Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to analyze the structure of religious dedications in the local languages of the Western Mediterranean and see if the elements that appear in them follow fixed structures or are completely different between these cultures.

Paper long abstract:

There were various techniques to communicate with the divinities in the Ancient World and one of them was the use of epigraphy. Inscriptions were used by the Western Mediterranean communities to address their gods with the intention of making offerings and asking them for their help. However, not all these cultures developed religious inscriptions in the same way and we are able to find an enormous variety of objects, types of inscriptions, and the formulae used in these texts between these different epigraphic cultures, and even within the same cultures in relatively close sites.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the structure of religious dedications in the local languages of the Western Mediterranean, studying for it the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, and Italy with languages such as Oscan, Umbrian, Venetic, Gaulish, and Lusitanian. We will point out what elements are part of this repertoire and if they are following fixed structures or if each culture and region develops its inscriptions in a different way. Do the theonyms head the dedications as they do in Rome? Does the donor´s name always appear in the texts? Are the names of the gods always mentioned in religious inscriptions dedicated to them? Do they use standardized offering formulas such as what we see with uotum soluit libens merito in Latin? Is the offered object indicated in the text or is it understood that they are the inscribed objects themselves?

We will try to answer all these questions to understand the techniques used by these communities to address their gods and analyze if there was any strategy in order to make dedications effective when communicating with the divine.