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Bibliography

Biller, Frank, Kultische Zentren und Matronenverehrung in der südlichen Germania inferior, Osnabrücker Forschungen zu Altertum und Antike-Rezeption, 13, Rahden/Westfalen: Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, 2010.

  • Book/Monograph
Citation details
Contributors
Work
Kultische Zentren und Matronenverehrung in der südlichen Germania inferior
Place
Rahden/Westfalen
Publisher
Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH
Year
2010
Language
German
Description
Abstract (cited)

This study provides an overview of religious centres in the rural regions of the southern Germania inferior between the rivers Rur and Rhine, the province border, and the road Cologne-Bavai. The great importance of the cult of the matronae is indicated by their number of temples and dedications, which equals the sum of all others. The matronae were ancestral and fertility deities with more than 100 different invocations referring to their character, topographic / field / tree names or groups of persons. Despite earlier claims and the chronological limitation of dedicatory stelae [ca. A.D. 150-250], their cult set in as early as the 1st cent. A.D. and persisted far into the 4th cent.. While high-rank devotees are known in urban centres, the names of donors in the countryside hint at Romanized locals of a Celtic or Germanic descent. The cult practice showed Roman traits involving sacrifices, processions, ritual feasting, temples, cult effigies, and priests. While the veneration of the matronae in the vici of Jülich and Zülpich was “oecumenic” with other gods, cult sites in the countryside were dedicated to local apotropaic deities such as the Ubian matronae.

(source: Publisher)
Related publications
Reviews
Toorians, Lauran, “Inheemse Matronenculten in de Eifel [Review of: Biller, Frank, Kultische Zentren und Matronenverehrung in der südlichen Germania inferior, Osnabrücker Forschungen zu Altertum und Antike-Rezeption, 13, Rahden/Westfalen: Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, 2010.]”, Kelten: Mededelingen van de Stichting A. G. van Hamel voor Keltische Studies 52 (November, 2011): 8.
Subjects and topics
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
September 2011, last updated: August 2021