Warrior Queen and Sacred Goddess: The Name Boudicca, "Victorious Woman," on Gravestones and Roman Writings, from Iberia to Gaul to Britannia to Germania.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Monuments and Statues to Women: Arrival of an Historical Reckoning of Memory and Commemoration", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

How does archaeology record the name of a warrior queen, goddess, and ordinary woman? Photos record the evolution of a sacred name across Europe. Variations of the Celtic name Boudicca ("Victorious Woman" or "Victoria") appear on gravestones and in Roman writings across a millennium. The name appears first in Portugal, with 6th century BCE Tartessian stelae J.18.1, BOTIANA, on display in Portugal's Museu da Escrita do Sudoeste, Amodovar. Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio recorded British BOUDICCA's 60 CE revolt. A British woman, LOLLIA BODICCA, appears in a Roman cemetery in Lambaesis, North Africa, ILS 2653, 200 CE, while English archaeologists excavated BODICACIA's tombstone in Cirencester in 2015. BOUDIGA was the tutelary goddess of Roman Burdigala (Bordeaux): DEAE TUTEL[A]E BOVDIG[AE] in 237 CE. A German version, BODIC[CA?] MATER, comes from Bingium (Bingen am Rhein), CIL XIII 7519. These monuments reflect much about the lives, deaths and memories of women.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Monuments and Statues to Women: Arrival of an Historical Reckoning of Memory and Commemoration

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow