A relief depicting Cautopates, reportedly found in the civilian settlement in Carnuntum, was acquired by the Museum Carnuntinum in 1970. Both the execution and the distorted proportions show typical provincial characteristics observable in numerous other sculptures from Carnuntum, and based on its stylistic characteristics, the relief is approximately dated to the second half of the 2nd cent. AD. The comparative analysis of similar types of sculptures with depictions of torchbearers from Mithraeum I and III from Carnuntum, as well as from elsewhere, allows its possible original function to be deduced. It is assumed that the relief was most likely installed at the end of the left podium, close to the entrance to the cella of a Mithraeum. Since the relief was not found in situ, it is not possible to associate it with absolute certainty with any of the known Mithraea from Carnuntum. Thus, the relief is possibly evidence of another, as yet unknown, Mithraeum in the civilian settlement.
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