Anthropomorphic stake gods

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Photo montage of the idol type 2 from the sacrificial moor Niederdorla in a moor environment

Anthropomorphic gods pile ( anthropomorphic = human form; as Moor stakes or wooden idols , idols called) are more or less roughly figured processed logs, which probably represented deities. According to the archaeological findings, the numerical distribution is primarily locatable in the Germanic cultural or settlement area of ​​northwestern Europe, but also for the Celtic area and for western Slavic cultures. The deposit can be proven from the Mesolithic to the early Middle Ages .

In addition, the term is a collective term under which simply formed, non-human-shaped cult stakes are listed. Locations of the pile idols besides the moors , or sacrificial bogs , others offering sites in the prehistoric, Roman times and Migration period Germanic, Celtic and Slavic settlement areas.

In the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of Thuringia in Weimar , several stake gods from the Niederdorla sacrificial moor , a Germanic moor and lake sanctuary, are on display.

Germanic cultures

Find places

In central and northern Europe, 18 wooden idols are known to have been found from the Bronze to the Iron Ages .

  • Denmark has nine places
  • Germany has seven locations (Bad Doberan, Braak, Johannisberg, Oberdorla, Possendorf, Westerwanna and Wittenmoor),
  • Sweden has two locations (Grimstad and Nordmyra).

Cultural and historical backgrounds and developments

Animation: What did the Teutons (including pole gods) believe in
Wooden idol from the moor of Broddenbjerg , near Viborg in Denmark

For the Germanic cultures the custom can be traced back to the Bronze Age, the so-called couple of gods von Braak is considered to be the earliest possible object . The current locations of these forms of cult stakes are related to the conserving environment of individual moor and lake locations. An interpretation of an original distribution or a restriction to the localities of the sacrificial moors and lakes do not allow the current sites. Although the Teutons preferred to use humid lowlands for sacrificial acts up to the 1st millennium, in whose context the stake gods were involved, the discovery of an idol in Bad Doberan on dry ground probably shows the actual spectrum of a general location. What is striking is the highly abstract design and effect of the pole gods in contrast to other handcrafted objects from the temporal contexts.

Tacitus claimed that the Teutons had neither human images of gods or idols nor a need for them. In his Germania , however, he describes differently that an idol, an image of a god was used in the Nerthus cult .

"Ceterum nec cohibere parietibus deos neque in ullam humani oris speciem adsimulare ex magnitudine caelestium arbitrantur: lucos ac nemora consecrant deorumque nominibus appellant secretum illud, quod sola reverentia vident."

“They also believe that the greatness of the heavens is not worthy of enclosing the gods in walls or even remotely replicating the human appearance: they consecrate the clearings and sacred groves and they invoke that mysterious thing with the names of the gods look at them in great rapture. "

- tacitus, germania 9, 6

“Est in insula Oceani castum nemus, dicatumque in eo vehiculum, veste contectum; attingere uni sacerdoti concessum. is adesse penetrali deam intellegit vectamque bubus feminis multa cum veneratione prosequitur. laeti tunc dies, festa loca, quaecumque adventu hospitioque dignatur. non bella ineunt, non arma sumunt; clausum omne ferrum; pax et quies tunc tantum nota, tunc tantum amata, donec idem sacerdos satiatam conversatione mortalium deam templo reddat. mox vehiculum et vestis et, si credere velis, numen ipsum secreto lacu abluitur. "

“On an island in the ocean is a sacred grove and in it is a consecrated chariot covered with a cloth. Only the priest is allowed to touch him. He recognizes when the goddess is in the sanctuary and guides her cows-drawn cart in deep awe. Happy are the days, festivals in all places that the goddess pays homage to her visit and stay. No war is waged, no weapons taken, every sword is included; but peace and tranquility are only known if they are only loved until the same priest returns the goddess, who is fed up with intercourse with mortals, to her sanctuary. Thereupon carriages and cloths and, if one may believe it, the deity himself are washed in a lonely lake. The service is performed by slaves who are devoured by the same lake "

- tacitus, germania kap. 40

From the point of view of the Roman understanding of images of gods with a human face from the Mediterranean high culture, such Germanic testimonies were not perceived or even not considered to be categorically identical, if they were found at all by Romans or were then reported.

The Germanic term for the designation of gods, Ase , derived from the common Germanic root * ans, ansuz , has the meaning for beams or posts. However, it is not possible to assign the stake gods by name to the deities who were later identified by name and should be rejected as purely speculative. The fact that the gods are addressed in the plural as a group, the Aesir, Ansen (Gothic), as a collection of divine power and abilities, presumably indicates the origin of the nameless and probably impersonal stake gods. In addition to the anthropomorphic, human-shaped posts, rough, simple, unworked wooden posts were also erected and worshiped. Such ritual posts were erected in cairns after some archaeologically fixed finds, such as the phallic idol from the moor near the Danish Broddenbjerg ( Broddenbjerg idol ). For comparison, an Old Norse term from the Viking Age for a place of sacrifice or sanctuary, hǫrgr , also meant a pile of stones.

“Váðir mínar gaf ec velli at tveim trémǫnnom; reccar þat þóttuz, he þeir rift hǫfðo, neiss er nøcqviðr halr. "

“I gave away my robes to two wooden men on the heather outside; They seemed alive when they had the rags; the naked is nothing. "

- Hávamál, 62 (49)

Later, sometimes literary references also indicate the veneration of human-shaped and simple cult stakes. In the Eddic poem of the Hávamál , idols obviously intended are referred to as Old Norse trémǫnnom, wooden men . Clerical missionary writings, the source value of which can only be seen to a limited extent as authentic and more as Christian-apologetic , report on idols made of metal, ore, stone or wood.

During the Viking Age , the Arab merchant Ibn Fadlan reported on a visit to Swedish Vikings in Russia in the early 10th century about their sacrificial customs. As soon as they entered the harbor with their ships, the Vikings would bring food and beer to a high wooden pole with a carved man's face. This idol is surrounded by smaller, anthropomorphic poles. A comparable situation can be found in sacred sites such as the sacrificial moors in Germany and southern Scandinavia.

In this context, there are also concise passages in the Nordic sagas, in which certain cult stakes , so-called öndvegissúlur ( raised pillars ), as well as human-shaped stakes, idols that represented deities by name or were donated, such as the gods Freyr and Thor in particular . In these text excerpts, as in the continental mission reports, the Christian perspective of the authors clearly emerges, due to the time difference between the writing from the 12th and 14th centuries. Century to the past pagan epoch. A link between the archaeological finds of idols and cult stakes from the Roman and post-Roman Iron Age and the literary overdrawings from the Viking Age, or their further developed forms, may be the discovery of a post hole in the area of ​​the cult building from Yeavering in northern England . In the area of ​​the cultic enclosure of the central cult site not far from the Anglish royal seat from the 6th - 7th centuries, a square post hole was discovered, the side length of which is 56 cm at an approximate depth of 1.3 m. This shows that the presumed cult stake was of considerable size.

Forms and material substance

Sacrificial moor of Niederdorla, with a stylized idol

Typologically, the anthropomorphic pole gods according to Günter Behm-Blancke can be classified into four groups:

  • Idol type 1: Sticks or posts of different shapes that were designed as a phallus or equipped with one or that could be attached (Oberdorla, Possendorf ).
  • Idol type 2: From a fork of a branch with an ax roughly shaped as male or female with a rounded or pointed head and attached arms. Branch fork idols with phallus are mostly found in Northern Germany and Scandinavia ( Braak , Broddenbjerg near Viborg , Ejsbøl , Forlev Nymølle ), female forms especially in Oberdorla. Sizes from about one to nearly three meters in length.
  • Idol type 3: Carved out of thick boards, male idols are simply designed with a rectangular body, the head and shoulders are roughly set off by notching for identification. Female idols are clearly more detailed, emphasized broad hips with indicated vulva , strongly reproduced shoulders and breasts. The heads of both sex types are faceless ( Wittemoor , Oberdorla).
  • Idol type 4: Squared timber with a detached head and designed like a herm ( Oberdorla ).

Oak heartwood was preferred , presumably because it lasted the longest in mostly damp locations.

  • The Dagenham Idol (also called the Idol of Dagenham) was found in 1922 in a swamp in Dagenham, a suburb of London near the Thames. From around 2250 BC. The figure from the 4th century BC is 48.5 cm high and is made of pine wood.

Interpretations

Idols from the Wittemoor near Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, found on both sides of a boardwalk

Two fundamental scientific assumptions are relevant to the religious-historical and phenomenological interpretation; apart from a purely sacred interpretation, the spectrum is expanded into the secular area. It is noteworthy that previous interpretations are or were in a traditional research-historical context. In principle it is possible to assume that the stake gods are to be seen as a preliminary stage of the later named and spiritualized gods. On the other hand, however, such idols were venerated in some cases up to the time of the Great Migration and the late pagan Viking Age and not every fertility cult or rite was dedicated to a specific deity, or this is clearly verifiable.

On the one hand, a fertility cult is assumed through the representation of the figures as male and female through the sometimes clearly worked out primary and secondary sexual characteristics, and especially through the finds of remains from acts of sacrifice. Pottery shards and animal, and more rarely human bones, indicate a simple agrarian, rural community of sacrifices.

On the other hand, the worship of various cultic stakes is not only Germanic, but also broader Indo-European common property. The worship of a world axis / world pillar or world tree is interpreted as a causal motif based on an older tree cult, which is also an important cultic-religious element in non-Indo-European cultures. The Irminsul among the Saxons during the Carolingian period or the Weltesche Yggdrasil from the medieval old Icelandic Edda poems as the latest evidence are the most well-known forms in the Germanic context.

Heiko Steuer notes that with the board idols of the Wittemoor, and consequently also with others of the same type, a sacred background for the construction cannot be assumed, but that other motives, located in the mundane living environment, were causally decisive. In addition to the function as a general sign of salvation, and in particular as a protective or damage-warding sign ( apotropaic act ), there is the simple function of an ornamental decoration. In summary, according to Bernhard Maier, it can be stated that an exact function of the anthropomorphic pole gods and idols within the Germanic religion cannot ultimately be determined exactly. There were two main reasons for this: Firstly, although some exhibits were found from different times, they should nevertheless be regarded as exceptional finds and therefore only assumptions can be made about the distribution. The second reason given is that the religious ideas have hardly been handed down in written form and in this form have hardly any reliable source value.

Celtic cultures

In the Celtic settlement area, relatively few wooden idols have been found. Due to the overlap with the Germanic cultural area, especially in the cultural association of the North Sea region, exact assignments are sometimes not possible.

In a shaft (sacrificial pit?) Of the Viereckschanze near Fellbach-Schmiden , the fragment of an anthropomorphic figure made of oak was discovered, showing a person whose hands clasp the loins of two rams . The goats flank the apparently seated human figure.

In Marcus Annaeus Lucanus there is a report that describes a cult grove near Massilia (Marseille) in which roughly hewn wooden idols are said to have been smeared with the blood of human sacrifices. Despite the doubts about this account, such idols are also archaeologically documented, sometimes in the form of stone replicas.

Such a replica of a xoanon (wooden stele) was discovered near Euffigneix ( Haute-Marne department ) , in which the sculptor reproduced the knotholes as lateral "eyes". In the cult square of Libenice near Kolín , two maple posts with bronze torques were found, which are dated to the Roman Empire. In Geneva harbor a 3 m high oak wood sculpture of a "protection of God" of a hood shell (one found cucullus wears). Some primitively worked wooden steles were discovered by spring goddesses at cult sites, for example for the so-called " Sirona of Pforzheim ". An oak wood statue from the Latène period was discovered at the mouth of the Rhone in Lake Geneva near Villeneuve in Switzerland. Based on three Celtic silver coins from the 2nd century BC stuck in a gap in the figure. The statue could be dated. A Celtic deity (late 2nd to mid 1st century BC) is believed to have a connection with the Rhone or Lake Geneva. The statue is 1.25 m high and dressed in a tunic.

In Ireland a wooden cult image was found near Ralaghan ( County Cavan ), which was originally dated to the Iron Age, but according to recent research it was dated to the late Bronze Age. An almost life-size female figure was found during ground work near Ballachulish in Scotland in 1880 . The figure was carved from an oak trunk, with a clear expression of the pubic area, a special feature are quartzite stones, which were used as eyes. The further investigations showed that the figure was deposited in a ritual burial. The figure was deposited together with other finds within an enclosure made of wickerwork, analogous to find situations on the continent. Dating using the radiocarbon method showed the figure was dumped from 700 to 500 BC. Another evidence of anthropomorphic idols in the Celtic era is the discovery of a presumably male, wooden 58 cm high figure in the central French town of Montbouy , west of Orléans in the Loiret department . The figure is considered a consecration statue because it was found in a fountain in an imperial temple district.

Slavic cultures

Sculpture of a Slavic stake god from Altfriesack , Brandenburg, Neues Museum Berlin

Anthropomorphically designed wooden planks of the Western Slavs in the settlement areas of the Elbe region, such as the finds from Groß Raden (temple), Ralswiek (temple), Altfriesack , and Neubrandenburg may represent deities that had apotropaic functions comparable to finds from Germania (Wittemoor). Archaeologically unambiguous forms have only appeared since the 10th century.

“In the middle of the castle is a flat square on which a wooden temple rose, of fine work, venerable not only because of the splendor of the furnishings, but also because of the consecration of the idol in it. The exterior of the temple shone through its carefully crafted sculptures; it was adorned with crude and awkward sculptures of various kinds. A single entrance was open to those entering. The sanctuary itself was enclosed by two enclosures. The outer one, made of walls, was covered with a purple roof; the inner one, supported on four posts, shone with curtains instead of walls; apart from the roof and the few panels, this part had nothing in common with the exterior "

- Saxo Grammaticus 14.39. The description of the Temple of Arkona

These - compared to Germanic and Celtic cultures -, developed late forms indicate a related influence on the Slavic, especially the West Slavic cultures. With regard to the formal design of the anthropomorphic idols, Sebastian Brather differentiates between the board idols and those made from a pole. In the former, he sees more intended as votive images than, for example, the actual figures of gods located in the temple building as described by Saxo and others ( Thietmar von Merseburg ). An identification of individual idols with individual deities is not possible, or if so, it is very speculative. As for the Celts and Teutons, there was no uniform, standardized religion of the Slavs, but decentralized and locally organized cult centers and forms can also be assumed, within which the anthropomorphic wooden idols were included.

According to Leszek Słupecki , the find from the Fischerinsel near Neubrandenburg is one of the most significant examples of Slavic idols. The double-headed male bust is set on a hewn oak pole and is 178 cm high. The production / installation of Sebastian Brathers time is estimated at the 11th to 12th centuries. The find is the only evidence of multi-headed idols - and generally multi-headed sculptures - in the area of ​​Slavic cultures. Nevertheless, Słupecki emphasizes that the location of the fishermen's island does not show a separately visible sanctuary or a temple, such as the find situation of the board idols of the temple area of Groß Raden . The masculinity of the figure is emphasized by the shape of the beard and the eyes and nose areas are also emphasized.

See also

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Rudolf Simek: Religion and Mythology of the Teutons. WBG, Darmstadt 2003, p. 102f. That. in: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, p. 335
  2. ↑ Heiko Steuer: About anthropomorphic moor posts from the pre-Roman Iron Age. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2006, p. 69.
  3. ↑ Michael Müller-Wille: Sacrificial cults of the Teutons and Slaves. Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, pp. 7, 8, 28.
  4. ↑ Rudolf Simek: Religion and Mythology of the Teutons. WBG, Darmstadt 2003, p. 103.
  5. ^ Rudolf Much: The Germania of Tacitus. Winter, Heidelberg 1967, p. 182.
  6. ↑ Rudolf Simek: Religion and Mythology of the Teutons. WBG, Darmstadt 2003, p. 103.
  7. ^ Walter Baetke: Dictionary of Norse prose literature . WBG, Darmstadt 1976, p. 300 .
  8. ↑ Torsten Capelle, Bernhard Maier: Idols, Idolatrie. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , Volume 15, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, p. 325.
  9. ↑ Rudolf Simek: Religion and Mythology of the Teutons. WBG, Darmstadt 2003, p. 103
  10. ↑ Günter Behm-Blancke: Cult and Ideology. In: Bruno Krüger et al. (Ed.): Die Germanen , Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1983, p. 381f.
  11. ↑ Rudolf Simek: Religion and Mythology of the Teutons. WBG, Darmstadt 2003, p. 104 various images.
  12. ↑ Heiko Steuer: About anthropomorphic moor posts from the pre-Roman Iron Age. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2006, pp. 69, 70.
  13. ^ Rudolf Much: The Germania of Tacitus. Winter, Heidelberg 1967, p. 184.
  14. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic mythology. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, p. 335.
  15. ↑ Torsten Capelle, Bernhard Maier: Idols, Idolatrie. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , Volume 15, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, p. 330.
  16. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Vienna 1997, p. 937.
  17. ↑ Bernhard Maier: The religion of the Celts. Gods, myths, worldview. P. 151, described by Dieter Planck: The Viereckschanze von Fellbach-Schmiden. Stuttgart 1985, p. 341 f.
  18. ^ Marcus Annaeus Lucanus: Pharsalia (bellum civile). III, 399-413: Lucus erat longo numquam violatus ab aevo, obscurum cingens conexis aera ramis et gelidas old summotis solibus umbras. Hunc non ruriculae Panes nemorumque potentes Silvani Nymphaeque tenet, sed barbara ritu sacra deum; structae diris altaribus arae, omnisque humanis lustrata cruoribus arbor.
  19. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Vienna 1997, p. 937.
  20. ^ Susanne Sievers / Otto Helmut Urban / Peter C. Ramsl: Lexicon for Celtic Archeology. A-K and L-Z ; Announcements of the prehistoric commission in the publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-7001-6765-5 , S. 1945 f.
  21. ↑ Barry Raftery: Pagan Celtic Ireland. London 1994, p. 185 f, plates 73-75.
  22. ^ Ian Armit: Celtic Scotland , BT Batsford Ltd., London 1997, ISBN 0-7134-7538-2 , pp. 87f.
  23. ↑ Torsten Capelle: Anthropomorphic wooden idols in Central and Northern Europe . Lund / Stockholm 1995, p. 25 f.
  24. ↑ Illustration from: Torsten Capelle: Anthropomorphic wooden idols in Central and Northern Europe . Lund / Stockholm 1995, p. 27 Fig. 21 .; Leszek Słupecki: Slavonic Pagan Sanctuaries . Warsaw 1994, p. 199 Fig. 76.
  25. ↑ Sebastian Brather: The archeology of the western Slavs . Berlin / New York 2008, p. 318 ff., 325.
  26. ^ Translation after Sebastian Brather: The archeology of the western Slavs . Berlin / New York 2008, p. 322.
  27. ^ Leszek Słupecki: The Temple in Rhetra-Ridegost. West Slavic pagan ritual as discribed at the beginning of eleventh century . In: Anders Andren, Kristina Jennbert, Catharina Raudvere (eds.): Old Norse Religion in long-term perspectives. Origins, Changes and Interactions , Nordic Academic Press, Lund 2006, ISBN 978-91-89116-81-8 , pp. 224-228.
  28. ↑ Images at: Sebastian Brather: The archeology of the western Slavs . Berlin / New York 2008, p. 326 fig. 86; Leszek Słupecki: Slavonic Pagan Sancutarys . Warsaw 1994, p. 205 fig. 81.
  29. ^ Leszek Słupecki: Slavonic Pagan Sancutarys . Warsaw 1994, p. 205.