6533b828fe1ef96bd1288a38

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Downfall of the domestic gods. A Discovery of Statues in a 3rd-century House in Entrains-sur-Nohain (Burgundy, France)

subject

description

Several stone statuettes of domestic gods have been discovered in houses in the Roman city of Intaranum, now Entrains (Nièvre), located in the north of the Aeduii territory. During an excavation carried out by INRAP in 2014-2015 in the northern part of the city, nine new statuettes were unearthed, some intact or barely damaged. The statuettes are of feminine or masculine deities, who sit and hold their knees, symbolising material welfare. Some statuettes come from in previously identified workshops. The data from both earlier and more recent excavations converge to date most of the statuettes to the 2nd half of the 2nd century CE. Abandoned during Late Antiquity, some of these artefacts were found in basements, close to their original placements in niches or on monopods. These domestic deities often found in the Aeduii civitas, but also in the basements of Alésia. They represent a specific type of domestic devotion and are rarely found elsewhere.