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Introduction The settlement The baths Commerce |
The writing tablets Religion The fortress Burials |
A small statue of oak wood was discovered in Eschenz in 1977. Through dendrochronology it could be dated to the reign of Augustus, the first decades of Roman rule in the area (the tree was felled in the last two decades BC). The statue represents a man with long hair, wearing a hooded cloak. It is thought to have been a votive gift from a sanctuary, representing a founder of a shrine.
The wooden statue. H. 0.615. Photo: Amt für Archäologie Thurgau.An intriguing find was made in Eschenz in 2007: a tiny terracotta head with a rudimentary left arm. It had a few remains of red and white paint. Parallels have been found in Germany and Austria: small dolls, pierced with holes, with scratches, with damaged genitalia, and with tiny objects inside that make a rattling noise when the figure is shaken.
The terracotta head. Streit 2014, Abb. 2.
For the interpretation a Greek magical papyrus has been adduced:
Take wax or clay from a potter's wheel and make two figures, a male and a female. Make the male in the form of Ares fully armed, holding a sword in his left hand and threatening to plunge it into the right side of her neck. And make her with her arms behind her back and down on her knees. And you are to fasten the magical material on her head or neck. Write on the figure of the woman being attracted as follows: [series of spells]. And take thirteen copper needles and stick 1 in the brain while saying, " I am piercing your brain, NN"; and stick 2 in the ears and 2 in the eyes and 1 in the mouth and 2 in the midriff and 1 in the hands and 2 in the pudenda and 2 in the soles, saying each time, "I am piercing such and such a member of her, NN, so that she may remember no one but me, NN, alone". And take a lead tablet and write the same spell and recite it. And tie the lead leaf to the figures with thread from the loom after making 365 knots while saying as you have learned, "ABRASAX, hold her fast!" You place it, as the sun is setting, beside the grave of one who has died untimely or violently, placing beside it also the seasonal flowers. Papyri Graecae Magicae IV,296-334. Translation Hans Dieter Betz. A further find from Eschenz is a terracotta object with a row of seven holes in the top. It has been called a weekday peg calendar (parapegma), linked in some way to the seven days of the week, the related deities (Saturnus, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercurius, Jupiter and Venus), and astrology.
The terracotta calendar. W. 0.065. Photo: Frei-Stolba 1993, Abb. 2.Two very similar small lead pendants were found in Eschenz. The casting of one had failed and it was left unfinished. The pendants have the shape of a crescent moon. On one side wheels are depicted. On the other side is the word LALO in a tabula ansata, below which are the letters F E. The text has been interpreted as LALO FE(cit), "Lalo made it" (although one might be inclined to think of LALO FE(liciter), "For Lalus, happily"). This type of pendant is well-known. They had an apotropaic function.
Lead pendant and a drawing of the two sides. Diam. 0.023. LALO FE(cit), "Lalo made this".
Photo: Brem-Steiner-Kesselring 1999, Abb. 21. Drawing: Hartmann 2014, Abb 5b.In 1741 an altar with a dedication to the river Rhine was discovered and destroyed in Stein am Rhein. It is known only from drawings. The inscription seems to mention Quintus Spicius Cerialis, who was governor of Raetia in the years 181-185 AD.
FLVM(ini) RHENO
PRO SALVTE
Q(uinti) SPICI CERIAL[is]For the river Rhine.
For the well-being of
Quintus Spicius Cerialis.Kolb et al. 2022, nr. 703; EDCS-10800660. To the north of Stein am Rhein, at the locality Hohenklingen, a head of sandstone was found in the 19th century. It must be of a male or female deity. Franz Cumont has suggested it is of Cautes or Cautopates, a torchbearer in the cult of Mithras.
The head of sandstone. Photo: Höneisen 1993, Abb. 47a.
Introduction
The settlement
The baths
CommerceThe writing tablets
Religion
The fortress
Burials
[16-Jan-2024]
