RRONA

Goddess of fords at Trier in Germany.

RITUAL SHAFT

There was a widespread Celtic custom of digging pits and shafts down into the ground. It is possible that some of these were wells, but some are clearly for some ritual purpose. The custom extended across the Celtic world and into the Greco-Roman world, where special pits called bothroi and mundi were dug to reach down into the Underworld. The intention seems to have been to create doorways that would connect the two worlds.

There are late Iron Age examples in Britain, but it is likely that they were made throughout the Iron Age because some Bronze Age examples have been found too, at Swanwick and Wilsford. It was evidently a tradition of long standing.

In Germany ritual shafts were certainly made in the middle Iron Age, and they were located in rectangular enclosures. At Holzhausen there was an enclosure containing three such shafts, one of them containing evidence of animal or human sacrifice.

The pits at Danebury hillfort in Hampshire may have been dug for grain storage, and the hints at ritual activity around them could be explained as attempts to propitiate the gods of the Underworld for disturbing the earth, or perhaps to ensure that the gods looked after the grain properly.

Most of the pits in Britain belong to the first centuries BC and AD, and probably only a quarter of them were dug for ritual purposes.

The shaft at Muntham Court in Sussex was 200 feet (60m) deep and associated with a shrine containing the remains of many dog burials. Dogs were associated with the Underworld, so their presence here was apt.

At Newstead in Scotland several shafts were dug, one of them containing the body of a man.

One of the most interesting of the pits is the one at Deal in Kent. This was excavated to make an underground shrine at the bottom of a shaft 8 feet (2m) deep. The oval chamber contained a crude figurine carved out of a block of chalk. The base of the figurine is a shapeless block of chalk. This tapers into a carefiJly made neck. On top is a well-carved round face, perfectly Celtic in style. It is believed to have stood originally in a niche high up in the wall of the chamber. Footholds cut in the wall of the shaft show that it was intended that the chamber should be accessible —it was not just a tomb chamber—and it might have held as many as live people. The pottery found in the chamber suggests that the shrine was made in the ftrst century AD.

There is a problem in distinguishing some of the ritual shafts from ordinary wells. Sinking wells for drawing water had become commonplace in the Roman world by the ftrst century AD. The objects we see as ritual ofierings could just as easily be accidental losses during the normal daily usage of the well. Sometimes there are complete vessels, which had probably been lowered to the bottom of the well to draw water.

When a well was considered to be of no further use, it was usually filled in for safefy wifh ordinary domestic rubbish, and fhis too is difiiculf to distinguish from objecfs dropped in as ofierings.

ROSMERTA

A goddess often associated wifh a wooden tub. Images from Gad showing tubs sometimes have a paddle and a griddle, suggesting an activity such as dyeing. Rosmerta with a tub and a purse might be a patroness of commercial textile manufacture. Alternatively, the tub may be a small-scale symbol of endless plenty: a mini-cauldron.

Rosmerta is paired with Smertrios (the closest Celtic eqdvalent of the Roman god Mercury). The divine couple are sometimes shown as simple Gaulish peasants and carved in a natural way that implies that these are images made by Celts for Celts. Mercury is presented in a fairly standard way, but his female partner adds a homely concern for well-being in all aspects of life and death.

One possibility is that a Roman god has been deliberately paired with a native Celtic goddess. This produces a wide spectrum of responsibilities for the couple. He supplies good luck, success in agriculture and commerce, fertility, and well-being. Rosmerta brings depth. She protects from harm and from the caprices of fate, she lights the darkness, and she guides us through death to resurrection and regeneration. She represents spiritual comfort.