Gallo-British Deities and their Shrines

Fields, Ritual and Religion: Holistic Approaches to the Rural Landscape in Long‐Term Perspective (c.1500 BC–AD 1086)

“…Some scholars place these developments in the later Iron Age, viewing agricultural change as intrinsically linked to an understanding of the oppida as centres of redistribution within local and more extensive exchange networks (Cunliffe ; Lodwick , 2; Sharples ). Furthermore, discussions of Roman religion in Britain do not tend to consider economic or functional relationships in cult practice, instead focusing on the diversity of Romano‐British deities and cultural change brought about by the conquest and made evident by the introduction of the epigraphic habit (Henig ; Henig and King ; Aldhouse‐Green ; Häussler ).…”

“…The Roman period built upon this societal change and magnified its effects, while introducing novel types of evidence for religious practice and belief to the new province. The genesis of Romano‐British religion need not be recounted here (see Henig ), but we may consider that ‘traditions’, both Roman and British, were re‐forged and reimagined in the new religious landscape of the imperial period (Millett ; Aldhouse‐Green ; Häussler ). These cultural changes created new institutions and traditions, introducing for the first time written descriptions of contemporaneous life in Britain and also formalized centres of ritual activity in the shape of shrines, temples and, eventually, churches.…”