Terracotta tongue and tonsils, Roman, 400 BCE-200 CE

Votive tongue and tonsils, terracotta, Roman, 400BC-200AD

Objects like these were left at healing sanctuaries and other religious sites as offerings to gods such as Asklepios, the Greco-Roman god of medicine. They were intended either as an indication of the part of the body that needed help or as thanks for a cure.

Made from bronze or terracotta, as in this case, a large range of different votive body parts were made and offered up in their thousands. Although it originated in earlier cultures, this practice became very popular in Roman Italy – particularly between the 400s and 100s BCE.