Nemeton

A nemeton was a sacred space of ancient Celtic religion. Nemeta appear to have been primarily situated in natural areas, and often utilized trees; as such they are often interpreted as sacred groves.^[1] However, other evidence suggests that the word implied a wider variety of ritual spaces, such as shrines and temples.^[2][3] Evidence for nemeta consists chiefly of inscriptions and place-names, which occur all across the Celtic world. Toponyms related to the word nemeton occur as far west as Galicia, Spain, as far north as Scotland, and as far east as central Turkey.^[2] The word is related to the name of the Nemetes tribe of what is now Germany and their goddess Nemetona.^[1]

Contemporary description

Pliny and Lucan wrote that druids did not meet in stone temples or other constructions, but in sacred groves of trees. In his Pharsalia Lucan described such a grove near Massilia in dramatic terms more designed to evoke a shiver of delicious horror among his Roman hearers than meant as proper natural history:

no bird nested in the nemeton, nor did any animal lurk nearby; the leaves constantly shivered though no breeze stirred. Altars stood in its midst, and the images of the gods. Every tree was stained with sacrificial blood. the very earth groaned, dead yews revived; unconsumed trees were surrounded with flame, and huge serpents twined round the oaks. The people feared to approach the grove, and even the priest would not walk there at midday or midnight lest he should then meet its divine guardian.

Examples

Descriptions of such sites have been found all across the formerly Celtic world. Attested examples include include Nemetobriga near Ourense in northwestern Spain, Drunemeton in Galatia, and Medionemeton near the Antonine Wall in what is now Scotland.^[2]

• Mars Lucetius ("Shining Mars") as Rigonemeti ("King of the sacred grove") and Nemetona are attested in Roman inscriptions in Nettleham, near Lincoln, and at Bath, where a native of Treves erected an altar to Mars Loucetius and Nemetona, in fulfillment of a vow.
• A nemeton is in the Roman placename Vernemeton (now Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, Nottinghamshire) and in the 1194 reference to Nametwihc, "Sanctuary-Town," (Nantwich, Cheshire).^[4]
• In Scotland, nemeton place-names are quite frequent,^[5] as they are in Devon, where they appear in modern names containing Nymet or Nympton, and have been identified with the name Nemetostatio in the Ravenna Cosmography.
• A well known nemeton site is in the Nevet forest near Locronan in Brittany. Gournay-sur-Aronde, in the Oise department of France, also houses the remains of a nemeton. Echoes of nemeton survive in many French place-names. In Paris, a case has been made for "Namet" in a line of doggerel of about 1270, as the ancient name for the Quartier du Temple on the Right Bank.^[6]
• In Ireland, there was a chapel Nemed at Armagh and another on SliabnFhuait.^[7]
• Nemetons also existed as far east as the Gaulish region of Galatia in Anatolia, where Strabo records the name of the meeting-place of the council of the Galatians as Drunemeton.^[8]

Notes

References

• Dowden, Ken (2000). European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Routledge. 
• Green, Miranda (1996). The Celtic World, part 70. Routledge. 
• T. D. Kendrick, The Druids. Merchant Book Company Limited. 1994. ISBN 185958036X
• Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. 

External links

• Mary Jones, Celtic Encyclopedia: nemeton Instances in Roman inscriptions.