Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Nick, Michael
• Burström, Nanouschka Myrberg
• Ingvardson, Gitte Tarnow

Titel

The impact of coinage on ritual offerings during the late Iron Age (c. 250–25/15 bc)

Ist Teil von

• Divina Moneta, 2018, Vol.1, p.30-48

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The religious rituals of the middle and late Latène periods (c. 250–25/15 BC) were subject to local and regional differences regarding the choice of sites, as well as the rites practised. At some sites it is possible to observe over an extended period of time a gradual evolution from blood sacrifice to offerings of objects, and finally to offerings of coins. In favourable conditions, based on the material found and the way it had been treated, we can identify what sort of cult was practised, and whether it was a communal or an individual offering. While actual offerings of coins can be a proxy for the value of an object, or even a symbol for it, at some sites it is clear that coins were offered as objects in their own right. Around the middle of the third century bc, the first coins were used in the areas north of the Alps. From that time on coins came slowly into use for ritual offerings and gradually replaced other objects. Particularly important for the interpretation of an object is its archaeological context. At the end of the Bronze Age, and in the early stages of the Iron Age, gold torques were placed in the graves of high-ranking persons who had probably enjoyed not only wordly power, but also a degree of religious influence. In the mountains the holy sites were situated on high ground, whereas elsewhere they are found by lakes or rivers, or within the confines of settlements. A similar picture is presented by other sites with burnt offerings on hilltops in the Alps in eastern Switzerland and western Austria. As the evidence from many sanctuaries demonstrates, coins initially played only a peripheral role in religious rituals.