Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-nptnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-20T15:49:28.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Brooches and the Cult of Mercury

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2010

Nina Crummy
Nina Crummy
Affiliation:
Copford, Colchester, nina@crummy.org.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The attributes of Mercury include his purse and winged sandals and one of his animal companions is the cockerel. Purse brooches are few in number, but shoe sole and cockerel brooches occur at Temple 10 at Colchester, a centre of the god's cult, and at other temples, and both also occur in graves, reflecting Mercury's role as the guide of dead souls. Fly brooches have been found at both Temple 10 and Uley, also a centre for Mercury worship, and in a grave, and may be a fourth type associated with the god.

Keywords

Roman religionColchesterMercuryRoman broochesRoman templesRoman burials
Type
Notes
Information
Britannia , Volume 38 , November 2007 , pp. 225 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Nina Crummy 2007. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bailey, D. 1988: A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum III, Roman Provincial Lamps, LondonGoogle Scholar
Benfeld, S., and Crossan, C. in prep.: Report on the St Mary's Hospital Site, Colchester Archaeological TrustGoogle Scholar
Bertrand, I. 2003: Objets de parure et de soins du corps d'époque romaine dans l'Est picton (Deux-Sèvres, Vienne), Mémoire de l'Association des Publications Chauvinoises 23, ChauvignyGoogle Scholar
Brunaux, J. 1988: The Celtic Gauls: Gods, Rites and Sanctuaries (trans. D. Nash), LondonGoogle Scholar
Butcher, S. 1993a: Nornour, Isles of Scilly Museum Publication 7Google Scholar
Butcher, S. 1993b: ‘Brooches of copper alloy’, in Woodward, A. and Leach, P., The Uley Shrines. Excavations of a Ritual Complex on West Hill, Uley, Glos, 1977–9, London, 148–57Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 1990: ‘Roman metal hair pins from Southern Britain’, Arch. Journ. 147, 148–82Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 1998: ‘Life in Roman Castleford’, in Cool, H.E.M. and Philo, C., Roman Castleford, Yorkshire Archaeology 4, Wakefeld, 355–73Google Scholar
Crummy, N. 1983: The Roman Small Finds from Excavations in Colchester 1971–9, Colchester Archaeological Report 2, Colchester (reprinted 1995)Google Scholar
Crummy, N. 2006a: ‘Worshipping Mercury on Balkerne Hill’, in Ottaway, P. (ed.), A Victory Celebration: Papers on the Archaeology of Colchester and Late Iron Age-Roman Britain Presented to Philip Crummy, Colchester, 55–68Google Scholar
Crummy, N. 2006b: ‘The small finds’, in Fulford, M., Clarke, A. and Eckardt, H., Life and Labour in Late Roman Silchester, Britannia Monograph 22, London, 120–32Google Scholar
Crummy, P. 1984: Excavations at Lion Walk, Balkerne Lane and Middleborough, Colchester, Essex, Colchester Archaeological Report 3, ColchesterGoogle Scholar
Dudley, D. 1968: ‘Excavations on Nor'nour in the Isles of Scilly, 1962–6’, Arch. Journ. 124 (for 1967), 1–64Google Scholar
Eckardt, H. 2005: ‘The social distribution of Roman artefacts: the case of nail-cleaners and brooches in Britain’, JRA 18.1, 139–60Google Scholar
Ferris, I.M. 1986: ‘Horse and rider brooches in Britain: a new example from Rocester, Staffordshire’, Trans. S Staffs. Arch. Hist. Soc. 26, 1–10Google Scholar
Feugère, M. 1985: Les fbules en Gaule méridionale de la conquête à la fin du Ve siècle après J.-C., Revue Archéologique de Narbonnaise supp. 12, ParisGoogle Scholar
Fleischer, R. 1967: Die römischen Bronzen aus Österreich, MainzGoogle Scholar
Green, M. 1976: Religions of Civilian Roman Britain, BAR Brit. Ser. 24, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Green, M. 1997: The Gods of the Celts, StroudGoogle Scholar
Hattatt, R. 1982: Ancient and Romano-British Brooches, SherborneGoogle Scholar
Hawkes, C.F.C., and Hull, M.R. 1947: Camulodunum, LondonGoogle Scholar
Henig, M. 1978: A Corpus of Engraved Gemstones from British Sites, BAR Brit. Ser. 8 (2nd edn), OxfordGoogle Scholar
Henig, M. 1993: ‘Votive objects: images and inscriptions’, in Woodward, A. and Leach, P., The Uley Shrines. Excavations of a Ritual Complex on West Hill, Uley, Glos, 1977–9, London, 89–112Google Scholar
Hull, M.R. 1963: The Roman Potter's Kilns of Colchester, LondonCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, M.R. 1968: ‘The Nor'nour brooches’, in Dudley 1968, 28–64Google Scholar
Hull, M.R. forthcoming: Brooches in Pre-Roman and Roman Britain (Ed. Simpson, G., Crummy, N. and Blance, B.)Google Scholar
Johns, C. 1996a: The Jewellery of Roman Britain. Celtic and Classical Traditions, LondonGoogle Scholar
Johns, C. 1996b: ‘Mounted men and sitting ducks: the iconography of Romano-British plate brooches’, in Raftery, B. (ed.), Sites and Sights of the Iron Age: Essays of Fieldwork and Museum Research Presented to I.M. Stead, Oxford, 103–9Google Scholar
Kaufmann-Heinimann, A. 1983: Römische Bronzestatuetten aus Augst und Kaiseraugst, Augster Museumshefte 5, AugstGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann-Heinimann, A. 1994: Die römischen Bronzen der Schweiz V. Neufunde und Nachträge, MainzGoogle Scholar
Leech, R. 1986: ‘The excavation of a Romano-Celtic temple and a later cemetery on Lamyatt Beacon, Somerset’, Britannia 17, 259–328Google Scholar
LIMC: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Zurich/MunichGoogle Scholar
Lindgren, C. 1980: Classical Art Forms and Celtic Mutations, Park Ridge, New JerseyGoogle Scholar
Mackreth, D.F. 1994: ‘Copper alloy and iron brooches’, in Cracknell, S. and Mahany, C., Roman Alcester: Southern Extramural Area, 1964–1966 Excavations 2: Finds and Discussion, CBA Res. Rep. 97, York, 162–77Google Scholar
Merrifeld, R. 1965: The Roman City of London, LondonGoogle Scholar
Philpott, R. 1991: Burial Practices in Roman Britain, BAR Brit. Ser. 219, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Rae, A., and Rae, V. 1974: ‘The Roman fort at Cramond, Edinburgh. Excavations 1954–66’, Britannia 5, 163–224Google Scholar
RCHM 1962: Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Eburacum, Roman York. An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York, LondonGoogle Scholar
Simpson, G., and Blance, B. 1998: ‘Do brooches have ritual associations?’, in Bird, J. (ed.), Form and Fabric: Studies in Rome's Material Past in Honour of B.R. Hartley, Oxford, 267–79Google Scholar
Smith, C.R. 1848: Collectanea Antiqua 1, LondonGoogle Scholar
Thevenot, E. 1968: Divinités et sanctuaires de la Gaule, ParisGoogle Scholar
van Driel Murray, C. 1999: ‘And did those feet in ancient time… Feet and shoes as a material projection of the self’, in Baker, P., Jundi, S. and Witcher, R. (eds), TRAC 98, Proceedings of the 8th Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Leicester 1998, Oxford, 131–40Google Scholar
WA 55024.1: Balkerne Heights, Colchester, Essex. Archaeological Excavation, Assessment Report. Interim Statement of Results and Proposals for Analysis, Reporting and Publication, Wessex Archaeology Report 55024.1, 2005; no credited author or editorGoogle Scholar
Wardle, A. 2002: ‘The accessioned finds’, in Drummond-Murray, J. and Thompson, P., with Cowan, C., Settlement in Roman Southwark. Archaeological Excavations (1991–8) for the London Underground Limited Jubilee Line Extension Project, MoLAS Monograph 12, London, 212–30Google Scholar
Waugh, H. 1961: ‘The Romano-British burial at Weston Turville, Bucks’, Records of Buckinghamshire 17, 107–14Google Scholar
Webster, G. 1986: ‘What the Britons required from the gods as seen through the pairing of Roman and Celtic deities and the character of votive offerings’, in Henig, M. and King, A. (eds), Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire, Oxford, 57–64Google Scholar