Archaeologists found a small statuette of the Egyptian goddess Isis during excavations at Pagus Belsinonensis, an ancient Roman settlement located in present-day Mallén, Spain, according to a report published by HeritageDaily.
The Proyecto Belsinon research team began working at the El Convento site in Mallén, Zaragoza, in 2021. The found piece is a small round-bodied ceramic statuette that preserves the central part of the goddess's body. The statuette is attributed to Isis due to its shape and type of decoration.
"To determine which deity the statuette from Mallén represented, examining it under the microscope was fundamental," said Ángel Santos, co-director of the project. The detailed examination of the piece revealed that it preserved the characteristic isiac knot with three hanging strands at the sculpture's waist. "The piece presents white paint, which represents the deity's attire," Santos added, noting the significance of the knot.
The statuette was made of terracotta using the terra sigillata technique, which is "not very common," according to Santos. It originated in the workshops of the Roman city of Tritium Magallum, now known as Tricio in La Rioja. The study of the ceramic paste identified the origin of the statuette's production.
Such statuettes were placed prominently for worship in Roman households in a space known as the lararium, which served as a shrine or sacred altar where offerings were made for protection to household deities. The presence of the Isis statuette represents a domestic cult and provides new insights into Eastern religious influences and the presence of Egyptian cults in domestic spaces during Roman-era Hispania.
Isis was one of the main goddesses of the Ancient Egyptian religion and was revered as a goddess of protection, magic, and motherhood. By the first century BCE, the worship of Isis became part of the Roman pantheon, having spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. The cult of Isis was honored through distinctive festivals such as the Navigium Isidis and the Festival of Isis, and it remained widely practiced until Christianity emerged as the dominant religion in the empire.
The discovery of the statuette at Pagus Belsinonensis indicates that the cult of Isis reached the region by the late 1st or early 2nd century CE, opening new lines of research into Eastern religiosity and the arrival of Egyptian cults to the domestic sphere in Roman Hispania.
Pagus Belsinonensis was founded on the El Convento hill near the Huéscar River and was located at the foot of the Roman road that connected Italy with Hispania, serving as a key stopover for travelers along the route connecting Tarraco to Asturica Augusta. "It is 'very particular,'" according to Santos, "because it is the only one located and identified as pagus." The Belsinon site offers much information about the Roman system of organization. The site has an extraordinary duration in time, dating back to a Celtiberian origin between the 7th and 6th centuries BCE and continued to exist until the 3rd century CE.
The Proyecto Belsinon is financed by the Mallén City Council in agreement with the associated center of Tudela of the National University of Distance Education (UNED). The research resulting from this discovery has now been published in issue 56 of the journal Sagvntum-Papeles del Laboratorio de Arqueología de Valencia, edited by the University of Valencia. The publication is signed by Marta Gómara, Óscar Bonilla, Miriam Pérez, Víctor Contín, and Ángel Santos.
The Romans practiced a form of syncretism, appropriating concepts from other cultures with similar elements and new attributions.
Similar findings demonstrating the rise in the cult of Isis in Roman Hispania have been found in other locations such as Emérita Augusta, now Mérida, and in the south of France and major cities of the Roman Empire, mainly in temples. The ancient city of Pompeii had a temple dedicated to Isis.
Isis was believed to help the dead enter the afterlife.
The Ebro Valley was more open to trade during the Roman period. The entry to the peninsula during the Roman period occurred either by the Ebro River or by the Guadalquivir River.
The decoration of the statuette resembles other divinities like Venus. However, the presence of the isiac knot confirms the identification of the deity as Isis.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.