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https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/38505| Title: | The representation of the serpent in ancient Iberia |
| Authors: | Bru Romo, Margarita Vazquez Hoys, Ana |
| Keywords: | Serpents -- Religious aspects Serpents -- Symbolic aspects Fertility cults -- Mediterranean Region -- History -- Congresses Spain -- Antiquities -- History |
| Issue Date: | 1986 |
| Publisher: | University of Malta Press |
| Citation: | Bru Romo, M., & Vazquez-Hoys, A. (1986). The representation of the serpent in ancient Iberia. In A. Bonanno (Ed.), Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean: papers presented at the First International Conference on Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean, 2-5 September 1985 (pp. 305-314). Malta: University of Malta Press. |
| Abstract: | We find a cult to the serpent in Iberian Prehistory and Protohistory. Indoeuropean and Mediterranean cultures adopted this cult which had similarities with the beliefs of an earlier people, probably autochthonous. Different ex-votos, Phoenician metal jars, the so-called "Celtic belts", Tartessian jewellery, Iberian pottery, etc., decorated with snakes prove this assertion. In the Roman period the serpent appears in objects of a very different type and, most times, though it may seem just a fashionable decoration it also has an apotropaic or fertility meaning, as in the case of the ara of Altea or Voconio's stela. This meaning is still present in the beliefs of some peasant villages. |
| URI: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/38505 |
| ISBN: | 9060322886 |
| Appears in Collections: | Archaeology and fertility cult in the Ancient Mediterranean |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The_representation_of_the_serpent_in_ancient_Iberia_1986.pdf | 384.2 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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