Senua - Britain's Unknown Goddess

It has been a number of weeks since I last blogged here at The Goddess House.  With only just over six weeks before I head off to the United Kingdom and take part in two glorious trips organised by Dragon Eye Tours, my list of things to do seems to being increasing on a daily basis.

 

While taking a wee moment to collect my thoughts before tackling the next thing on my list, I came across this rather interesting article about a lesser known Romano-British Goddess Senua that was published in the Goddess Alive ezine a few years ago.  The author of this article does not appear on the ezine link, however, I was able to ascertain possibly the source from an article that was written by Maev Kennedy that appeared in the Guardian on 1 September 2003.

 

What follows, is the article as it appeared on the Goddess Alive ezine site:

 

A previously unknown Romano-British Goddess has been  identified at a site near Baldock in Hertfordshire. A metal-detector enthusiast last year [2002] discovered twenty six pieces of gold and silver at an unidentified field, including figurines and plaques. The finds were reported to the British Museum, who have spent the time since then prising lumps of encrusted soil from the gold and corroded silver of the figurine, and trying to decipher the faint inscriptions on the votive plaques.

 

Now it has emerged that the pieces were dedicated to a Goddess whose name was Senua, and whose shrine, probably a ritual pool, was at the place where the finds were made. Ralph Jackson, Roman curator at the British Museum, said: “To find a hoard of a temple treasure, such as this one, is incredibly rare, not just in Britain but anywhere. To give Britain a new Goddess is extraordinary.”

He believes Senua was probably an older Celtic Goddess, worshipped at a spring on the site, who was then adopted and Romanised, and possibly twinned with their Goddess Minerva. There is a direct parallel at Bath, where the Romans absorbed the Celtic Goddess Sulis, and a much older shrine, into their worship of Minerva.

 

Senua’s shrine would probably have consisted of a ritual spring, into which offerings were thrown, surrounded by a complex of buildings, including workshops and accommodation for pilgrims. The offerings include silver plaques with gold highlights, seven gold plaques, and a superb set of jewellery, including a brooch and cloak clasps. The plaques still have the metal tabs which allowed them to be set upright, and they are so thin that they would have shivered and glittered in any draught.

In addition to the jewellery, the major find was of the silver figurine, which although badly corroded nevertheless revealed who she was. The base of the statuette was found nearby, and when the inscription was deciphered it revealed the name of the Goddess Senua. “It was an extraordinary moment” said Dr Jackson, “like seeing her reborn before my eyes."