Archaeologists recently uncovered an ancient sculpture from 1,800 years ago that depicts a prehistoric hybrid deity at a Roman fort in Germany.
Roman Fort Excavations
The artifact surfaced in the middle of excavations conducted at the Bad Cannstatt borough of Stuttgart, which is the largest and capital city of the Baden-Württemberg German state.
This site housed a fort from roughly A.D. 100 to A.D. 150 during the Roman period, where a military cavalry unit was stationed. Later, a civilian settlement developed during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
According to Dr. Andreas Thiel, the leader of the ongoing excavation and an archaeologist from the Baden-Württemberg State Office for Monument Preservation (LAD), the settlement had a city-like character, and by the end of Roman rule in roughly A.D. 260, the area served as Roman southwest Germany's central transportation hub.
Ancient Snake-Bodied Deity Statue
Ein kleiner Gigant aus Bad Cannstatt? Bei Ausgrabungen im Römerkastell staunten die Archäolog*innen nicht schlecht: da taucht eine Figur auf, die ihnen vertraut vorkommt... (ohne Paywall). Posted by Landesmuseum Württemberg on Monday, April 22, 2024
During the excavations, a sandstone object with mud smearing emerged. It appeared to be a kneeling figure with a human head, roughly 12 inches in height.
Though the stone was weathered heavily, the arms of the figure are visible on the upper body's sides. Its hands rest over its legs and hips, merging to form a snake.
Thiel explains that the piece's snakes are very hard to see because of weathering and the stone's poor quality. This would have been much easier to recognize in ancient times because of colorful paintings.
The archaeologist says the artifact depicts a Roman-Germanic deity hybrid and likely dates to the latter part of the second century A.D.
The sculpture was previously part of a monument type called Jupiter Column that was widespread across Roman Germania. Such columns tended to be crowned with a Roman deity statue, among other hallmark features.
The archaeologists note that the sandstone figure could have been connected to another Jupiter Column part discovered in the area over a century ago. This used to be placed in a crucial street intersection in the Bad Cannstatt Roman settlement.
Thiel also notes that the new artifact also piques new interest. The archaeologist says that all archaeologists are delighted whenever a beautiful finding is made. Each Hallschlag excavation offers puzzle pieces of the state capital's Roman past. For this specific case, the researchers were fortunate to see that the giant aligns with other discoveries uncovered in the Bad Cannstatt from more than a century ago.
It is fortunate that the discovery could be associated with a fragment that has remained stored in the depot of the Württemberg State Museum. This can allow the reconstruction of the Jupiter giant column. It used to be erected close to a crucial road junction in the Roman settlement. Archaeologists consider this another clue regarding the area's rich Roman past.
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