The cult of Iupiter Dolichenus in the Central European Barbaricum?

Abstract

Abstract The study evaluates and interprets a new find of fragments of a triangular votive plaque of Iupiter Dolichenus from Újezd u Rosic, Brno-Country District (Moravia, Czech Republic) and places it in the context of the Central European Barbaricum and the Roman Middle Danube region. The team of authors presents a revision of older finds (bronze statuettes from the Homeland Museum at Hlohovec, Slovakia and from Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany) as well as an elemental and material analysis of the find from Újezd u Rosic. Due to their isolated occurrence in the landscape, the fragments of the triangular votive plaque from Újezd u Rosic are an evidence for ritual behaviour of the local barbarian populations rather than a lost item. The presence of the plaque outside the Roman border can hypothetically be connected with the events of the Marcomannic Wars, or with the period of unrest between the Germanic tribes and the Roman power under the Late Severans.