Draft:Cockersand Moss

Current ruins at Cockersand.

The Cockersand Moss cult site was a probable romano-British temple or shrine located about seven miles south-west of current Lancaster, where two roman silver statuettes were found on 1718, and lost ever since.. The area remained of major religious significance for the Christians that subsequently populated the territory throughout the Middle Ages. The octagonal house Christian temple of Cockersand Abbey was founded in the surrounding area in 1184 and maintained relevant until its dissolution in 1539. The found statuettes depicted local representations of the roman god Mars, along with two Latin inscriptions that were recorded

Chronology

The area surrounding Cockersand Moss has not been specially investigated in the archeological record. In their majority, findings from the roman period in the Lancashire region have been the result of stray discoveries, mainly by XVIII century antiquarians.. Modern archeological excavations have concentrated in the military forts of Lancaster, Ribchester and Kirkham, and the civil settlements attached to them. As a result of this unavailability, it has not been possible for researchers to establish a time approximation for the found statuettes, but some estimates can be made by looking at the region's population process.

The period of roman occupation in Britain has been established from 43 AD to 410 AD. However, it was not until approximately 30 years after the first wave of invasion that a conquest of Lancashire was undertaken by the Romans. Different military forts were built along the Lancaster coast throughout the process of colonization, with troops coming from multiple parts of the empire, from Asturias to Sarmatia, gradually populating these sites. Civil settlement along the forts followed in the years after, but inner specialization would not develop after various decades.

Populations in the countryside, where possible cult sites like Cockersand Moss were probably located, remained largely unaffected during these first decades. Besides tax collection, hill farmers were allowed to keep their daily life untouched, including religious habits. It was only after a couple centuries of roman occupation that farmers became integrated in the commercial network built by the romans. However, daily religious experience in the countryside may have developed simultaneously to the faith professed by the roman troops.

Consistent historic evidence about Christian religious cult among the troops has been found in a cryptogram from Hulme (current Manchester) and Wigan, dating to the second century. In the same way, a lamp inscribed with the chi-rho monogram was found at Lancaster. These findings show an early presence of Christian cult in Lancashire, with the cryptogram at Hulme and Wigan being proposed as the earliest evidence of Christian presence in Britain. The causes of this may be related to the migratory process present in the settlement of the forts.

The time register of these findings, nonetheless, provide an estimation about the statuettes from previous religious cults. Minor monuments dedicated to local “pagan” roman deities could have been built in the decades before the arrival of Christianity in Lancashire, approximately between 69 AD to 175 AD, as a partial estimation. However, the possibility remains that both roman “pagan” cults and Christian cults may have also overlapped and be professed simultaneously throughout the first decades or centuries of settlement. In fact, the main cult to Mars Nodons at Lydney Park, the deity depicted in the statuettes, has been presumed to date from late roman occupation, standing as a pagan site when Christianity was the official religion.

In 1718, the two roman statuettes were retrieved near the medieval abbey site, providing the first indications of a possible roman shrine that would have located in the surrounding area. The two statuettes were then taken and exhibited as part of Lord Arundel's collection by William Stukeley to the Society of Antiquaries of London, of whom he was first secretary. After this, both statuettes were lost from the record, though some have speculated they may have been stolen. Only the inscriptions from the pedestals of the statuettes were registered, regaining relevance in the historical record with their appearance in the book “The Roman inscriptions of Britain”, published in 1965 by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright.

Location

The vast area of Cockersand where the statuettes were found consists of a marsh crossed by the River Lune, dividing the original urban settlement with the seacoast. The exact place of finding of the two statuettes has been located seven miles south-south-west of Lancaster, yet some archeologists have speculated about the possibility of the artifacts being originally found below the Cockersand abbey chapterhouse, or even the remaining structure of the roman shrine lying under. Apart from the original finding in 1718, the surrounding area has not shown any significant remains of continuous settlement. A couple miles east, at Quernmore, a pottery kiln and a separate tile kiln dating from 80 to 150 AD were uncovered in 1970.

Besides these stray findings that correlate in the time of settlement, military forts were the main roman settlements that surrounded Cockersand Moss. Just 1 kilometer away, the Lancaster (Calunium) Roman fort dating from 69 to 96 AD seemed to be nearest settlement to the supposed shrine. This exact point would have been highly strategical, as it allowed to secure the crossing point to the north in River Lune. It also meant a continued interaction with nearby forts as it guaranteed roman connection across the territory, with Kirkham, Ribchester and Walton Le Dale forts situated about 30 kilometers south of Cockersand Moss, and Burrow (Calacum) fort located about 20 miles northwest.

The colonization of the north-west of Britain prioritized the edification of military forts to station troops that allowed a corridor articulated across the colonized territory and passing through Lancaster, probably to provide a service link with the established frontier at lowland Scotland. Shrines and cult sites spread across the “unoccupied” territory would have been the result of local social and cultural activity within the forts, and their interaction with tax paying farmers at the countryside. The relationship throughout the territory in this religious experience has been suggested as the basis of landscape relevance in the worship of the local deities, with Mars Nodontis being associated with sea and healing traits.

Statuettes and Cult

The largest statuette found at Cockersand Moss, described to be the “most finely executed” of both, was dedicated to Mars Donotus. In the front base of its pedestal the inscription read:

DEO MARTI DONOTI AVRELIVS CONVS SIG:

“To the god Mars Nodons, Aurelius […]cinus (set up) this statuette”.

The smaller second statuette found besides was originally recorded by Stukeley to be “of worse age and make”. It was dedicated to Mars Nodontis, and had text inscribed in the four sides of its pedestal reading:

LVCIANVS • D M N • COL LIC APRILI VIATO • RIS V S:

“To the god Mars Nodontis, the College of Lictors [and] Lucianus Aprilis the traveller, in fulfillment of a vow”

Mars Nodens representation at Lydney Park.

Both statuettes have been proposed to be votive altars mainly used for the fulfillment of offerings, dedicated to two minor variations of the name Nodens Mars, a roman and Celtic deity.. This same deity was worshipped at a large and specialized temple complex in Lydney park, Gloucestershire. It has been suggested that the local worship of Nodens Mars was part of a cult of healing, as the imagery found at Lydney park contained figures of dogs licking as a healing act, and other elements associated with childbirth in Greco-Roman tradition

Besides healing, Nodens was a Celtic deity associated with the sea and hunting. In its syncretic worship, Nodens Mars was represented with mythical sea imagery. In Lydney Park, he appears carrying a sceptre with a sea-serpent looping around his left arm, and two two-winged wind-spirits and two icthyocentaures, fish-centaurs’ or ‘centaur tritons’, flanking him.  This imagery is suggestive of the “deep” in Romano-Celtic worldview, with the sea and rivers assimilating to the depths of the dreamworld or the underworld.

The predominance of the water elements in the Nodens Mars worship has also been linked to the relevance of the coastal landscape in the local religious experience at Cockersand Moss. Findings of altars dedicated to both roman and Celtic deities are predominant in Lancaster, and these cult sites proved to be thoroughly linked to rural daily life. In Folly Farm, also near Lancaster, an altar was dedicated by a retired cavalry officer, Julius Januarius, to a local Celtic god, Romanized as Jalonus Contrebis.

Roman interaction with the Celts and the local people during their settlement did not develop through an imposition of habits, traditions, or activities, but rather complementarity. Romans were not interested in modifying the agriculture of the northwest, and researchers presume rural activity in the region took up the cattle-farming model that had previously established. As in other parts of the empire, this interaction resulted in a syncretism of culture and religion from both roman deities and local worldviews.