Votive Deposition in Water: An Update

In a previous post I discussed a potential topic for the major research paper in my Roman religion seminar.  For the past three weeks, in between coursework and family life, I have gathered a sizable bibliography for aspects relating to the practice of the Roman military depositing items in water and Roman practices of giving offerings and vows to the gods.  The current historiography of deposition in water, all of about 6 articles, offer very different conclusions.  Some deny the practice all together while others see it as an established religious rite.  At this point I hope to place deposition in water into a framework based on the praxis of Roman religion.  Each work that I have read, thus far, who supported deposition in water as a religious practice focused on the material, not the religious context.  The basic argument is that since arms and armament have been recovered from rivers, lakes, streams, springs, etc they must have served a religious purpose given their value.  I intend to approach the topic from a religious perspective.  I am not entirely sure how I will achieve this but I will have a better idea after I conclude my research.      

Comments

[Bill C]

Glad to hear that you are pursuing this further! Votive offerings are one of the most confusing elements of ancient religious practices and the deposition in water is even more difficult owing the peculiar character of any artifacts recovered from (as you would call it) a "watery context". This is an interesting problem from both the perspective of depositional archaeology and the study of ancient religion.

If you see Prof. Munn tell him that I am taking the ASCSA Regular Members to the Skorta Plain next Friday to visit Panakton and environs. It's his old stomping grounds.