Ahvardua

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ahvardua is the name of a Germanic-Celtic goddess, which is only documented by a dedicatory inscription from the 2nd century from the northern English site of ancient Vindolanda . The consecration was donated by Tungerer who served in the Cohors I Tungrorum .

inscription

As part of excavations carried out by the Vindolanda Trust in 2012, the fragment of the upper right was found in the area of ​​construction phase 4 (105 - 122 AD) when a ditch on the northeast edge of a later 3rd century settlement was discovered in the material of the backfill Part of a building dedication plate (32 cm × 48 cm × 10.5 cm) made of sandstone was found. A temple building from the 2nd century was found in the immediate vicinity, as well as a source for bathing facilities and cult purposes. The dedication plate may have belonged to this temple.

AHVARDVAE
DEAE
[] HI TVNGR []
[] X []
[]

"Ahvarduae / deae / [co] h (ors) I Tungr [o] / [rum | (miliaria) e] x [voto] / [posuit]"

The Cohors I Tungrorum was stationed in the Kastel at two times, from 85 to 90 AD and in construction phase 4, so that the inscription is dated for this second period.

Another possible evidence for the goddess is suspected with reservations Peter Rothenhoefer in the course of the English find in a strongly fragmented inscription on a bronze tablet (7.3 cm × 10.5 cm × 0.4 cm), which was made in Krefeld-Gellep in 1970 in the Roman Kastel Gelduba was found. Rothenhoefer sees the primary reason for his investigation and interpretation in the sequence ] alis Fro [ as a possible evidence for the Ala I Tungrorum Frontoniana and thus evidence of the religious worship of the Ahvarduae in Germania inferior . He dates the find to the second half of the 1st century due to the documented dates of the stationing times and troop transfers.

DEAE AH [---]
[---] ALIS FRO [---]
"3] deae Ah [3] / [3] alis Fro [3]"

Andreas Kokoschke is skeptical of Rotenhoefer's interpretation and states that in the Lower Germanic dedicatory inscriptions a “dea or deus prefixed to the name of the gods occurs at the earliest in Hadrianic times” dated first half of the 3rd century. For line 2, Kokoschke offers alternative readings of native personal names based on the Roman model.

interpretation

From a Celtological point of view, Patrizia de Bernardo-Stempel sees the names as evidence of the frequent linguistic Germanization of Celtic theonyms from the cultural contact zone in Lower Germany and in particular in the Civitas Tungrorum and in the Tungrian settlement area in the northwest of the province. The Germanic name in the first member for de Bernardo stamp shows with Günter Neumann the Germanic root word * aχa to Old High German aha = "water, river" as a continuation of Germanic * aχwō = "water" to the Indo-European word * h 2 ákwah 2 = " Water". The second term represents de Bernardo stamp to Celtic adjective ardua = "high" to Indo-European * h 2 erHd 2 -wo- = "upright". The Celtic root word in the term ardua is included in the name of the Ardennes (Latin Arduenna ) and the goddess Arduinna for comparison .

Rothenhoefer sees in the Ahvardua a native Lower Germanic goddess through the initial Ah- and provides comparative evidence of the Ahueccaniae and Matronae Ahinehiae . Marie-Thérèse Raepsaet-Charlier sees it as possible that there may be a Germanic version of Arduinna in the goddess .

According to de Bernardo stamp, Dea Ahvardua has the function and meaning of a (high) water goddess, thus a protector of a water source or body of water.

literature

  • Anthony R. Birley , Andrew Birley, Patrizia de Bernardo Stamp : A Dedication by the Cohors I Tungrorum at Vindolanda to a Hitherto Unknown Goddess. In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy. Volume 186, 2013, pp. 287-300.
  • Andreas Kakoschke: Annotationes Epigraphicae VI. About some inscriptions from the Roman provinces Germania inferior and Germania superior. In: Frankfurter Electronic Rundschau for Antiquity. 31, 2016 ( available online ).
  • Günter Neumann : Germanic god names in Latin inscriptions. In: Astrid van Nahl, Heiko Hettrich (Hrsg.): Günter Neumann: Name studies on Old Germanic (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Volume 59). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020100-0 , p 236 ( with costs Germanic Altertumskunde Online at de Gruyter ).
  • Ranko Matasovic: Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. (= Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. 9). Brill, Leiden 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1 ISSN  1574-3586 .
  • Peter Rothenhoefer: Five dedicatory inscriptions from the Roman Rhineland. In: Bonner Jahrbücher . Volume 214, 2014, pp. 27-42, doi: 10.11588 / bjb.2014.0.59864
  • Roger SO Tomlin: III. Inscriptions. In: Britannia . 44, (2013), No. 5, p. 384f. ( can be viewed online ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Roger SO Tomlin: III. Inscriptions. P. 384.
  2. ↑ AE 2013, 0972
  3. ↑ AE 2014, 914
  4. ↑ [Vit] alis Fro [ntonis fil (ius)] or [Iulius Nat] alis Fro [ntini fil (ius)]
  5. ^ Ranko Matasovic: Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Pp. 41-42.