A skinny sheet of gold with a Greek inscription to Jupiter Dolichenus is the primary votive to the god ever found on the Roman Apsaros fort on the jap coast of the Black Sea in Georgia. The plaque was found within the 2024 excavation on the 1,800-year-old navy fort. Archaeologists beforehand believed the fortress had a sanctuary to the god, however to date it has not been discovered. That is the primary epigraphic proof that there was a Jupiter Dolichenus cult on the fort, and one in all only a few inscriptions of any sort discovered there.
The artefact takes the type of a stylised leaf and was produced utilizing repoussé approach. Its Greek inscription information that a person named Thrasymedes devoted the providing to the “Dolichenian God”, that’s, Jupiter Dolichenus and the cult of this deity loved explicit recognition amongst troopers of the Roman military and ultimately unfold all through massive areas of the Roman Empire.
The dedicator himself is an particularly intriguing determine. Because of the inscription, we all know his identify, permitting us, nearly two millennia later, to glimpse the non secular beliefs of a selected particular person related to the Roman garrison at Apsaros. The researchers notice that the identify Thrasymedes was comparatively unusual throughout the Roman interval. Though neither his origin nor his position throughout the garrison may be established, his dedication offers useful proof for the presence of people with Greek cultural backgrounds throughout the fort’s multi-ethnic neighborhood. The truth that the providing was manufactured from gold additional means that the cult of Jupiter Dolichenus attracted devoted worshippers keen to fee pricey votive presents.
Because the authors emphasise, the invention might point out the existence of a cult place devoted to Jupiter Dolichenus inside Apsaros. Different objects related to the deity have been discovered within the neighborhood of the plaque, together with a bronze figurine depicting an eagle seated upon a bull, one of many god’s attribute symbols. Taken collectively, these finds contribute considerably to our understanding of the non secular lifetime of troopers stationed on the fort and the position performed by jap cults in Roman frontier garrisons.
Shrines and votives devoted to Jupiter Dolichenus have been discovered at websites all through the empire, together with the British fort of Vindolanda below the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall. The thriller faith was widespread within the navy, however not unique to it, from the late 1st century A.D. till it got here to an abrupt finish after Sassanid Persian emperor Shapur I destroyed the god’s temple of origin at Doliche in 255 A.D.
The 2024 Apsaros excavation additionally unearthed the stays of a mosaic ground in what was seemingly the house of the garrison commander. The mosaic is closely broken, however it appears prefer it was a geometrical design with crimson and pink strains on a area of white tiles. The invention of winepresses and kilns used to make amphorae signifies wine was made on the premises, and given the manufacture of vessels on the location, it could effectively have been transported elsewhere.
