Matronae Vacallinehae

Copy of the consecration stone for the Matronae Vacallinehae from Mechernich-Weyer

Consecration stone for the Matronae Vacallinehae from the temple district of Pesch

The Matronae Vacallinehae are among the most prevalent in the Roman province of inferior Germania occupied matrons , Germanic Celtic-Roman mother goddesses . They are known through inscriptions and images on votive stones from the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD. A central place of worship for the goddesses was the so-called temple district of Pesch near Bad Münstereifel-Nöthen . The Matronae Vacallinehae are documented by around 130 complete and another 150 fragmentary inscriptions, all of which come from the Eifel ( Aachen , Antweiler , Bad Münstereifel- Iversheim , Bad Münstereifel-Nöthen, Lessenich , Mechernich-Weyer , Rödingen - Ameln , Satzvey ).

The goddesses were worshiped by a Germanic-Celtic mixed population consisting of the descendants of the Ubiern settled by the Romans and the Celtic pre-populations. Therefore, the unequivocal assignment of names based on the linguistic findings is not possible for either Germanic or Celtic . A likely interpretation of the name results from a comparison with other forms of matron names, so that a place reference can also be assumed here. The form Vacall- contained in the first member of the name of " Vacall-i-nehae " can be found in today's local and regional names of places and waters, such as the location of a votive stone from the Vacallinehae near Walchendorf, the Walchenbach near Antweiler and the Celtic name of Waals (in Gaulish Vacalus ). They are therefore to be regarded as matrons of this arm of the Rhine , possibly not only as goddesses of the fertilizing water, but also as protective goddesses of shipping and thus of wealth and trade. A parallel to the goddess Nehalennia is thus given.

Named variants are the Matronae Vocallinehae and Vacallinebus (from Aachen ) , which have been identified in ten cases so far .

literature

• Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. 3. Edition. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
• Siegfried Gutenbrunner : Germanic god names of the ancient inscriptions. Niemeyer, Halle / S. 1936.
• Hermann Reichert : Lexicon of the old Germanic names . Volume 1, Part 1: Text volume. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1987, ISBN 978-3-7001-0931-0 (= Thesaurus Palaeogermanicus , 1, 1).
• Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X .
• Wolfgang Spickermann : Germania Inferior (= religious history of Roman Germania. Volume 2). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149381-2 , Index sv Matronae Vacallinehae .

Web links

Commons : Matronae Vacallinehae  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Epigraphic Database Heidelberg : Inscriptions for the Matronae Vacallinehae. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
• Entries in the FERCAN project: "Celtic god names in the inscriptions of the Roman province Germania Inferior"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Octavia Zanger: Matronenstein discovered under Altarmensa . In: Denkmalpflege im Rheinland 7, 3, 1991, p. 123 ( full text ).
2. ↑ CIL 13, 12021 .
3. ^ Frank Biller: Cultic centers and matron worship in the southern Germania inferior. (= Osnabrück research on antiquity and Antke reception, Vol. 13). Verlag Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 2010, ISBN 978-3-89646-734-8 , pp. 198-240.
4. ↑ CIL 13, 7951 , CIL 13, 7952 , CIL 13, 7953 .
5. ↑ AE 1908, 254 ; AE 1908, 255 .
6. ↑ CIL 13, 12035 .
7. ↑ Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. 3. Edition. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , pp. 513-525, here p. 521.