Water cult

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A water cult as a secure worship of wells, springs, lakes or ponds, as it is documented in Europe especially for Gotland, Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Sardinia and Cyprus, but also in the ancient Orient and in South America (Nazca plain), is an ancient pre-Christian phenomenon (sh. libation). Pilgrimages on the days of Christian saints, to which waters were often dedicated, can usually be traced back to the pre-Christian cult. Libation is another form of cult that takes place with water, but also with other liquids. This area does not include the “bath cult” as it was customary among the Romans, for example.

Veneration affects regions with surplus water, such as Ireland, as well as water shortages, such as Sardinia. In both regions it belongs to the fertility cults, as it is linked to the yield of the fields. More well-known, because more immersive, is the cult of lack of water. Cyril of Jerusalem (313–386) already speaks of the water cult as an idolatry, which the baptized one has to renounce.

In Lepenski Vir (Serbia), perhaps the oldest libation containers in Europe were found, as depressions in partially decorated stones. The Chalcolithic Tisza culture in Hungary created vascular ceramics, such as the Venus vessels of the Kökénydomb. Such libation vessels (multi-shell vessels) are very typical of the prehistoric Balkans and still in use today (Grolla) in the Valle d'Aosta.

Of Sardinia, architecturally designed impressive fountain shrines are known and in Portugal there are the water cult associated (Pedras Formosas). Places of water cult were probably also the circumalpine pile buildings and the terramars in northern Italy. In Corsica, Sibylle reports from speeches, went in drought in the 20th century. A child with a skull over land is thrown into the water at the end of the procession. When the Thracian god Orpheus is torn to pieces, his head is thrown into a river.

In Scotland, more than 600 sacred springs have been mapped in the Tay river basin alone. At many sacrificial and later coin depots were found. Christian missionaries rejected pagan customs.

Whether the cisterns on the Balearic Islands and on Pantelleria were also an expression of a cult must remain open.