Renewing the past: Rufinus’ appropriation of the sacred site of Panóias (Vila Real, Portugal)

Abstract

The topic of “lived places” is here approached through the analysis of the rock sanctuary of Panóias (Assento de Valnogueiras, Vila Real de Trás-osMontes), one of the most popular archaeological sites in Portugal. When the Roman senator Gaius C(?) Calpurnius Rufinus, between the late 2nd and the mid-3rd century CE, had to choose the most appropriate location for his intervention, he decided to build a shrine far away from an urban center, preferring Panóias’ remote and numinous set of granite rocks, which had hosted cultic activities already in pre-Roman times. The senator, though promoting new ritual patterns linked with the cult of Isis and Serapis (namely the construction of, at least, a temple equipped with basins where sacrifices were performed), showed a strong interest in evoking the ancestry of the pre-existing religious practices and negotiating continuity with the new ones. The article explores the microstrategies enacted by Rufinus in order to introduce his innovation, elevate Serapis over all the other gods, paint the new cult with specific Eleusinian mystery traits, regulate the related liturgy, and thus significantly negotiate and renew a salient ancestral activity. When dealing with the topic of “lived places”, the issue raised by part of the subtitle of this section (viz. the individual appropriation of space) is absolutely crucial. This chapter focuses precisely on the topics of appropriation, bricolagist resacralization, and prolongation of memory through different media. My interest here lies in discussing micro-strategies for evoking the ancestry of local cultic practices, promoting new ritual patterns, negotiating continuity and change among Acknowledgement: This paper has been conceived as part of the project The breath of gods. Embodiment, experience and communication in everyday Isiac cultic practice, in the context of Lived ancient religion. Questioning “cults” and “polis religion” (LAR), directed by Jörg Rüpke and funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2013, n° 295555). Its final release has further benefitted from the involvement in the research group Historiografía e Historia de las Religiones of the Julio Caro Baroja Institute of Historiography at the University Carlos III of Madrid, where Jaime Alvar Ezquerra leads a specific research project (2018–2021) on Epítetos divinos: experiencia religiosa y relaciones de poder en Hispania (EPIDI), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance (HAR2017-84789-C2-2-P). Open Access. ©2020 Valentino Gasparini, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110557596-017 them, and manipulating pre-existing sets of religious options. By analyzing the rock sanctuary of Panóias and discussing the personal engagement by the author of a series of five inscriptions carved in its area, I will try to shed some light on specific processes involved in the dismantling and rebuilding of memory. Panóias (Assento de Valnogueiras, Vila Real de Trás-os-Montes), which has been a Portugese National Monument since 1910 (Freitas et al. 2012–2013, 184 n. 1), is one of the most popular archaeological sites in Portugal. It lies at an altitude of 460 m above sea level in a mountainous region (85 km from the Atlantic coast) the characteristic feature of which are the ancient, smoothly-rounded granite outcrops (locally called “fragas”) of the early Palaeozoic era. The area now corresponding to Trás-os-Montes (north-eastern Portugal) has been more or less continuously inhabited since the Palaeolithic age. Prior to the Roman period, it was occupied by a people we know as the Lusitanians. It was nominally conquered by Decimus Iunius Brutus (later nicknamed “Callaicus” or “Gallaecus”) in 137 BCE but the Roman occupation was consolidated only after Augustus’ Cantabrian Wars (29–19 BCE). The area was incorporated into the conventus Bracaraugustanus (prov. Hispania Tarraconensis) and placed under the direct control of themunicipium of Aquae Flaviae (Chaves) after the Flavian municipalization in 75 CE. Apart from the hot springs, Rome’s interest in the area lay in the extraction of metals: the rich gold mines of Três Minas and Jales lie only 20 km north of Panóias. During Late Antiquity, Panóias was listed under its Latin name of Pannonias in the Parochiale Suevorum (569 CE) as the center of a parish belonging to the Suevian diocese of Braga. It is also attested as the site of a mint in the mid-Visigothic period, during the reigns of Witteric (603–610 CE) and Sisebut (612–621 CE). 1 A brief history of exploration at the site In 1721, the King of Portugal, João V, ordered the Senate of Vila Real to send the Royal Academy of History in Lisbon a detailed report assembling the main 1 Cf. CIL II 2477 = 5616 (with Hübner’s commentary) = Rodríguez Colmenero 1997, 418–426, n 587. 2 Domergue 1990, 201; Tranoy 2004, 88; Martins 2010; Fonseca Sorribas 2012, 525. 3 I 1, 19. The codex “G” already testifies the variant Panoias. Cf. Rodríguez Colmenero 1999, 24 n. 27. 4 Russell Cortez 1947, 66–73; Rodríguez Colmenero 1999, 19 n. 1 and 23–25. 320 Valentino Gasparini