Posted on 05/23/2008 2:04:37 PM PDT by BGHater
PART of a Romano/British ring found by a Leighton metal detectorist in fields near Hockliffe has been declared treaure.
The ring, which has provided archaeologists with the missing link to a bloodthirsty ancient Celtic warrior god, was unearthed by Greg Dyer of Churchill Road in September 2005.
At an inquest last Tuesday, Beds coroner David Morris told the court that the piece of ring, thought to be from the third century AD, contains 2.98 grammes of silver.
The piece of jewellery, inscribed with the words 'Deo Tota Felix' is currently in the British Museum waiting to be valued.
In a report, the museum said that the missing part of the ring would almost certainly be inscribed with the word 'Vtere', as the four words together mean 'Use this ring happily'.
Former U.S.Navy sailor Mr Dyer said he was not expecting the find to make his fortune and any money paid would be shared with the landowner.
“It depends how they value something like this,” he said.
“The silver content is probably only worth a pound or two and I don’t know what price they can put on its historic worth.
“I’m only really expecting a token payment, but if it’s too small other detectorists making similar finds might be tempted to keep them.”
Mr Dyer said he took a photograph of his find and posted it on the internet where it was seen by Adam Daubney, Lincolnshire Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which helps record archaeological finds.
Mr Daubney said metal detectorists in and around Lincolnshire have been digging up Roman-era finger rings with the mysterious letters TOT inscribed on them for several years, but this is the first known example to be found in the south.
Experts in Roman history had for some time suspected that TOT was a misspelled abbreviation of the Celtic deity Toutates, so he decided to research further and found 44 examples of the TOT rings, mostly from Lincolnshire and dating from the second and third centuries AD, the time of the Roman occupation of Britain.
Toutates was one of the principal deities of the Celtic world, although little is known about him.
“There are two main sources that mention Toutates,” said Mr Daubney.
“The first was the Roman poet Lucan, who wrote from between AD39 to 65, and refers to him as the ‘dreaded Toutates’.
"A document in the ninth century also describes worshipers of Toutates offering human sacrifices to him.”
The document goes on to say how followers would kill their offerings, often babies, by plunging them head-first into a vat of liquid until they drowned.
Although rings with the names of Roman gods have previously been found in Britain this is the first time that a ring bearing the name of a local god has been identified.
“It is very, very rare to be able to look at an artefact from this period and say it is native British and not Roman and with this you can say that,” said Mr Daubney.
The cult of Toutates is thought to have died out with the Saxon invasions of the fifth century and the introduction of Christianity.
The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a voluntary scheme to record archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and Wales and more information can be had by logging onto www.finds.org.uk .
...to rule them all...ping
/johnny
The gud olde dayes.
The Carthaginians would sacrifice their children to Moloch by burning them alive. Horrified the Romans, which wasn’t all that easy to do.
You can bet any Celt the Romans caught in Britain cooking up the kids was in for a rather long, painful, and eventually dead afternoon.
It’s funny how our view of the Romans varies. In one era it was they who civilized the barbarians and in another they were like Nazi invaders/oppressors of peaceful neighbors.
Kinda cool, except for that human sacrifice part. Sort of like the Reform Druids, who I understand it, have also renounced blood sacrifice.
Kinda like terrorists and freedom fighters. It depends on if you are “getting freed” or not.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks BGHater.The cult of Toutates is thought to have died out with the Saxon invasions of the fifth century and the introduction of Christianity.should be:The cult of Toutates is thought to have died out with the introduction of Christianity and the Saxon invasions of the fifth century.Thanks also for adding the keyword! |
||
|
· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
D-R-I-N-K-M-O-R-E-O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E
French told to shrug off Gallic myth
The Times (U.K.) | 04/01/2002 | Adam Sage
Posted on 03/31/2002 3:17:14 PM PST by Pokey78
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/656944/posts
[snip] Christian Goudineau, Professor of History at the respected College de France, says in a new book, Par Toutatis, that the Gallic people never existed and that contemporary symbols are figments of the popular imagination... His book, named after the Celtic god Toutatis, is significant because it attacks the legend that forms the basis of the modern French state. [end]
Reg: Yeah, all right Stan, don’t delay with the point. And what have they ever given us in return?
Revolutionary I: The aqueduct?
Reg: What?
Revolutionary I: The aqueduct.
Reg: Oh. Yeah, yeah, they did give us that, ah, that’s true, yeah.
Revolutionary II: And the sanitation.
Loretta: Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like.
Reg: Yeah, all right, I’ll grant you the aqueduct and sanitation, the two things the Romans have done.
Matthias: And the roads.
Reg: Oh, yeah, obviously the roads. I mean the roads go without saying, don’t they? But apart from the sanitation, the
aqueduct, and the roads...
Revolutionary III: Irrigation.
Revolutionary I: Medicine.
Revolutionary IV: Education.
Reg: Yeah, yeah, all right, fair enough.
Revolutionary V: And the wine.
All revolutionaries except Reg: Oh, yeah! Right!
Rogers: Yeah! Yeah, that’s something we’d really miss Reg, if the Romans left. Huh.
Revolutionary VI: Public bathes.
Loretta: And it’s safe to walk in the streets at night now, Reg.
Rogers: Yeah, they certainly know how to keep order. Let’s face it; they’re the only ones who could in a place like this.
All revolutionaries except Reg: Hahaha...all right...
Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water
system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Revolutionary I: Brought peace?
Reg: Oh, peace! Shut up!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.