Anemeton (plural:nemeta) was a sacred space ofancient Celtic religion. Nemeta appear to have been primarily situated in natural areas, often 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 toponymy or place-names, which occur all across theCeltic world. Toponyms related to the wordnemeton occur as far west asGalicia in the Iberian peninsula, as far north asScotland, and as far east as centralTurkey.[2] The word is related to the name of theNemetes tribe living by the Rhine between thePalatinate andLake Constance in what is nowGermany, and their goddessNemetona.[1]
The word nemeton is explained late in a gloss byFortunatus : « loco nomineVernemetis… quod quasi fanum ingens Gallica lingua refert. » ("in a place called Vernemetis...which means like afanum in the Gaulish language". FromVer- "big, large" +nemeto-) and in a Latinized form from the Roman form : « de sacris silvarum quaenimidas vocant. » ("of the sacred woods which are called nimidas.")[4]
Pliny andLucan wrote thatdruids did not meet in stone temples or other constructions, but in sacred groves of trees. In hisPharsalia Lucan described such a grove nearMassilia in dramatic terms more designed to evoke 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.
Tacitus, son in law of a Roman officer who was probably an eyewitness of thefirst Roman invasion of Anglesey, reports that when the Romans landed
On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between the ranks dashed women, in black attire like theFuries, with hair dishevelled, waving brands. All around, the Druids, lifting up their hands to heaven, and pouring forth dreadful imprecations, scared our soldiers by the unfamiliar sight, so that, as if their limbs were paralysed, they stood motionless, and exposed to wounds. Then urged by their general's appeals and mutual encouragements not to quail before a troop of frenzied women, they bore the standards onwards, smote down all resistance, and wrapped the foe in the flames of his own brands. A force was next set over the conquered, andtheir groves, devoted to inhuman superstitions, were destroyed. They deemed it indeed a duty to cover their altars with the blood of captives and to consult their deities through human entrails.
Descriptions of such sites have been found all across the Celtic world. Attested examples includeNemetobriga nearOurense in northwestern Spain,Drunemeton inGalatia, atMedionemeton near theAntonine Wall in Scotland[2] and in mid-Devon there are at least ten Nymet and Nymph place-names in the area surrounding the village ofBow.
Mars Lucetius ("Shining Mars")[5] and Nemetona appear as a divine couple in Roman-era inscriptions. At theRomano-British site inBath, a dedication was made to Mars Loucetius and Nemetona by a pilgrim who had come from the continentalTreveri ofGallia Belgica to seek healing.[6] AMars Rigonemetis ("Mars, King of the Sacred Grove") appears in the context ofRoman Imperial cult in a dedication discovered atNettleham (Lincolnshire) in 1961. He may have been a god belonging to the tribe of theCorieltauvi.[7]
A nemeton is in the Roman placenameVernemeton (now Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, Nottinghamshire), in RomanAquae Arnemetiae (nowBuxton, Derbyshire), and in the 1194 reference to Nametwihc, "Sanctuary-Town," (Nantwich, Cheshire).[8]
In Scotland,nemeton place-names are quite frequent,[9] as they are inDevon, where they appear in numerous place-names containing Nymet or Nympton, and have been identified with the nameNemetotatio in theRavenna Cosmography near the site of modern-dayNorth Tawton.
A well known nemeton site is in theNévet forest nearLocronan inBrittany (cf. Modern Bretonneved 'sanctuary', Welshnyfed).Gournay-sur-Aronde, in the Oise department of France, also houses the remains of a nemeton. Echoes of the wordnemeton survive in many French place-names such asNovionemetum (noviios 'new') that evolved toNonant,Nonant-le-Pin, etc.,*Nemeto-pons, with Latinpons 'bridge' :Nampont andNemetodurum 'door' or 'forum of the temple' :Nanterre. In Paris, a case has been made for "Namet" in a line of doggerel of about 1270, as the ancient name for theQuartier du Temple on the Right Bank.[10]
In Ireland, there was a chapelNemed atArmagh and another on Sliabh Fhuait.[11]
Nemetons also existed as far east as the Gaulish region ofGalatia inAnatolia, whereStrabo records the name of the meeting-place of the council of the Galatians asDrunemeton.[12]
^Xavier Delamarre,Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise : une approche linguistique du vieux celtique continental, éditions Errance, Paris, 2003, p. 233.
^Xavier Delamarre,Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), 2nd edition, p. 200.
^Helmut Birkham, entry on "Loucetius," inCeltic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by John Koch (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 1192;Bernhard Maier,Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture (Boydell Press, 1997, 2000, originally published 1994 in German), p. 207.
^Miranda J. Green. "Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend" (Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1997), p. 142.
^E.Ekwall,Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place-Names (Oxford) 1936:320 col. a.
^W.G. Watson,History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh) 1920.
^Louis H. Gray, "`Et Toz les Bons Sains de Namet'"Speculum28.2 (April 1953), pp. 76-377
^E. Hogan,Onomasticon Goidelicum (Dublin) 1910, noted by Gray 1953.
Koch, John T. (2006).Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO.
Carlo di Simone,Celtico Nemeto- "Bosco Sacro" ed i suoi Derivati Onomastici. In: "Navicula Tubingensis: studia in honorem Antonii Tovar, by Francisco J. Oroz Arizcuren, Antonio Tovar, Eugenio Coseriu, Carlo De Simone; Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik, 230. Tübingen, 1984.ISBN3-87808-230-4,ISBN978-3-87808-230-9.(google books)
