Anthropomorphic wooden cult figurines of Central and Northern Europe

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BCE

Anthropomorphic wooden cult figurines, sometimes called pole gods, have been found at many

Germanic settlement, but some are from areas of Celtic settlement and from the later part of the date range, Slavic settlement. A typology has been developed based on the large number found at Oberdorla, Thuringia, at a sacrificial bog which is now the Opfermoor Vogtei open-air museum
.

The oldest of the figures is the Mesolithic find from

Strata Florida figure from Wales, was imported [citation needed] ) and as far east as Gorbunovo Moor in Russia. By far the majority were preserved in wetlands of some sort; however, only one figure—from the late Bronze Age settlement at Wasserburg Buchau, near Bad Buchau in Baden-Württemberg, Germany—has been found in the lake village culture of the Alps.[1]

Geographical distribution

Map
Locations of anthropomorphic pole gods/ancestral sculptures made of wood (discovered in modern times or location described by a credible sources (see Cape Arkona Temple))


















Locations of anthropomorphic idols are spread across the entire northwestern to eastern European region and represent a pan-European phenomenon across cultural boundaries. The documented sites shown on the map can be considered as a small subset of the true number of pole idols. It is plausible that numerous finds are still waiting in the soil of the extensive, former swamp landscapes of Europe (Baltic Sea neighbors, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, etc.), if they have not been destroyed during peat mining (see destruction of boardwalks in Wittemoor) etc. .

Germanic-speaking areas

Background and development

Braak Bog Figures (Type 2) found in Northern Germany and dated to approximately 2nd to early 4th centuries BCE.

The earliest evidence of anthropomorphic wooden cult figures in areas that would later have Germanic-speaking inhabitants is from the

heathen temple and been placed in the bog at the conversion.[10] Furthermore, post holes have been identified such as that which forms the focal point of the "grandstand" at the 6th to 7th-century Anglo-Saxon royal hall site of Yeavering. With a side length of 56 centimetres (22 in) and a depth of approximately 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in), it indicates a pillar of considerable size, presumably a cult pillar of some sort.[11][12][13]

The

asuras as a term of Indo-European origins is equally plausible.[16] Some of the wooden figures take the form of a simple pole or post, sometimes set up in a heap of stones.[17]

Literary attestations

Eddic poem "Hávamál
":

Váðir mínar
gaf ek velli at
tveim trémǫnnom;
rekkar þat þóttusk,
er þeir rift hǫfðo,
neiss er nökkviðr halr.
My clothes
I gave in the countryside
to two twig-men.
Great fellows they thought themselves
when they had garments—
a man is mortified naked.[19]

Other more or less contemporary texts also attest to wooden cult figurines in

Volga Vikings, he writes that as soon as they come into harbour, they leave their ships with food and alcoholic drink and offer them at a tall piece of wood with the face of a man carved in it, which is surrounded by smaller similar figures.[21] Such an arrangement has been found at sites such as the Oberdorla sacrificial bog.[citation needed
]

The mentions in

Icelandic sagas of Öndvegissúlur carved with the images of gods, in particular Thor and Freyr
, and of other idols, may be related but have been influenced by Christian concepts since the sagas were written down in the 12th to 14th centuries, centuries after the heathen period.

Forms and material

Günter Behm-Blancke classified the anthropomorphic figurines into four groups based on the finds at Oberdorla:

Most of the figures which have been preserved are of oak, which was probably preferred for its endurance in the mostly wet locations where they were deposited.

Interpretations

Female (left) and male (right) plank figures (Type 3) from the Wittemoor timber trackway

It is impossible to determine the exact purpose of the figurines, or their relationship to the named Germanic gods and goddesses, with whose worship they overlap; examples are found dating to as late as the

Yggdrasill) and thus derive from an archaic tree cult.[17]

Heiko Steuer has suggested that in the case of the male and female Wittemoor figures, which stood on either side of a plank causeway through a marsh, there may have been a secular decorative motive in addition to the spiritual luck-bringing and warding (apotropaic) functions.[28]

Celtic-speaking areas

Relatively few figurines have been found in areas of Celtic-speaking settlement, and because of overlap with Germanic-speaking settlement, particularly in the North Sea region,[29] it is sometimes difficult to assign a figure to one or the other group of people.

A fragment of an anthropomorphic figurine made of oak dating to the 2nd century BCE was found in a possibly sacrificial shaft inside a Viereckschanze enclosure in the Schmiden section of Fellbach in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It originally depicted a person, apparently seated, between two rams, with hands around their rumps; only the hands survive from the human figure.[30][31][32]

Lucan's Pharsalia refers to a sacred grove near Massilia (Marseille) which was a location of human sacrifice and had stone altars and rough-hewn wooden idols.[33]

In a stone replica of a

Rhone in Lake Geneva, near Villeneuve, Vaud, Switzerland. It is 1.25 metres (4 ft 1 in) tall and clothed in a tunic. It was dated by means of three Celtic silver coins of the 2nd century BCE which were in a fissure in the statue, and is thought to depict a late 2nd to mid-1st century Celtic deity, apparently associated with the river or the lake.[34][35][38] Finally, a wooden figure 58 centimetres (23 in) was found in Montbouy, west of Orléans in central France. It is presumed to be male and the location of the find, in the well of a Roman temple, suggests it served a devotional purpose; the style of the figure resembles that of pre-Roman figures from North Germany.[39]

Ireland

To date twenty three anthropomorphic figures are known from Ireland, dating from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age. The figures come from eleven wetland sites across Ireland. They include two figures known only from paper records: one from the

Ralaghan Man. It has a genital opening containing a piece of white quartz, which may represent a vulva or may have been an attachment point for a penis.[41]

In 1934, the first archaeologically excavated figure was identified during excavations at Lagore crannog, County Meath by Hugh O'Neill Hencken. The figure is one of two explicitly anthropomorphic figures in the corpus, the remainder being more stylized. It is 0.47 m tall and consists of a heart-shaped face, a square torso without arms, and two simple legs ending in feet. A slight bump in the pubic area is interpreted as indicating male genitals.[42] The Lagore figure is the earliest to have been found in Ireland and dates to 2135–1944 cal. BC.

The latest is the Gortnacrannagh Figure dating to cal. AD 252–413 (1715±28 BP; UBA-43937), from a fen flanking the Owenur River in County Roscommon.[43]

Scotland

In 1880, an almost lifesize female figure carved out of an oak log was found near Ballachulish in Scotland. The genitalia are emphasised and pieces of quartz have been inserted as eyes. The figure had been deposited in a ritual context with other objects, within an enclosure marked off with woven branches, similar to cultic finds on the continent. It has been carbon-dated to between 700 and 500 BCE.[44][45]

Slavic-speaking areas

Slavic figure of a god, c. 5th century CE, from Altfriesack, Fehrbellin, Brandenburg, Germany

The several wooden anthropomorphic figures found in the

Temple at Arkona as containing a great four-headed idol, far taller than a man.[47] However, Slavic anthropomorphic figures do not occur until the 10th century, presumably under the influence of neighbouring cultures.[48]

Sebastian Brather distinguishes between idols in plank and pole form. He regards the former as primarily votive in purpose,[citation needed] like those described by Saxo and by others including Thietmar of Merseburg, but their identification with specific deities can only be speculation. Also, as with Celtic and Germanic, Slavic paganism was not universally standardised but included decentralised, local cult centres and practices, of which the wooden images would have formed a part.[49]

Leszek Słupecki considers the figure from Fischerinsel near Neubrandenburg one of the most significant Slavic idols. Dated to the 11th–12th century, it takes the form of a two-headed male bust mounted on a column of hewn oak, and is 178 centimetres (5 ft 10 in) high. The beard, eyes, and nose are emphasised.[50] It is the only multi-headed sculpture extant from a Slavic region, but the location of the find does not indicate any sort of temple or shrine.[51]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9780199571017, pp. 193–94
    .
  2. ^ "Guden fra Broddenbjerg" Archived 2013-10-04 at the Wayback Machine, Nyt fra fortiden (in Danish)
  3. ISBN 9780415252539, p, 60
    .
  4. ^ Svend Hansen, "Archaeological Finds from Germany: Booklet to the Photographic Exhibition" Archived 2013-10-08 at the Wayback Machine, [Berlin]: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Eurasien-Abteilung, 2010, p. 34 (pdf)
  5. ^ Andreas Oldeberg, "Några träidoler från förhistorisk och senare tid" Archived 2017-08-12 at the Wayback Machine, Fornvännen 52 (1957) 247–58. (in Swedish) (German summary)
  6. ISBN 9783806214437, p. 28
    (in German)
  7. ISBN 9783883759852
    , Plate 55.
  8. OCLC 247529956
    , Plate 31, p. 78 (described on p. 197 as Plate 32).
  9. ^ a b Johannes Maringer, "Das Wasser in Kult und Glauben der vorgeschichtlichen Menschen", Anthropos 68.5/6, 1973, pp. 705–76, p. 745 (in German)
  10. ISBN 9789189116818, pp. 26–32, p. 30
    .
  11. ^ RACAR 23–25 (1998) 4.
  12. ISBN 9780852243633, p. 48
    .
  13. ISBN 9781781854174, n.p.
    suggests a Frankish staffolus.
  14. OCLC 378881
    , p. 25.
  15. OCLC 769214225
    p. 9, note 1 (in German) has a bibliography of that and rival etymologies.
  16. ISBN 9780859915137
    , repr. 2000 p. 3.
  17. ^ a b c "Pole gods", Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology, p. 258.
  18. OCLC 776555615
  19. ISBN 978-0-19-811182-5
    , p. 12.
  20. ISBN 978-1624666339.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  21. ^ James E. Montgomery, "Ibn Faḍlān and the Rūsiyyah" Archived 2013-10-01 at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 3, 2000: "This piece of wood has a face like the face of a man and is surrounded by small figurines behind which are long pieces of wood set up in the ground."
  22. ISBN 9789067074186
    , p. 104.
  23. OCLC 256529450
    , pp. 351–71, p. 369 (in German)
  24. ^ Behm-Blancke, pp. 369–71.
  25. ^ a b Behm-Blancke, p. 371.
  26. ^ Menotti, p. 193.
  27. ISBN 3-11-016649-6
    , pp. 325–30, p. 330.
  28. ISBN 978-3-11-019010-6
    (in German)
  29. ISBN 9783700126096, pp. 682, 937
    (in German)
  30. ISBN 9783406482342, p. 151
    (in German)
  31. ISBN 9783806214819, p. 38
    (in German)
  32. ISBN 9789070319137, p. 62
    .
  33. ^ Lucan, Pharsalia (aka "The Civil War") Book III "Massilia", ll. 458–61, 468–71, trans. Edward Ridley, 1896, at Medieval and Classical Literature Library, Pharsalia Book 3, 4 May 2018:
    ... No sylvan nymphs
    Here found a home, nor Pan, but savage rites
    And barbarous worship, altars horrible
    On massive stones upreared; sacred with blood
    Of men was every tree. ...
    ... effigies of gods
    Rude, scarcely fashioned from some fallen trunk
    Held the mid space: and, pallid with decay,
    Their rotting shapes struck terror.
  34. ^
    OCLC 26452989, p. 78
    .
  35. ^
    ISBN 9783110167825, pp. 395–407, p. 404
    (in German)
  36. ^ Birkhan, p. 937.
  37. OCLC 35252688, p. 202
    (in German)
  38. ^ Maier, p. 151; see R. Wyss, "La statue celte de Villeneuve", Helvetia Archeologica 10 (1979) 58–67 (in French)
  39. ISBN 91-22-01705-4, pp. 1–68, pp. 25, 27
    (in German)
  40. OCLC 39155773
    .
  41. ISBN 9780203647455
    .
  42. S2CID 164050650
    .
  43. ^ Campbell, Eve; Ó Maoldúin, Ros (Spring 2022). "Idols, ards, and severed heads: Three thousand years of deposition in a Roscommon fen". PAST. 100: 12–13.
  44. ISBN 9780521176408, p. 7, Fig. 33, p. 36
    .
  45. ISBN 9780713475388, pp. 87–88
    .
  46. ISBN 9783110206098, p. 325
    (in German)
  47. ISBN 9783447060943, p. 100
    (in German)
  48. ^ Brather, p. 320.
  49. ^ Leszek Słupecki, "The temple in Rhetra-Riedegost: West Slavic pagan ritual as described at the beginning of eleventh century", in Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives, pp. 224–28, p. 224.
  50. ISBN 9789004122987, Plate 50, p. 53
    .
  51. ISBN 9788385463276
    , p. 205.

Further reading

External links

  • Photo gallery, Wer waren die Germanen?, Arte, 19 July 2007. Images 4 and 5. (in German)
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