CIRENCESTER, ENGLAND—Cotswold Archaeology announced that the Cirencester cockerel—a colorful, enameled bronze figurine of a young rooster discovered in a child’s grave in 2011—will go on display at Corinium Museum this month. Such figurines are thought to have been crafted in Britain and exported across the Roman empire, but only eight of them have survived. The Cirencester cockerel is unique among the eight because it still has its openwork tail, and it is the only one from Britain to have been found in a grave. The two- or three-year-old child had been buried in a wooden coffin wearing hobnail shoes, accompanied by the cockerel and a pottery feeding cup called a “tettine.” In the Roman world, cockerels were linked to the cult of Mercury, a messenger to the gods who accompanied the souls of the recently deceased to the afterlife. The figurine may have been placed in the child’s coffin to ensure a safe journey. To read about the discovery of a Roman figurine depicting a child charioteer, see ARCHAEOLOGY's "Statuette of an Auriga (Charioteer)."