Roman shrine to Minerva found in Spanish quarry

A rare shrine to Minerva has been discovered carved into the rock of a sandstone quarry Campos del Paraíso, Spain. It dates to the 2nd century A.D.

It is a small aedicula (shrine) carved in the shape of a temple with two columns supporting a triangular pediment. The figure of the goddess was carved in the center, but the sculpture is heavily weathered and hard to make out.

“The goddess Minerva appears carved as the main figure, although erosion of the rock in this area makes it difficult to see the scene. Even so, despite its significant deterioration, its identification can be supported by the preserved volumetric and schematic composition, as well as by certain formal features still perceptible and the spatial arrangement of the relief remains,” [the study authors] point out.

Minerva is depicted in the quarry with her most common classical iconography: frontally and in a recumbent pose, standing and dressed in a long tunic or peplos , wearing a helmet and armed with a spear in her right hand, and carrying the aegis with the gorgoneion (protective symbol). Her left hand rests on an oval-shaped shield. Also visible on the shield is a little owl ( Athene noctua ), a bird symbolically associated with the goddess and an emblem of “wisdom, intelligence, and insight.”

The votive dedication inscribed below the shrine is still legible and confirms the deity worshiped at the shrine. Two lines of text read:

MINERVAE DOMINAE PLOTI / VS VIGOR CVM SVO COMITATO

Which translates to: “To Minerva Domina, (dedicates) Plotius Vigor with his entourage.”

The Plotius family was a plebian family that boasted senators and magistrates in its ranks going back to the Roman Republican era. References to Plotius family members have been found in many inscriptions in Spain. In this context, it appears Plotius Vigor was a local administrator or leader in the quarrying community. The phrase “cum suo comitato” could refer to a work crew or to a military detachment assigned to oversee the quarry area.

“The ancient quarry, transformed into a place of devotion, shows how Roman religion was not only expressed in the great urban or peri-urban sanctuaries, but also in rural and productive enclaves where the community, the workers or their promoters sought the protection of the divinity and left inscribed on the rock both their veneration of the goddess and the material memory of their vow.”

Researchers from the Don Felipe de Borbón y Grecia Mining History Museum at the Polytechnic University of Madrid have published the find in the journal MANTVA. It is in Spanish, and can be read here (pdf).

* This article was originally published here