A figure of Cautopates (1017) was recently found with a metal detector near the fort at Newton Kyme, N. Yorkshire. Cautopates and his partner Cautes are the torch-bearing attendants of Mithras, an eastern god of light, who represent light and dark or life and death (Cautes holds his torch up, Cautopates down). This highly unusual figurine shows the attendant wearing a Phrygian cap, tunic and cloak. Another head wearing a Phrygian cap (1107) comes from Kirkby Thore, Cumbria, and has been published as Cautes or Cautopates (Richardson 1997, 65 no. 2 and fig. 1). As already discussed above, a Phrygian cap alone cannot be used to identify a specific character, but, given the presence of another Mithraic character in the military zone and lack of other eastern figures such as Attis in the area, it seems appropriate to give this head a Mithraic attribution.
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