Dedicatory altars with depictions of and connections to offerings in Germania Inferior and the other North-West Provinces

Abstract

On the dedicatory altars from Germania inferior there are large numbers of reliefs with offering scenes on the front, as well as cult servants and tables on the sides. On the other hand, depictions of cult vessels and equipment, instrumenta sacra, which dominate the votives of Germania superior, Britain and Pannonia, are scarce – an indication of a specific Lower German, sacral iconography. In conjunction with the general development of votive sculpture in the region, the relevant altars, which – with the exception of the territory of the Tungri – occur in all parts of Lower Germany, begin around the mid-2nd century and disappear around the mid-3rd century. Only the dedications with the reproduction of instrumenta sacra already existed during the early period of the type, around the mid-1st century. The prototypes for the offerings  scenes, which always show the libationes and only allude to the sacrificial animals, if at all, are provided by Roman state monuments in the region. For the representation of the cult servants, usually young men, rarely girls, and the tripod cult tables the popular Lower German gravestones of the period with dining scenes were used as models. In Lower Germany one sees the theme of dedication especially on the altars to the indigenous deities, especially the Matronae and, some way behind, Nehalennia. The dedicants mainly belong to the civilian popu lation with rights of citizenship, only a few are from the military. Women are quite often shown as part of the family giving dedications and displayed in native costume. The altars showing the theme of offering aim at the self-representation of the donors and their family partly by emphasising their regional identity and il lus trating their pietas erga deos, which occurred in the form of the ritus Romanus. The Cologne dedication of a praetorian prefect, the most senior dedicant by far, could have worked as an example to the provincials.