Matronae Grusduahenae

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The Matronae Grusduahenae are matrons that have only survived from a votive inscription from Alt-Inden , Düren district on the Lower Rhine from the period of the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Discovery and Inscription

In the run-up to the development of the Inden open-cast mine for the extraction of lignite, archaeological excavations were carried out in the area of ​​the (now excavated) old town of Inden by the Land Monument Conservation of the Rhineland Regional Council. In Planum a larger Merovingian , Frankish series cemetery of votive stone out was sandstone found as obstruction in a grave. The stone probably originally came from a nearby matron shrine near Geuenich in Inden . The stone is now in the depot of the LVR Office for Ground Monument Preservation in the Rhineland .

The lower part of the votive stone with the inscription plaque measuring 69 × 59 × 16 cm has been preserved. The inscription field in capital letters is divided into four lines, whereby in the fourth line there are clear disturbances of the typeface through abrasion ("smearing" see Nedoma) with the letters V, L and M. With regard to other (punctual) disturbances such as between the letters S and D in the first line, according to Nedoma there are no word separators (see reading L'Année épigraphique ; different epigraphic database Heidelberg).

"Grusduahenis / C (aius) Iulius Primus / et C (aius) Iulius Nigrinus / ex imp (erio) ips (arum) s (olverunt) l (ibentes) m (erito)"

"Gaius Julius Primus and Gaius Julius Nigrinus have honored the [Matron] Grusduahenae willingly and for a fee at their behest."

The inscription is characterized by a common formula from the Lower Rhine catalog of votive inscriptions (not only in the context of matron worship) and belongs to the group of " revelation inscriptions " through the ex imperio formula (i.e. at the behest of the matrons) . In addition to the eye-catching surnames, the name of the founder Gaius Iulius Primus is important. Because a Gaius Iulius Primus is documented with an identical formula as a dedicant for the Matronae Hamavehae from Inden-Altdorf. Due to the local reference, it can be the same person, although this signature is known from other inscriptions in the Roman Rhine provinces.

nickname

In the first publication by Beyer / Pfäffgen, the nickname in the first line was GRVS DVAHENIS i. e. Grus Duahenis read: "the crane (lat. Grus) the Duahenian matrons", or Hartmut Galsterer / Stephan Meusel (RID24): "The cranes for the Duahenian (matrons) donated by Caius Iulius Primus ...". Robert Nedoma criticizes both readings as formally problematic, grammatically correct would be assumed for the reading by Beyer / Pfäffgen a dative singular Latin grui or dative plural gruibus of the third Latin declension. When reading by Galsterer / Meusel, the nominative plural grues is to be expected. He also notes that cranes cannot be documented as votive objects or as votive offerings when accompanied by matrons. Therefore, he adds as a further argument against the previous readings that an epithet Duahenae is linguistically unsatisfactory, difficult to interpret. Andreas Kakoschke supports Nedoma's correct reading and compares it with a sequence | curia (lis) gru (e) s duas | another inscription whose reading was also unsatisfactory or problematic up to now.

As a solution, Nedoma therefore proposes to merge the two previously separate elements as a single word (GRVSDVAHENIS) in order to create a basis for interpreting the name more reliably from Germanic. He shows that if the inscribed Latin flexivum -IS is separated, the frequently documented surname-suffix conglomerate - (A) HEN- is recognizable, which is present in the catalog with the form - (A) NEH-, or "competes" with multiple references . As an example he cites the Matronae Veteranehae , which shows the two elements: Veter- ahen -ae , Veter- aneh -ae . The suffix formation GRVSDUA- (GRVS-DVA-) is the word stem . The term Grus belongs etymologically to the Middle Dutch n. Gruus for "coarse sand, gravel, semolina", the Middle Low German n. Grūs for "crushed residue, bricks, grit, rubble, crushed plant". Evidence from the Frisian language continuum follows the Dutch and Low German evidence in terms of sound and meaning (West Frisian n. Grús , East Frisian n. Grûs for "crushed, small items, etc.", North Frisian n. Grüs for "coarse sand, gravel, rubble"). From the North Germanic languages ​​there are Danish / Swedish n. Grus and Norwegian m. / n. grus for “coarse sand, gravel, grit, rubble, semolina”, which may have been borrowed from Middle Low German. For the continental Germanic evidence, the West Germanic form * grusa- can be reconstructed from ancient Germanic * grūssa- from Indo-European * g h ruHdt-to- . In -DVA- there is the Germanic suffix n. * -Þwa- or * -dwa-, with which verbal nouns are formed such as Gothic f. Plural saliþwos for "hostel" and Old High German f. selida , old Saxon f. seliða for "apartment, accommodation, hostel, house, hut" from ancient Germanic * sali-þwõ . Therefore, Nedoma creates a West Germanic form of the * Grūs-twa , which shows two grammatical abnormalities in relation to the inscription findings. On the one hand, GRVS-DVA lacks the connecting vowel (from assumed primary clothing) and on the other hand, the fact that * (Grus) - roughly inscribed - DVA - is reproduced without shifting . In sum, the meaning * greus-twa- is “crumbling”, gravelly place, gravel place, scree terrain . Nedoma compares Grusduahenae morphologically and semantically with Matronae Turstuahenae (also derived from a place name * þurs-twa “dry place, more arid” Ground"). The epithet of the Grusduahenae fits in with the group of numerous other matronian surnames with reference to place names or with a derivative thereof.

Nedoma interprets the nickname based on a place name as the matrons, which "belong to a gravelly place, a gravel place, rubble terrain."

See also

literature

  • Brigitte Beyer, Bernd Päffgen : New stone monuments from a Roman matron shrine near Inden. In: Archeology in the Rhineland . 2006, pp. 132-134.
  • Patrizia de Bernado stamp : Matron and other gods (by) names on -genae / -es or -chenae, -henae and -enae. In: Contributions to Name Research NF 54, 2, 2019, S, 121 - 152.
  • Robert Nedoma : Matronae Grusduahenae. In: Contributions to Name Research NF 49, 4, 2014, pp. 441–449.
  • Günter Neumann : Die Germanic Matronenbeinamen [Matronen and related gods (1987), pp. 103-132. Supplements to the Bonner Jahrbücher 44] . In: Astrid van Nahl, Heiko Hettrich (eds.): Günter Neumann - Name Studies on Old Germanic (=  supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ). tape 59 . de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020100-0 , pp. 253-289 ( fee Germanic archeology online at De Gruyter ).
  • 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 3-11-014818-8 , pp. 272–291 ( Germanic antiquity online at De Gruyter Online for a fee ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ excavation identifier WW 2004/61. Grave number 232
  2. ^ AE 2006, 865
  3. ^ BH Stolte : The religious conditions in Lower Germany. In: Wolfgang Haase (Hrsg.): Rise and decline of the Roman world . Volume II 18, 1 Religion (Paganism: The Religious Conditions in the Provinces). de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1986, ISBN 3-11-010050-9 , pp. 662-665.
  4. ↑ CIL 13, 7864
  5. ↑ RID24 ID No. 2250K
  6. ↑ AE 1926, 0018  ; EDH: HD023959
  7. ^ Andreas Kakoschke: Annotationes Epigraphicae VI. About some inscriptions from the Roman provinces Germania inferior and Germania superior. In: Frankfurter Electronic Rundschau zur Altertumskunde 31 (2016), pp. 13ff. No. VII. ( Available online )