Matronae Amnesahenae
The Amnesahenae are matrons that are only documented by an inscription from Thorr near Cologne .
Finding and describing
During the demolition of the old church of Thorr in 1905, in addition to the votive stone for the Amnesahenae, other matron stones were found than machined spoils built into the foundations . The finds have been transferred to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn and were first published scientifically in 1906 in the Année épigraphique and by Hans Lehner .
The votive stone is made of red sandstone (75 × 72 × 28 cm) and represents a fragment of a former aediculum stone, from which the badly damaged inscription panel has survived. The base is chipped off, the aedicula broken off, only the feet of the middle matron are rudimentary visible, as is the hem of the robe. The inscription field shows traces of the hewing by (medieval?) Stonemasons on the left, broken material with damage to the inscription on the right.
Inscription and interpretation
The four-line inscription shows an impairment of legibility on the right-hand side due to the broken material. The inscription is roughly over half of the proportional ratio, so that the space of about four letters is missing or supplemented (line 1, 2 generic name, surname). In addition, the inscription is relatively clear, the epithet shows a ligature from N + E.
"Matro [nis] / Amnesa [henis (?)] / Sex (tus) Alban [ius] / Valen [s] / pro se et suis imp (erio) ips (arum)"
Due to the Lacuna on the right, the epithet is supplemented with the common matron name suffix -henae ( -henis ). The imperio-ipsarum formula identifies the inscription as a so-called revelation inscription , which means that the Dedicant (S. Albanius Valens) saw the matrons (in a dream) and gave the order for the votive offering .
Siegfried Gutenbrunner interprets the epithet as Celtic with a frequent Latin spelling for the Celtic (Gallic) bn through mn ( Dumnorix <Dubnorix). He puts the name further to Greek ἄφενος = "wealth, abundance" from Indo-European * ṃbhenos-, ṃbhnesio- "abundance, wealth" and compares with Irish imbed with the same meaning. Hermann Reichert uses the Celtic root ambr- .
Theo Vennemann derives the nickname from a Gallo-Roman (unoccupied) place name Amnesacum, Amnisacum , and connects it with the place name of today's Niederembt ( Niederembt and Oberembt) in the immediate vicinity of the site in Thorr.
See also
literature
- Siegfried Gutenbrunner : The Germanic god names of the ancient inscriptions. Max Niemeyer, Halle / S. 1936, p. 193., No. 15.
- Hans Lehner : The ancient stone monuments of the Provincial Museum in Bonn. F. Cohen, Bonn 1918, pp. 123f., No. 258.
- Hermann Reichert : Lexicon of Old Germanic Names , Volume I, II. (= Thesaurus Palaeogermanicus, Volume 1.1; 1.2). Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1987, 1990, ISBN 3-7001-0931-8 , ISBN 3-7001-1718-3 , Vol. I p. 48, Vol. II p. 460.
- 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. 20, 267ff.
- 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 278 ( Germanische Altertumskunde online for a fee at de Gruyter).
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Almaviahenae CIL 13, 12065 , Gavasiae CIL 13, 12067 , Naitienae CIL 13, 12068 , Udravarinehae and Vanamianehae CIL 13, 12069 . In addition to the votive stones for matrons, there are also other stones / inscriptions for Mercurius and four other stones / inscriptions that cannot be clearly identified and assigned with inscriptions.
- ^ Hans Lehner: New finds: Thorr, Bergheim district Bz. Cologne. In: Correspondence sheet of the West German journal for history and art Volume 25, 7/8, 1906 Sp. 100ff.
- ↑ CIL 13, 12066