Miniature Votive Offerings in the north-west Provinces of the Roman Empire
by Philip Kiernan
Hardback (Out of print)
(May 2009)
ISBN: 9783447059916
6.65 x 9.49 inches
Price: $55.00
On back order
Miniature votive offerings are small non-functional representations of day to day objects that are commonly found on sanctuary sites in the north-west provinces of the Roman Empire. They are frequently seen as evidence for a universal Romano-Celtic rite of miniaturisation, which enabled individual worshippers to dedicate models in the place of things they could not otherwise afford. This practice is typically seen as belonging to a Roman tradition of making personal votive offerings, which replaced the large scale ritual deposition of war booty and precious metal that had characterised Iron Age religion. By considering these objects in light of their archaeological findspots, distribution, chronology and symbolic significance, this book demonstrates that miniature votive offerings were not produced as part of a single ritual phenomenon. The various types (wheels, arms and armour, axes, coins, tools, the so-called Mithrassymbole etc.) were all produced for specific and often unrelated reasons. Some were communal, rather than individual offerings, and functioned as substitutes for high value offerings of the past that were now no longer feasible. Such offerings belong to a transitional phase between Iron Age and Roman religion. Other miniature votive offerings, deposited both by individuals and groups, functioned as symbols of particular divinities or ritual acts and were used from the late Iron Age to the end of the Roman period. Seemingly insignificant and simple artefacts, miniature votive offerings present a wealth of insight into ancient religious practices and mentalities.
- By (author) Philip Kiernan
Other Titles in this Series
Das romische Heer auf der Trajanssaule
Propaganda und Realitat. Waffen und Ausrustung. Marsch, Arbeit und Kampf
Volume 3
Similar Books
Caesar’s Visions and Impact on the Roman Empire
Revisiting the Archaeological and Historical Record of the 40s BC
Volume 2
Construction Processes in Historical Western Societies (5th c. BC – 10th c. AD)
Case Studies on Techniques, Models, and Costs
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Epigraphic “Shades” from Hellenistic Thrace
Contextualizing Inscriptions in Greek from Thracian Tombs
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Etruscan and Roman Hellenistic Anatomical ex votos
Reassessing Popular Religious Expressions in Central Italy
Volume 8
Gold, Silver and Glass: Power Networks, Cultural Identities, Technology Transfers and Agency across the Old World (7th Century BC – 1st Century AD)
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the British Museum, 16–18 June 2023
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Language and Power in the Roman Empire and Early India
Hierarchy, Ambiguity, and the Art of Reading the Signs in Cosmopolitan Cultures
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Volume 18
