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SUCELLOS - MALLET GOD. An anepigraphic altar from Nimes depicting a god with mallet, olla, and dog. The 'mallet god' is often called 'Silvanus' on Latin inscriptions, but we also have a Celtic name: Sucellos - 'The Good Striker'! A theonym or epithet? What is his function? What is the role of mallet/hammer, dog and olla? Chtonic god, healing god,...? (photo RH, Musée de Nimes)
Aims of the Project
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The F.E.R.C.AN. project was founded in 1998 in Vienna under the auspices of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the ÖAW (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften). Here a link to the official website hosted by the ÖAW (the project is now part of OREA, the ÖAW's Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, but it was originally part of the Prehistoric Commission). It is an international and multidisciplinary project, with members and contributors in many European countries. As the project title suggests, the main aim is to compile a corpus of epigraphic testimonies (mainly in Latin, Greek and Celtic languages) relating to the ancient (i.e. pre-medieval) "Celtic" (i.e. indigenous) cults for each province of the Roman empire, in pre-Roman and Roman times. Despite its title, this is not exclusively an epigraphic project, but archaeology, iconography, literary sources, etc. all play an important task in re-thinking our evidence and aiming for a better understanding of the religions in Celtic-speaking parts of Europe and how these religions developed during Roman times. |
MARS ALATOR - BRICOLAGE OR ROMANO-CELTIC 'HYBRIDISATION''? - A gilt silver votive leave dedicated to the god Mars Alator from Barkway (RIB 218). Is it all Classical? The iconography, the temple? But why did the dedicant call the god Alator? And what does the Dum(...) signify? (photo R.H., British Museum)
Corpus-F.E.R.C.AN.
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The ultimate goal of the FERCAN project is to publish the Corpus-FERCAN. But over the past 19 years, it became apparent that this is more complicated than anticipated. Apart from the fieldwork it involves, analysing our inscriptions, it is mainly a methodological question:
Since 1998, I have been coordinator for the Roman province of Britannia, responsible, together with Tony King (University of Winchester) for compiling the two-volume fascicle of the Corpus-F.E.R.C.AN. Britannia. There is an enormous amount of evidence from Britain. This volume will cover roughly 500 inscriptions and there will be entries and analyses of approximately 100 Celtic theonyms, as well as an analysis of the religion(s) of Roman Britain, the prosopography of the dedicants, and the archaeological and iconographic analyses between the 1st and the 4th century A.D. In addition, since 1999 I am also author of the Corpus-F.E.R.C.AN. for Gallia Narbonensis. In many way, the Narbonensis, despite its proximity to Italy, appears even more "native" or "un-Roman" than Britain. It is possible that this is mainly due to the nature of the evidence: so many more inscriptions have survived, incl. from rural areas! Also, iconography plays a much more prominent role in Gallia Narbonensis. Work for these two corpus volumes has been ongoing for many years. But we are finally coming to the end of this project... |
SULIS MINERVA - a NATIVE BRITISH GODDESS? A dedication to Sulis by a haruspex, from Bath/Aquae Sulis. But who is the goddess with the Celtic name SULIS really? Who is worshipping her? What does her name mean? Why was she 'associated' with Minerva? Is Sulis just an epithet? What do iconography and archaeology of the site tell us...? (photo: RH, Roman Baths Museum Bath)
F.E.R.C.AN. Workshops
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From the beginning, there were workshops that not only discussed editorial matters relating to the compilation of the Corpus. It is in the nature of the subject, and also due to the international and multi-disciplinary profile of the project's members, that there are important methodological problems, and that interpretations and methods can differ enormously from discipline to discipline, and from country to country. This is what made the FERCAN project so fascinating over the past twenty years: an exchange of information, and sometimes a clash of cultures, that resulted in the developments of new ideas, making us re-think our evidence, our interpretative frameworks, our methods, our assumptions.... Together with Tony King (Winchester University), I have organised two of the F.E.R.C.AN. Workshops:
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