Sacred Springs

The role of sacred springs and spring deities in Hittite religion is especially relevant to the consideration of the relationship between nature and cult in ancient Anatolia. This paper addresses the subject by first presenting an overview of the most important hydrological terms, including various designations applied to springs. The degree of architectural structuring of the spring itself and its surroundings is given systematic consideration in order to develop and archetonic typology of the spring sanctuaries. The question of the relationship between the spring deity or numen and the physical spring itself is addressed through observations of three different cases: springs among the loci numinosi, the spring Weriyadu, and the writing conventions used to designate springs in a festival celebrated in the city of Tauriša. Both with regard to architectonic typology as well as the degree and manner of personification of sacred springs, clear spectrums can be identified that reflect the diversity of significance and interpretation of springs in Hittite religion.

Columbanus established a number of important monasteries in Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, and Lombard Italy between AD 591 and his death in AD 615: Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaine, Bregenz, and Bobbio. But what were the factors that lay behind his choice of these sites? Did he play an active role in the foundation process or was he at the whim of his royal patrons, who gave him these lands on which to establish his monasteries? This article proposes that a more complex and dynamic process underlay the choice of these sites, whereby Columbanus and his royal patrons acted in concert to appropriate ancient healing cult sites within a Christian pastoral framework. The commonalities shared by these sites at Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaine, Bregenz, and Bobbio reveal a pastoral element to Columbanus’ establishment of his monasteries. This has important implications for how these sites are interpreted and for understanding Columbanus’ role as a peregrinus and monastic founder on the continent.

Paper presented at the 4th IWHA-Conference, Water and Civilization: Water and Religion, Unesco Headquarters, Paris, December 2005. A shorter version was presented at the 35th world Congress of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC), Routes de l’Histoire: Passeurs de Civilisations, Porteurs des Diversites Culturelles. Verse et Contre Verse/The Paths of History: Bridges Across Civilizations, Carriers of Cultural Diversity. Pros and Cons, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE)/Unesco, Paris, July 2006. Article versions of the paper have later been publised.

India’s springs are vulnerable to extinction and current practices are inadequate to deal with springshed management. Better demand and supply-side management, greater institutional convergence, improved capacities, and an empowered community are key elements of a new paradigm in springshed management in India. Arghyam’s ‘Springs Initiative’ is an open platform where practitioners, academics, government departments, and donors can come together and craft an agenda for the revival of springs and an overarching template for springshed management in India.

Изключително важна е ролята на водите за религиозните представи на древните общества, както и символиката им в сакралните обекти под открито небе. Според произхода си, може да бъде разграничена водата, паднала от небето, както и тази на изворите, реките и езерата. В световен план се наблюдава приемственост в сакралното пространство на лечебни извори,  замаскирани под името на християнски светии, по-конкретно светици, което дава основание изворният култ да бъде свързан със символиката на женско езическо божество.
Голяма част от изворите и водоизточниците,  в различни култури, са свързвани с женски духове пазители, като нимфи, феи, самодиви и др.
Разглеждайки семантиката на водата в митологичните представи на древните, виждаме, че в едни случаи тя е свързвана с женски персонаж, а в други - с мъжки, който е носител на змейски характеристики. Най-общо лечебната животодаряваща изворна вода почти винаги е олицетворявана с женското начало, докато оплодителната и стихийна сила на дъжда - с мъжкото.
Реките и сакрализираните извори, освен като териториална граница, в митологичен план са виждани също така и като граница между световете и място, където се завръщат душите на предците.
Тези поверия, свързани с Отвъдното и душите на предците, както и легендите от различни части на света за женски персонаж, който покровителствува свещените извори и техните лечебни и оплодителни свойства, отново ни разкриват символиката на Великата Майка. Появата на тази архаична религиозна доктрина говори за ранното използване и обожествяване на свещените извори.
Неотделима част от митологичната доктрина, свързана с Богинята майка, е идеологията за свещения брак и обновяването - прераждането. Този мит вероятно е имал своята обредна реализация в много древните култури, като преди всичко е бил свързван с легализирането на царската власт.

The Hittite cult festivals were carried in honor of the major deities of the Hittite state pantheon, as well as of the deities of local panthea. Various types of offerings and libations were performed to long sequences of deities ordered according to their rank and importance. Closely connected with these offering sequences, and yet distinct from them, were offerings presented to what can be termed as the loci numinosi: sacred places and objects located within the temple or sanctuary. Some elements of the loci numinosi were standard, while others varied. This would largely have been determined by the architecture and equipment present in a particular sanctuary.
Occasionally, a spring was also included among the loci numinosi: whether this was an actual source of water within the temple or a cult object connected with a natural spring outside of the temple is for the most part unclear. This can be contrasted with the open-air cultic settings, such as that of the sacred precincts of the huwaši-stones, or cult stelae, where springs of water were often located and worshiped as deified natural phenomena in their natural setting. Very rarely, the texts of Hittite festivals do describe cult practices within the temple, which are also explicitly related to a spring located outside of the temple building – perhaps even outside of the temple complex altogether.
This lecture will explore the implications of these circumstances regarding the question of whether the spring deities were revered within Hittite religion as deities in the narrow sense of the term, or whether they functioned as numina within the cult. The process of deification and extraction of the deity from her/his natural origin in nature will also be considered within the broader context of Hittite religion.

A number of extra-ecclesiastic charismatic religious leaders appeared in Udmurtia in the early XX century. The historian Yevgeny Shumilov links their appearance with the survivals of paganism among the Udmurts. Meanwhile, some of them were the custodians of rural shrines, which is a typical phenomenon for Folk Orthodoxy. Shumilov positively assesses the disciplinary role of the Russian Church that controlled their activities. He perceives the materials of NKVD investigation over them uncritically. In fact, these data reproduce some urban legends and should be perceived as «trial-lore»

My lecture for the second meeting of the 4th DAI Netzwerktreffen “Natur und Kult in Anatolien” will aim to establish a typology of the Hittite spring sanctuaries known both from archaeological explorations as well as from textual sources. The sacred springs would presumably have been revered in their more or less pristine natural state at first, but at some point temporary structures or cultic implements would have been introduced to the sites as aids to the cult practices carried out there. The springs themselves may also have been altered, in that their waters were redirected or collected into pools or reservoirs. The latter may have been formed by a simple earthen dam conforming to the conditions local topography (e.g. at Kuşaklı). In some cases, however, monumental architecture was also employed to enclose these pools, the shape of which reflected a carefully planned geometric construction (e.g. Yalburt, Südburg‐Complex). Fountains were also created through which the spring’s waters flowed into or out of these pools or reservoirs (Eflatun Pınar). The question will be raised as to whether these monumental hydrological constructions are continuous with the veneration of spring goddesses known from some of the earliest Hittite textual sources, or whether they might in fact represent a cultic innovation within the Hittite state religion.

Manipulating objects is essential to ritual practices in both ancient and modern religions. Social and cultural changes sometimes result in the introduction of new materials and media into established rituals and religions. For example, in the 1990s bracelets with the letters “WWJD” (“What Would Jesus Do?”) appeared on the arms of Christians across the United States. The object served as a reminder for the wearer to act in a way that would reflect Jesus’ love for all people. How do new material forms affect religious beliefs and rituals?

This paper will explore the question by drawing on new archaeological evidence recovered from the Source of the Douix, a freshwater spring in eastern France. The site is an ideal case study for addressing issues of culture change because it was used as a sacred place beginning in the Early Iron Age (800-450 BC) and continued to receive offerings into the modern era. One of the major cultural shifts evident at the site is the transition from indigenous offerings made by the Gauls, to those given by the Romans during the Gallo-Roman Period (50 BC – AD 450). In addition to new material forms, local deities were being depicted in human form for the first time. Much like the WWJD bracelets, having a viewable and tangible deity and new offerings to give it likely changed the way people thought about their rituals and beliefs.

New material forms and media are constantly introduced into the realm of religion today. Examining archaeological evidence from a ritual context will offer new perspectives on the effects of cultural change on ritual practice, as well as the connection between objects and beliefs.

The springs of urban areas are surprisingly obscure. The springs of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, were first mapped into 7 spring-lines in the 1990s. The adventure and challenge of spring-hunting in an urban area are told. A spa that drew visitors from across the country before the American Civil War was investigated and the springs analyzed.