Votive Objects in Water Sanctuaries of Ancient Gaul

Haptic contact was one of the ways in which ancient peoples absorbed the powers of objects they considered sacred. In the ancient Mediterranean world, healing rituals often involved touching, sleeping with, and wearing artifacts that had been in contact with divine images or spaces, as a means to extend their sacredness. Worshippers flooded temples with votive offerings in the form of body parts in exchange for good health and prosperity. This paper examines the ritual agency of objects looking at the water sanctuary at Nîmes in modern Provence, a garden complex known today as Les Jardins de la Fontaine. Originally an indigenous sanctuary dedicated to the local water deity, Nemausus, this ritual space was monumentalized and consecrated to the cult of the emperor after the Roman conquest, sometime in the late first century BCE. Considering the architecture of the site and the corpus of votive offerings found there, I argue that haptic engagements with the water—and everything it touched as it circulated throughout the space—were essential shapers of the religious experience worshippers sought when visiting the sanctuary. By focusing on a curious artifact, a votive dedication that was permanently submerged in the sacred spring, I also propose that the water functioned as an extension of imperial personhood. Furthermore, despite the absence of visible indigenous remains, we can detect elements of ritual continuity between the pre- and post-Roman phases of this important religious complex in southern Gaul.