Votive Research Articles

Making the Profane Sacred in the Viking Age: Essays in Honour of Stefan Brink ed. by Irene García Losquiño et al.

Reviewed by: Making the Profane Sacred in the Viking Age: Essays in Honour of Stefan Brink ed. by Irene García Losquiño et al. Erica Steiner García Losquiño, Irene, Olof Sundqvist, and Declan Taggart, eds, Making the Profane Sacred in the Viking Age: Essays in Honour of Stefan Brink (Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 32), Turnhout, Brepols, 2020; hardback; pp. xii, 336; 23 b/w illustrations, 1 b/w table; R.R.P. €75.00; ISBN 9782503586045. Dedicated to Professor Stefan Brink, this Festschrift presents a pleasingly coherent collection of essays concerned with themes from Brink's own interdisciplinary scholarship: studies grounded in philology, onomastics, archaeology, and mythology that have or are concerned with the connections between the landscape, religion, and culture. [End Page 212] This volume is organized into five sections which delve into the sacred/profane dichotomy within pre-Viking, Viking Age, and medieval Scandinavian society. Part I, 'Understanding Sacredness', provides a theoretical underpinning for the following chapters, through a close examination, and challenge of, accepted definitions of sacred words, places, and concepts. Part II, 'Sacredness and Space', focuses on significant Scandinavian cultic sites and builds detailed historical pictures of the sacred geography of their focus areas, combining archaeological, onomastic, folkloric, and legal evidence. Part III, 'The Sacred and the Text', considers literary and mythic landscapes, their evolution from a pre-Christian sacred into both a Christian sacred as well as a Christian profane, and the concept that different narratives of the same event or individual may exist simultaneously without being contradictory. Part IV, 'Sacredness across Contexts', takes a richly comparative approach to selected myths, legends, and individuals. And lastly, Part V, 'Afterlives of Sacredness', contains three essays which look at the modern development and appropriation of medieval sacred and profane landscapes. Jan-Henrik Fallgren, Torun Zachrisson, Per Vikstrand, Anders Andrén, Tarrin Wills, and Stephen A. Mitchell all present important and original contributions to the study of ritual and sacred landscapes, while John McKinnell, Carolyne Larrington, Judy Quinn, and John Lindow provide highly stimulating essays on elements of Norse mythology. However, I personally found only four essays that addressed the volume's theme. Opening the volume with an article essential to the overall theme, Margaret Clunies Ross considers the meaning of the Old Norse word heilagr, 'holy', examining its etymology, and briefly evaluating the history of the concept of the 'holy' within relevant scholarship. Despite the ubiquity of heilagr and its cognates in the later, Christian sources, often to translate the Latin sacer or sanctus, the actual incidence of the word in pre-Christian texts is surprisingly sparse, and Clunies Ross spends most of the article examining these instances to demonstrate that the term did not refer to an impersonal concept, but rather 'holy' was a quality which certain beings, objects, places, and rituals embodied. Bo Gräslund's essay on the deep connections between swine (especially wild boars), the Vanir deities Freyr and Freyja, the Yngling dynasty, and the origins of the Swedish nation itself is wonderfully rich. He provides evidence from mythology, literature, and archaeology, detailing the etymological underpinnings of mythological beings and objects as well as providing an alternate etymology for the ethnonym Svear. Through his excellent use of literary, archaeological, and mythological evidence, Terry Gunnell is able to grasp the echo of one fundamental shift in the pre-Christian religions of Scandinavia that occurred roughly five-odd centuries prior to the conversions to Christianity. His essay shows that these early medieval Scandinavians went from having important female deities that were often associated with natural, watery landscapes, with votive offerings and sacrifices being an integral part of their worship, to male deities that usurped their rituals, stories, and holy places. [End Page 213] And lastly, Bertil Nilsson's contribution is unusual compared to the rest of the volume, in that he concentrates on how a sacred place can lose its holiness. He details how churches and altars could have been violated, the legal repercussions, and both how and when either cleansing or reconsecration would have to be performed. Questions of how the sacred is to be identified within the landscape, how it is altered by events and over time...

Ancient Relics, New Images and New Saints in Early Modern Genoa

In the context of the new emphasis given by the Council of Trent to the cult of relics, the case of Early Modern Genoa is of particular interest for the rereading of ancient objects of devotion in terms of identity formation and the subsequent generation of new iconographies. In the Middle Ages, Genoa became home to two extraordinarily important relics: the ashes of St John the Baptist and the Holy Basin. These invaluable objects were not associated with one another, however, until the Early Modern Period, when historiographic and literary sources began to put them in relation to the heroic feats of Guglielmo Embriaco. In parallel with this increased interest in votive objects that were already part of Genoa’s history, the city also embarked upon the construction of a new cult, a process that involved acquiring a portion of the remains of St Desiderius of Langres in 1651. This event led to the inclusion of a hitherto almost unknown saint in the decorative program of the chapel of the Ducal Palace (frescoed in those same years), within the canon of the city’s most important religious imagery.

FIVE SEASONS OF EXCAVATIONS IN AREAS 2A AND G OF SARUQ AL HADID (DUBAI, UAE): IRON AGE II EVIDENCES OF COPPER PRODUCTION, WORKSHOP AREA AND CEREMONIAL ACTIVITIES

Within five years of excavations in Area 2A and G of Saruq al-Hadid, several pit-like structures used in combustion activities were found whose purpose is still unclear. Near these, a rich collection of metal objects from the Iron Age II was gathered, along with evidences of their production at the site. Frequent identification of raw materials and working tools, mainly for jewellery production, suggests that the site was also a production centre for these kind of objects, as well as a site with religious connotation as suggested by the votive objects discovered, such as copper anthropomorphic figurines, snakes, miniature weaponry, and soft stone and ceramic vessels with parallels in other places of worship.

On a Wing and a Prayer: Ibis Mummies in Material Culture at Abydos

The production of millions of artificially mummified animals by the ancient Egyptians is an extraordinary expression of religious piety. Millions of creatures of numerous species were preserved, wrapped in linen and deposited as votive offerings; a means by which the Egyptians communicated with their gods. The treatment of animals in this manner resulted in a wealth of material culture; the excavation and distribution of which formed a widely dispersed collection of artefacts in museum and private collections around the world. Due to ad hoc collection methods and the poorly recorded distribution of animal mummies, many artefacts have unknown or uncertain provenance. Researchers at the University of Manchester identified a group of eight mummies positively attributed to the 1913–1914 excavation season at Abydos, now held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts. This paper presents the investigation of this discreet group of provenanced mummies through stylistic evaluation of the exterior, and the assessment of the contents and construction techniques employed using clinical radiography. Dating of one mummy places the artefact—and likely that of the whole assemblage—within the Late Period (c.664–332BC). Considering these data enables the mummies to be interpreted as the Egyptians intended; as votive artefacts produced within the sacred landscape at Abydos.

Familiarity and Phenomenology in Greece: Accumulated Votives as Group-made Monuments

AbstractGreek devotional activity from the eighth through third centuries included the accumulation of common votive types, many of which exhibited similar motifs and repetitive designs. This paper explores constructed assemblages by focusing on the dedication of objects featuring visual and iconographic “sameness.” Building on the work of D. Morgan and J. González, this paper theorizes Greek votive accumulations as larger conglomerations that impact religious experience through the artifacts’ very number and ubiquity. Evidence from Athens and Corinth suggests that an individual’s personal biography and past movements through the local landscape gave pervasive religious imagery a sense of familiarity and meaningfulness. While the appearance of ubiquitous votives may have been dictated by tradition and manufacturing realities, their use to create monumental votive deposits had phenomenological impact. Drawing on evidence from treasury records and excavated material at a number of Greek sanctuaries, this paper argues that, when they formed assemblages of repetitive religious images, worshippers created larger, dynamic monuments out of individual items. The clustered offerings participated in an “aesthetics of accumulation,” visually and physically linking individuals to a network of other worshippers.

A Unique Roman Folding Knife Handle with Eagle Ornament from Philadelphia in Cilicia

Numerous artefacts were discovered inside a pit located in the necropolis of ancient Philadelphia, which belonged to Cilicia from time to time. This study suggests that the pit might be a votive deposit of some kind with objects placed within it in a planned sequence. The folding knife, which is one of the many metal finds discovered in this pit and the subject of this study, is a unique find never recorded before in Asia Minor. Its handle bears an eagle figure, which also makes it unique. Folding knives are found at Roman garrison sites in Germania and Britannia, and the figures depicted on their handles vary. The Philadelphia folding knife is associated with military iconography and also with the cult of the dead.

Témoignages de cultes et de rites au Néolithique et à l’âge des métaux en Italie

Many cult manifestations are known in the Italian Prehistory, especially during the Neolithic and the Metal Ages. They were associated with pits dug in the ground inside caverns, and with stone circles or burials, where vases, votive objects and vegetables or animals offerings were deposited. They were related to agricultural rituals and to practices associated with birth, death and resurrection. Another type of cults concerns those, with depositions of vases or of valuable objects, related to waters, both the drippings clean ones and the rivers, lakes and sources ones, besides those originated from secondary volcanism, such as thermo-mineral or sulphur waters.

Musical Instruments as Votive Gifts in the Ancient World (Telestes 4), edited by Bellia, A., and Bundrick, S.D.

Musical Instruments as Votive Gifts in the Ancient World (Telestes 4), edited by Bellia, A., and Bundrick, S.D.

Animal bones in old graves: a zooarchaeological and contextual study on faunal remains and new dated evidence for the ritual re-use of old cemetery sites in Southern and Western Finland

Animal remains from twelve Iron Age (ca. 500 BC–1200/1300AD) sites from Southern and Western Finland, showing a mixture of finds and features typical of both settlement sites and cemeteries, were investigated using a zooarchaeological, taphonomic and contextual approach. Rarefaction analysis of the species richness and anatomical distribution indicates that the samples included both general domestic waste type and species and element-selective deposits of cattle and horse skulls, mandibles and limb bones. According to radiocarbon dating results, there seems to be a gap between the dates of burials and those of other ritual activities, indicating that the context of such deposits is a disused cemetery. The faunal deposits could represent remembrance rituals or relate to votive offerings intended to ensure healthy or productive livestock, a practice described in later ethnographic sources. These deposits seem to be in use within a large geographical area over a long period, and some aspects of this belief system may even have survived into the Christianisation of society in the historical period.

The Hanging Garlands of Pompeii: Mimetic Acts of Ancient Lived Religion

Roman painting is full of items associated with religious practice. Garlands, in particular, are found represented in Roman frescoes, often draped over different panels to enliven the painted surface with the semblance of abundant fresh flowers. There are indications, however, that in Roman domestic spaces, latrines, and streets, physical garlands were actually attached to the frescoes as votive offerings that mimic the painted garlands behind them. This paper considers how Roman paintings worked in tandem with garlands and other physical objects, and how Pompeiians engaged in mimetic acts. The two-dimensional painted surface depicting “mimetic votives” should be viewed within a three-dimensional space inhabited by people and objects. The mimetic act of hanging a garland was part of ancient lived religion, and, as such, enables us to examine past religious experiences, focusing on the individual and communication with the divine. The relationship between these various visual media would have created unique experiences in the daily lives of ancient Romans that are rarely considered today.

Urogenital votive offerings and diseases in ancient healing temples of Greco-Roman culture

In polytheistic antiquity, people went to the temples, which were dedicated to different gods and goddesses, to seek healing for their diseases. There were also anatomical votive offerings that symbolized their affected organs. In this article, votive offerings in the field of urology and the diseases they point to are presented.

Votive Exopraxis

Twice a year, the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. George on the island of Büyükada, off the coast of Istanbul, attracts tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims who come to make heterogenous and inventive votive offerings. Since these visitors are not Christians, their behavior is a form of exopraxis, which is the subject of the issue of Common Knowledge in which this contribution appears. Due to its scope and dynamism, this shared pilgrimage is perhaps the most important in the contemporary religious landscape of the Middle East, but it is part of a broader ecology that includes many mausoleums of Muslim saints and other Muslim holy places visited by Christians. The rationale and logic of such exopraxes is wild hope (in the Lévi-Straussian sense of wild). Pilgrims from one religious community travel to the sacred place of another not so much for communication or contact with its patron saint—the Muslim pilgrims to Büyükada pray for help to Allah, not to St. George or Jesus—as they travel to be in a place of hope at a time of personal need. This article analyzes how the proliferation of these votive exopraxes indicates both the tenuousness of the distinction between monotheist religions and their need of each other.

Offerings of fishery nature in coastal sanctuaries: the case of La Algaida (Sanlucar de Barrameda, Cadiz)

The archeological digs carried out in the Phoenician-Punic sanctuary of La Algaida (Sanlucar de Barrameda) during the 70s and 80s decade of the last century have allowed the recovery of more than ten thousand votive offerings from many different natures, from local-produced ones to others coming from different points in the Mediterranean Sea. They span a wide chronological spectrum covering from 7th to 1st Centuries BC. Thanks to the analysis of these materials it has been possible to reconstruct religious aspects of great interest. Aspects such as the ritual practices that were held in this sacred space or the possibility to determine who were the deities that were worshiped there. The fishing tools coming from this archeological site are presented in this work for the first time and are presented first in a morpho-typological analysis of the materials, and secondly, in an evaluation of this kind of archeological material in sacred contexts, considering the different uses and functions that the fishing gears and skills could have had in the ancient places of worship

The Sound of Silence: Indigenous perspectives on the historical archaeology of colonialism ed. by Tiina Äikäs and Anna-Kaisa Salmi

Reviewed by: The Sound of Silence: Indigenous perspectives on the historical archaeology of colonialism ed. by Tiina Äikäs and Anna-Kaisa Salmi George Nicholas The Sound of Silence: Indigenous perspectives on the historical archaeology of colonialism Edited by Tiina Äikäs and Anna-Kaisa Salmi. New York; Oxford: Berghahn Press, 2019. “How can archaeology engage with colonial histories, which are still painful and traumatic, in fruitful and ethically sustainable ways? How can archaeologists relate to Indigenous communities who are affected by these histories? What new perspectives can archaeology bring forth, and how can archaeology contribute to current discussions on colonialism past and present?” (182). These three questions, posed by Carl-Gosta Ojala in his Discussion chapter, frame this collection of reflections and case studies by European, Australian and North American scholars. The result is a timely and refreshing exploration of colonialism and Indigenous peoples that complicates, not reiterates, our understanding of the topic. Archaeology—the study of material culture—has a vital role to play in the study of colonial encounters. It not only offers a less biased (although often incomplete) counterpart to historical documents, but also a means to extend this study back in time. Coupling archaeology with a global comparative approach, as is done here, helps to reveal different responses and modes of resistance both within and between regions and indeed continents. The contributors demonstrate that colonialism is a two-way encounter, one that is reflected in both social responses and material culture—the colonizers and the colonized influence each other. In the various case studies offered, Indigenous agency—to resist or not; to incorporate or not, to integrate or not… is interrogated not just in theory (i.e., what could be the outcome) but in practice (i.e., what the archaeological record and historical records reveal). In addition, three common themes are identified and discussed by the editors in their introductory chapter: 1) Indigenous people’s re-appropriation of colonizer-produced goods; 2) colonization and cultural appropriation as ongoing processes; and 3) potential and limitations of historical archaeology in representing Indigenous voices. Colonialism and its progeny are thus not historic relics but continue to affect Indigenous peoples today. There is considerable resonance in the mix of Scandinavian, Australian and American case studies. Three chapters examine Sámi relations with and responses to various colonial entities. Mulk and Bayliss-Smith examine changes to Sámi religious practices (re: inclusion, syncretism and displacement) over a span of 2,000 years to reveal that Forest Sámi, Mountain Sámi and already “sedentized” Sámi responded differently to external religious influences, as tracked by such archaeological indicators as grave goods, rock art and votive offerings. The everyday life of Sámi in transcultural mining communities in seventeenth-century Swedish Lapland is the focus of Nurmi’s chapter. Not only did northern Sámi have a significant role in the development and success of mining there, but influenced trade and the foodways of their neighbors. Changing food culture is commonly seen as a consequence of colonialism. Yet as Kylli, Salmi, Äikäs and Aalto demonstrate, there was a two-way flow between, and indeed hybridization of, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Sámi, Scandinavian and Finnic foodways that is incompletely recorded in written documents but exposed by archaeology. Each of the American case studies examine explicitly destructive Indigenous encounters with state institutions (two colonial forts, a boarding school). In Louisiana, Malischke’s archaeological/ethnohistoric study of Fort St. Pierre, an early eighteenth-century French garrison and trading post, illuminates relations between the Yazoo, Koroa and Ofo peoples and the French and earlier English incursion into their homeland, and also with other Native American polities, like the Chickasaw. She notes that, although no long extant, the Yazoo, Koroa and Ofo resisted cultural and political domination by the French. A much different situation unfolded at Fort Snelling in Minnesota, as Hayes notes in her startling introduction: “There can be no indifference by a people for a place they regard as a site of both genesis and genocide” (162). After 40 years of negotiated co-existence, this locale, which had been occupied by the Dakota for millennia, became a place of incarceration. Today, the...

"Nueva lectura de una inscripción votiva bilingüe de las termas de Germísara (Dacia superior)

New edition and philological commentary of a long and complex votive inscription from the time of Commodus consisting of a poem in Latin (written in dactylic hexameters) followed, as a complement and amplification, by a Greek text in prose with a certain poetic color. The inscription is dedicated to the Nymph of a thermal sanctuary, mentioned by what appears to be a name or local epithet, and consists both of the commemoration of the fulfillment of a vow and in the narration of the annual festivals that the military unit (numerus) commanded by the dedicator celebrated, through votive offerings and sacrifices, both in honor of the Nymph of the place and of Asclepius, Panacea, Artemis and Hypnos. It is also narrated, in the Greek text, a sanatio and the corresponding offerings of thanksgiving. The use of Greek in this epigraph seems to have to be explained for a reason of cultural prestige

Practici depoziţionale non-funerare La Tène târziu în sud-vestul României. Descoperirile de la Glogova şi Desa / Non-funerary depositional practices during the Late La Tène in southwestern Romania. The discoveries from Glogova and Desa

Practici depoziţionale non-funerare La Tène târziu în sud-vestul României. Descoperirile de la Glogova şi Desa / Non-funerary depositional practices during the Late La Tène in southwestern Romania. The discoveries from Glogova and Desa

Inscribing Votive Offerings and Tamata: Narratives, Artefacts, Asklepios, and Panagia Megalochari

Inscribing Votive Offerings and Tamata: Narratives, Artefacts, Asklepios, and Panagia Megalochari

Voting, Votive, Devotion: “I Voted” Stickers and Ritualization at Susan B. Anthony's Grave

This article considers the popular custom of depositing "I Voted" stickers at the grave of Susan B. Anthony. Focusing mainly on the 2016 election, this article treats Anthony's grave as the locus of a ritualized social process, and suggests that the stickers can and ought to be understood as ritual votive objects, or "ex-votos," from the Latin ex voto—meaning "from a vow." Drawing on the connections among votives, voting, and devotion, Conley demonstrates how the stickers are elucidated by theories of materiality (particularly the contributions of so-called new materialisms scholars)—scholarship that is shaped by feminist approaches. Relatedly, in raising questions regarding what constitutes a votive, and about the gendered dimensions of devotional practices more broadly, the article explores the agentive role of the stickers, with their social and material entanglements, in the construction and destabilization of cultural memory related to the women's suffrage movement.

The popularity of the Ricci C wheel-made lamps in southeastern Sicily: questions and hypotheses

At Akrai, in South-Eastern Sicily, the UW excavations unveiled a huge amount of small, wheel-made, beige-slipped lamps belonging to the Roman Republican Ricci type C. The most important elements witnessed by this research are both the role those lamps played – laid unused in votive deposits but also used in daily life – and their permanence way after times when they disappeared elsewhere in the Roman world. As a matter of fact, they derivate from an old form and they knew a floruit during the 3rd and 2nd century BC, while the last individuals seem to have been produced until the reign of Augustus.

The popularity of the Ricci C type of wheel-made lamps in southeastern Sicily: questions and hypotheses

At Akrai in southeastern Sicily, the University of Warsaw excavations have unearthed a huge quantity of small, wheel-made, beige-slipped lamps belonging to the Roman Republican type Ricci C. The most important conclusions from the research concern the functionality of these lamps, both as devices used for lighting in everyday life and as unused elements of votive deposits, as well as their enduring presence in southeastern Sicily when they had all but disappeared elsewhere in the Roman world. The type is a derivative of an old form and peaked in popularity in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The last examples of this type seem to have been produced in the reign of Augustus.