Every so often we plan to bring you a summary of recent news stories featuring votives of all types from around the world, past and present. We hope that these will showcase the many and varied ways in which votives continue to have relevance in the modern world, as well as providing a useful resource for those who are interested in the votive phenomenon more broadly.
Please do contact us if you have any stories to share, or if you would like to write a post for us related to any of the examples that we feature here.
Since we started the blog in mid-February this post covers February/March 2014.
The ancient world
Some intriguing ritual deposits, including coins and eggs, have been recovered from a house in Roman Sardis (Turkey):
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2014/sardis-dig-reveals-demon-trap
A new book on water cults in Nuragic Sardinia, Italy (in Italian):
Metal detectors are being used to find items dredged from the Ria de Alvor and Arade (Portugal), including a votive bronze bull figurine (and perhaps other votives):
http://theportugalnews.com/news/pioneering-project-launched-to-protect-portimaos-underwater-heritage/30945
Modern votive activities
A special event on Good Friday (18th April) in the North East of England is encouraging people to write literary quotations on pieces of wood and then leave them in a shipping container as a form of modern ‘votive offering’:
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/what-s-on/bringing-to-life-great-north-passion-1-6477096
Revelations about fake gold and silver being offered at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi temple, India:
A photo story about folk artist Wang Rubin making masks for the Nuo Opera – a combination of entertainment and votive ritual – in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei Province (China):
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2014-03/12/c_133180993.htm
Argentina’s shrines to Difunta Correa, the woman with holy breast milk:
Exhibitions
Brooklyn Museum (New York) currently has an exhibition of Japanese art, featuring a number of votive items. The exhibition runs until 8th June:
‘Out of body: Fragmentation in art’: an exhibition of body parts through the ages has just finished at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem:
http://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Arts/Body-Language-341517
http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/presentation/exhibit/?id=876
http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/4X4/fragmentation.html (in Hebrew, but with some amazing pictures)
An exhibition on ‘shrines and votive painting’ in Liguria, Italy (in Italian):
Miscellaneous
A recent sale at Sotheby’s of items from a collection belonging to Stanley Seeger included a ‘fourth century Etruscan votive penis’:
http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2014/02/al-capones-cocktail-shaker-for-sale/
And here is the votive penis from the sale which was sold for £938!
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/1000-ways-seeing-l14313/lot.268.html
The Votives Project 