Stonegate is a medieval street in York which overlays the via praetoria of the Roman legionary fortress of Eboracum and it is possible that the complete statue originally stood within this area.

[2] The head is a fragment of a larger, twice life sized, statue of the Emperor Constantine the Great.

[5] A 2018 paper argues that the bust was remodelled from a statue of an earlier, deified emperor, probably Hadrian.

It argues, through a re-analysis of the image, especially the use of the corona civica, granted to Constantine only after the civil war in Italy against Maxentius had come to an end, that this recarving occurred after AD 312 and not, as widely believed, at the moment of Constantine's proclamation as emperor in York in AD 306.

The new exhibition, "Roman York - Meet the People of the Empire" features the head as a central piece of the display.