Coventina
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Coventina was a Romano-British goddess of wells and springs. She is known from multiple inscriptions at one site in the United Kingdom, at Carrawburgh on Hadrian's Wall. It is possible that other inscriptions, two from Hispania and one from Narbonensis, may refer to Coventina, but this is uncertain and disputed (Allason-Jones and McKay, 1985).
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[edit] Location and dating
The Coventina dedications and votive deposits were found in a walled area which had been built to contain the output of a spring. It was near a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, called Procolita in the 5th century Notitia Dignitatum and Brocolita in the 7th century Ravenna Cosmography. A Mithraeum and a Nymphaeum were built close to the fort and Coventina's well.
The Roman fort was built between 128 and 133. Because the Wall does not deviate to avoid the well, Allason-Jones and McKay (1985) consider it likely that the boundary wall around the well was built to control the flow of water in a marshy area, after Hadrian's Wall was built.
Evidence from coin hoards and stones covering these and blocking the well suggests a fairly abrupt end around 388, perhaps linked with anti-Pagan edicts of Theodosius I.
[edit] Statues
Excavation of the site revealed several inscribed altars, some with depictions of Coventina in typical Roman nymph form; two are shown here. On one, Coventina is depicted in triple form, or alternatively has two attendants.
Excavation also revealed a large quantity of coinage, from early Augustan coins to those of the late fourth century, and other votive objects such as brooches, rings, pins, glassware, and pottery. These are assumed to be votive deposits due to the quantity discovered in a single location.
[edit] Inscriptions
At least ten inscriptions to Coventina are recorded from Carrawburgh. Several stone altars contained dedications to Coventina, as did two pottery incense burners.
The inscription (RIB 1534) on the image of the single Coventina illustrated above reads
- Deae Cov{v}entinae /
- T D Cosconia /
- nvs Pr Coh /
- I Bat L M
“To the Goddess Coventina, Titus D(something) Cosconianus, Prefectus of the First Cohort of Batavians, freely and deservedly (dedicated this stone).”
[edit] References
- Allason-Jones, Linday & McKay, Bruce (1985) Coventina's Well, a shrine on Hadrians Wall. Trustees of the Clayton Collection, Chesters Museum. ISBN 0-946897-05-0
- Collingwood, R.G. and Wright, R.P. (1965). The Roman Inscriptions of Britain (RIB). Oxford, Clarendon Press. Available online
[edit] External links
- Coventina.net
- Brocolita at Roman-Britain.org
