Matronae Alusneihae

The Alusneihae are matrons that have been handed down through three dedicatory inscriptions from Inden-Pier and one inscription from Düren -Derichsweiler in the Düren district from the 2nd / 3rd century.

Discovery and Inscriptions

Location pier

The votive stones of the Alusneihae from Pier were found as constructions in the direct vicinity of the church building and ancillary structures of the St. Martin's Church, which was destroyed in the war in 1944, and were found in an early medieval Franconian burial ground in the 6th / 7th centuries. Century.

The oldest find dates from 1947 as the cornerstone of the stairs of the Romanesque tower of the church. Made of red sandstone, the stone has the dimensions 101 × 46 × 30 cm, the left side of which was thoroughly cut off by medieval stonemasons for the purpose of building. The preserved right narrow side shows a plant decoration, arranged in a vase-shaped vessel . The inscription panel is framed with a right-angled decorative cord. The stone is in the depot of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn (Inv. No. 47, 16).

As a result of the stonemason's work, the inscription is usually missing two to three letters on the left, which has meant that the first descriptor (Nesselhauf-Lieb) could not resolve the matron name (the same was true for the donor's gentile nouns (Alb) anius, (Rom) anius, (Sil) anius possible). The otherwise clearly legible inscription shows a letter height of 6.5 cm (line 1) to 5 cm, the stone is dated from the 2nd to the early 3rd century.

"[M] atronis [Al] usnehis L (ucius) / [3] anius Si / [mili] s pro se et s (uis) / [v (otum)] s (olvit) l (ibens) m (erito) "

The matron's surname could only be inferred or confirmed retrospectively with the following find. Close to the former nave of the church on a corner, the votive stone was found in an older layer at a depth of 106 cm as early as 1955. It was first published in 1976 by Manfred Clauss . The stone has the dimensions of 92 × 60 × 28 cm and is made of reddish sandstone. It shows a profiled base and cornice, the inscription panel is separated from the cornice by a transverse bead; Above the cornice there is a gable with upholstery with rosettes and a scale pattern, the right upholstery is chipped off. In the middle of the gable you can see traces of the represented fruits. The framed narrow sides show a three-legged sacrificial table with two different jugs, a flower, an offering cake and a pig's head. The right side shows a cornucopia arranged with fruits, pine cones, blossoms and two birds. The stone is in the depot of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn (Inv. No. 55, 0928). The inscription is clearly legible with a letter height of 6.5 to 5.5 cm.

"Matronis / Alusneihis / T (itus) Tattianus / [1] eranus pro / se et suis l (ibens) m (erito)"

The name Tattianus as a gentile name has only been documented here and is a Gallo-Roman form from the Simplex Tatto, which can be of both Celtic and Roman origin. Cognomen reads either Veranus (Clauss) or Seranus (Kakoschke).

The third votive stone from Pier was found in 1985 about 200 m west of the church in a destroyed and looted Franconian stone slab grave at the level of "Pierer Straße 28", which was built as a border. The stone is made of white Liedberger sandstone and has the dimensions 71.5 × 43 × 19.5 cm and shows moderate abrasion and material breakage (left side). The stone shows a circumferential plinth, a cornice above the inscription plaque, a sacrificial bowl on top and volutes on both sides, the right of which has been chipped off. Due to the poor state of preservation, the narrow sides show a table with a sacrificial scene and fruit on the left. The right-hand side shows a well-preserved cornucopia with fruit and a round sacrificial bread at its foot on the right. The stone is in the depot of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn (Inv. No. E 56/91).

The inscription is clearly legible and shows impairment on the left due to loss of material in the first letters of the lines and moderate disturbances on the right (lines 2, 3). The height of the letters is 4.5 to 5 cm.

"Matronis / Alusnehis / A (ulus) Attaconius / [1] eranus et A (ulus) / [A] ttaconius / [Q] uintus l (ibentes) m (erito)"

The two founders share the same prenomen Aulus and Gallo-Roman gentile noun Attaconius from the Celtic form Attaco-n .

Derichsweiler site

In the Düren district of Derichsweiler, two stones built for the Matronae Turstuahenae were found in the early 1950s when the St. Martin Church, which was badly damaged in the war, was demolished . When the old church was re-excavated in 1987, three inscription stones were found next to the votive stone for the Alusnehiae, two gravestones (a late antique Christian one for a Frankish Godvine ). The first describer Thomas Franke evaluates the find as a spoil that was dragged from Pier to Derichsweiler. The stone is made of sandstone and measures 74 × 45 × 23 cm. On the narrow sides, heavily rubbed and traces of processing made by the building can be seen. Between the formerly surrounding plinth and the rudimentary cornice, there is the relatively undamaged inscription panel, above it there are traces of a no longer preserved top with upholstery or pulvini. The stone is in the depot of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn (Inv. No. V 338).

The five-line inscription has been completely preserved and shows moderate abrasion or breakage in individual letters (line 1. O, line 5). The letters have a height of 4.5 cm (Z.1) to 4 cm.

"Matronis / Alusneihis / C (aius) Firminius / Maturus / ex imp (erio) ips (arum) l (ibens) m (erito)"

The ex-Imperio formula identifies the consecration as a so-called revelation inscription , which means that the founder carried out the consecration at the behest of the matrons.

Epithet and interpretation

Günter Neumann provides the root of the Germanic forms * aluz- , * aliza- , * aluza for the tree name of the alder and for the nickname an N-stem * aluzan . These strains are further in place names, river names and personal names in Germania before as in the Crimean Gothic evidence Alust ( Alushta ) and in the document Alisni from the 8th century on the river Else (Werre). In the female runic personal name Alirgu (n) þ (Fibel von Weingarten, KJ 164) to Old High German Elira from * Alizō .

Rudolf Simek adds the name to the runic, magical term Alu and Germanic alu „=" beer, intoxicating drink ". Theo Vennemann derives the name from a non-documented Gallo-Roman place name Alusniacum from a hydronym Al-us-n with a suffix containing u. He suspects in the 7 km east of the Pierer site name "Ellen", "on the Elle" today's continuations.

literature

Manfred Clauss : New inscriptions in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn. In: Epigraphische Studien 11 (1976), pp. 1-39; here 6–7, no. 7.

Thomas Franke : A matron shrine in Inden-Pier, Düren district. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 199 (1999), pp. 117–140; here 121–126, nos. 1–3.

Andreas Kakoschke : About some inscriptions from the two Germanic provinces. In: Frankfurter Electronic Rundschau zur Altertumskunde 27 (2015), pp. 20–42; here 33–35.

Günter Neumann , Klaus Düwel : Alust - a Crimean Gothic place name? In: Journal for Comparative Linguistic Research 98 (1985), pp. 280–284.

Ders .: The Germanic matron names. In: Astrid van Nahl, Heiko Hettrich (eds.): Günter Neumann: Name studies on Old Germanic (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, Vol. 59). de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020100-0 , pp. 281f. ( Fee Germanic Altertumskunde Online at de Gruyter ).

Ders .: matrons. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 19, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017163-5 , pp. 438–440 ( view in Google book search).

Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , pp. 17, 266-271.

Theo Vennemann : Morphology of the Lower Rhine matron names . In: Edith Marold , Christiane Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Nordwestgermanisch (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ). tape 13 . de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1995, ISBN 978-3-11-014818-3 , pp. 272-291; here 284 ( fee-based Germanic antiquity online at de Gruyter).

Web links

Epigraphic database Heidelberg :

Remarks

^ AE 1953, 99
↑ AE 1977, 549
↑ AE 2001, 1427
↑ AE 2001, 1439
↑ Corinna Scheungraber, Friedrich E. Grünzweig: The old Germanic toponyms - as well as ungermanic toponyms of Germania. A guide to their etymology. Fassbaender, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-902575-62-3 , p. 57.
^ Robert Nedoma : Personal names in South Germanic runic inscriptions. Studies on old Germanic onomastics I, 1, 1. (= Indo-European library. 3rd row: Investigations ). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 978-3-8253-1646-4 , pp. 178-179.

[1] AE 1953, 99

[2] AE 1977, 549

[3] AE 2001, 1427

[4] AE 2001, 1439

[5] Corinna Scheungraber, Friedrich E. Grünzweig: The old Germanic toponyms - as well as ungermanic toponyms of Germania. A guide to their etymology. Fassbaender, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-902575-62-3 , p. 57.

[6] Robert Nedoma : Personal names in South Germanic runic inscriptions. Studies on old Germanic onomastics I, 1, 1. (= Indo-European library. 3rd row: Investigations ). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 978-3-8253-1646-4 , pp. 178-179.