Leiden University Student Repository

Amersfoort, Tim van (2025)

Interrelated Diversity: Paving the Road towards an Alternative Model of Religion in the Civitas Batavorum

Master thesis | History (MA)

Several generations of historians and archaeologists have assumed that one or a few Gallo-Roman sanctuaries in the Civitas Batavorum served as central cult-places for the Celto-Germanic tribe of the Batavians to (re-)establish a common identity and worship Hercules Magusanus. This thesis re-evaluates old and new archaeological evidence from the sanctuaries of Nijmegen-Maasplein, Elst, Cuijk, Empel, Elst-Westeraam, Kalkar, and Herwen-Hemeling and proposes an alternative possibility: That the sanctuaries served as local meeting-places for only a few communities in the vicinity of the sanctuaries and were not dedicated to any deity specifically. This further shows that the Civitas Batavorum consisted of multiple geographic zones (rural, urban, military) and that the sanctuaries in these zones only saw limited interactions. This suggests that the Batavians did not form a single unified community, but consisted of multiple small, localized communities across the Civitas Batavorum.

Ancient World

Religion

Batavians

Civitas Batavorum

Sanctuaries

Romanisation

Author

Amersfoort, Tim van

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Ancient History

Supervisors

Zangenberg, J.K.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en