Mittelstrimmig - Temple district

The existence of a Roman shrine in Mittelstrimmig has been known of since 1908.
At that time an inscribed limestone block was found; dating from the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. it makes reference to the gods Smertius, Vindoridius and Boud(a/e/i)na.
The Roman religion developed out of the religious beliefs of the peasantry. It was essential to avert calamity from the fields and cattle and to request blessings upon crops and the living.
Mars the God of war served as protector and saviour.  The name Mars Smertius expresses the merger of two gods; one a Roman god, and the other a God sacred to the local Celtic population. 
Mars was also worshiped, under the name Lenus Mars, in nearby Martberg near Pommern on the Moselle.
The goddess Boud(a/e/i)na was presumably  worshiped as a native mother- or fertility-  goddess. 
Field findings from the Martberg, in particular numerous miniature flasks, known as ‘teardrop’ flasks, and fragments of small terracotta figures are parts of votive offerings made to the deities. 
A cock’s foot, made of bronze, comes from a cult object 2 to 3 m in height. The cock is an attribute of Mercury, the god of trade and business, certainly important amongst the deities of the street settlement of Mittelstrimmig.
Within the Roman vicus of Mittelstrimmig large scale geophysical measurements were carried out. Resistance in the ground is measured and mapped out. Much to everyone’s surprise the geophysics revealed the sites of two separate shrines.
Situated downhill was an enormous Romano-Gallic temple with sides 18 m long.  It had been erected and enclosed within walls, which measured 60 by 39 metres.
The largest temple district, stretching over 100 metres, was on the hill. Within this area were   two Romano-Gallic temples as well as several stone buildings.
The Romano-Gallic shrines were not only places of worship; they also served as local meeting places. This was probably the function of the 300 metres long square, which encompassed the shrine with further walls.
The temple constructions were of huge importance to the religious practice of the inhabitants of the Roman settlement and its surrounding homesteads. The goodwill of the gods was won only if   rites were correctly performed. One concluded, as so many vows inscribed on votive offerings show, basically, a contract with the gods.
A central part of worship was the sacrifice made on an altar. A ritual cleaning, for example the sprinkling of water, had to precede the actual act. Bloodless sacrifices were also made; crops, wine or frankincense, for example. Blood sacrifice was the ritual killing of animals.
The highest Roman god, Jupiter, was worthy of a flawless white bull. The sacrifice was complete when further possibility of human use had been exhausted, for example by burning. In animal sacrifices only certain parts were burned; the majority was distributed amongst the community.
In larger settlements the influence of Christianity put an end to the ritual practice of sacrifice as well as the custom of burial gifts, though in the countryside  the old traditions and customs carried on until the 5th century. Here lived the people harshly attacked by the fathers of the church as “pagan” countrymen.
It was the rural population also who, up to the 5th century and in part, continued to make sacrifices in the old shrines.

[Martin Thoma]