 4:1. Abington: Taylor and Francis, 83-96.