Altar lights

Lucentum, Tossal de Manises (Alicante) Bronze Plate: h: 21'5 cm; w: 5'7 cm; d: 0'3 cm Bucranea: h: 7-7'7cm; w: 6'2 cm; d: 1-1'6 cm Urceus: h: 8'7 cm ; w : 3'9 cm; e: 0'8 cm Lituus: h: 10'5 cm; a: 3'5 cm; e: 0'4 cm Cornucopia: h: 9'1cm; a: 4 cm; e: 1'5 cm Roman culture 1st century AD.

Decorated bronze plaque and appliqués of the same material of religious significance. The plate is decorated from top to bottom with a denticulate fillet, a three-lobed lesbian cyma with alternating lotus leaves and a calyx with two sepals, two petals and a pistil, and finally an astragalus. On one side, the cyme ends in an angular motif formed by a leaf with incised ribs.

The three bucranes, a cornucopia, an urceus and a lituus, as well as other fragments of similarly decorated plaques, would have been embedded in the altar itself.

They were found as a result of superficial cleaning on the eastern side of the site in the late 1970s.

The plaque and sconces would have decorated a stone altar or pedestal. The appliqués are of a liturgical nature used by Roman priests: the urceus or jug and the lituus, the curved staff of the augurs, used to delimit the celestial space in divinatory ceremonies. The skulls of oxen symbolise the animals sacrificed and carry the infulas with which they were adorned during the ritual. The cornucopia alludes to abundance, prosperity of the state and is an attribute of various deities (Fortuna, Ceres, Cybele).

There are numerous traces of these appliqués in the Roman Empire. In Hispania we can cite those of Ampurias and Ercávica (Cuenca). Ritual symbols and objects are frequently depicted on coins and stone reliefs, both in altars and architectural friezes, among which the entablature of Vespasian's temple in Rome is particularly important and beautiful.

These pieces were originally placed on a pedestal or altar in a sacred space or building, or perhaps in the forum of the Roman city of Lucentum.

C.S.: 6058
Unpublished.