Water cult
Water cult as a secure veneration of wells , springs , ponds and lakes , as it is documented in Europe especially for Gotland , Great Britain , Ireland , Portugal , Sardinia and Cyprus , but also in the ancient Orient and in South America ( Nazca plain ), is an ancient one pre-Christian phenomenon (see Libation). Today's pilgrimages on the days of the saints, to which many waters were dedicated, can usually be traced back to the pre-Christian water cult. Libation is another form of cult that takes place with water, but also with other liquids. The " bathing cult " does not fall into this area . B. was common among the Romans.
The veneration applies to regions with excess water, such as Ireland, and regions with a lack of water, such as Sardinia. In both regions it belongs to the fertility cults, as it is linked to the yield of the fields. The cult of lack of water is better known because it is more haunting. Cyril of Jerusalem speaks of the water cult as an idolatry, which the baptized has to renounce, as early as the early church baptism.
In Lepenski Vir (Serbia), perhaps the oldest libation containers in Europe were found, as depressions in partially decorated stones. The Chalcolithic Tisza culture in Hungary created pottery such as the Venus vessels of the Kökénydomb . Such libation vessels (multi-spout vessels) are typical of the prehistoric Balkans and are still in use today as Grolla in the Aosta Valley .
Structurally designed impressive fountain sanctuaries are known of sardines and in Portugal there are those associated with the water cult ( Pedras Formosas ). Places of the water cult were probably also the circumalpine pile dwellings and the terramars in northern Italy. In Corsica, as Sibylle von Reden reports , in the 20th century a child was still walking across the country with a skull that was thrown into the water at the end of the procession. When the Thracian god Orpheus is torn to pieces, his head is thrown into a river.
In Scotland, more than 600 holy springs have been mapped in the River Tay basin alone . Victim and later coin depots were found on many . The pagan customs were a nuisance to Christian missionaries.
It remains to be seen whether the cisterns in the Balearic Islands and Pantelleria were also an expression of a cult.
See also
literature
- Uno Holmberg: The water of life, goddesses and water cult . Edition Amalia, Bern 1997.
- Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .