Abstract
Abstract
The excavations uncovered portable ritual objects within the buildings across Insulae VIII.7 and I.1 and inside the gate court of the Porta Stabia. There was a diversity of votive types, from miniature vessels to anatomical terracotta objects and mundane objects that took on ad hoc ritual meaning. An understanding of the contextual and spatial distribution of the votives demonstrates that there must be precautions against inferring a correlation between the presence of votives and ritual activities. The majority of the votive finds appear in secondary contexts, having been imported from elsewhere, and cannot speak to primary ritual behaviors. Those in primary contexts speak to small-scale domestic rituals events, offerings during construction activities, and ritual observance at the city gate.
Publisher
Oxford University PressOxford
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