Pompeii Excavation Indicates Birds Were Important In Isis Cult

The ancient remains of at least 10 birds unearthed at a temple for Isis in the Roman city of Pompeii indicates that birds were a key feature of worshipping the goddess

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An international team of researchers have unearthed evidence that birds played an important sacrificial role in the excavated Temple of Isis in Pompeii. The ritual banquet was likely intended to appease the goddess after temple renovations downsized her temple.

The temple renovations occurred after a fairly substantial earthquake damaged the temple in A.D. 62, indicating that this ritual banquet took place between that time and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, according to the lead author of the study, zooarchaeologist Chiara Assunta Corbino, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield, and study co-author, archaeologist Beatrice Demarchi, currently a tenure-track researcher at the University of Turin.

Dr Corbino and Dr Demarchi’s analyses revealed that the excavations unearthed 143 skeletal remains from at least ten birds (Figure 1) — eight chickens, a goose, and a turtle dove — 74 of which were charred, along with a pig and two clams. Chicken eggshells — identified using ancient protein analysis — were also found. Taphonomic evidence indicates that the bird bones were still covered with meat when exposed to the ritual fire. These animals were intended to be cooked and eaten by the priests whilst the remainder of the meat would have been offered to the goddess, Isis.

The identity of which bird species used in this banquet were important.

“The presence of goose among the birds included in the ritual seems specifically related to the cult of Isis; indeed, Isis was known as ‘the Egg of the Goose’”, Dr Corbino and Dr Demarchi note in their study (ref). “Ancient authors report that geese were offered to Isis (Herodotus [II, 37, 4; II, 45, 2] and Pausanias [X, 32, 16]) together with oxen and other animals.”

The find demonstrates the importance of birds to worshippers of Isis, an Egyptian cult that became established in Roman society by the first century A.D. Isis, also known as Aset or Eset, was often portrayed with bird wings, leading some archaeologists to think she may have once been a bird deity, like the falcon-headed Egyptian god Horus.

“This work confirms that bird sacrifices form a distinctive part of the Isis rituals (Lignereux et al., 1995)”, Dr Corbino and Dr Demarchi wrote in their study (ref). “More specifically, geese could be considered as a possible marker for the Isis cult. Columbiformes [doves and pigeons] can be interpreted as symbols of a female goddess, whereas chicken was widely employed in several oriental mystery cults. Pliny the Elder affirms that ‘The cock knows how to distinguish the stars, and marks the different periods of the day, every three hours, by his note’ (X, 24); as such, chicken represented the rising sun, victory in battle, dawn, and rebirth and was considered the dominant animal among those on Earth (Plin. X, 24).”

Pompeii was an ancient Roman city built upon the remains of a larger city dating from much earlier times. It was situated on rich agricultural land and developed into a resort for the wealthy that featured many nearby farms and villas. When Mount Vesuvius erupted, Pompeii and the nearby areas were exposed to extremely hot pyroclastic flows and buried under volcanic ash that was as much as 6 meters (20 feet) deep. Subsequent excavation of this ancient city over the course of more than 300 years has revealed important insights into ancient building construction techniques as well as daily life in the early Roman Empire.

The study findings indicate that the selection of the specific animals used for ritual offerings was a codified and non-casual process, which required a great deal of thought and care, Dr Corbino and Dr Demarchi point out in their study. Animals were, for example, a fundamental symbol of the deity herself, and were not simply food.

“The evidence from Pompeii thus adds new insights into our knowledge of the animals involved in the cultic activities related to Isis, not only in this town in the 1st century CE but likely also in the whole of the Roman Empire at that time.”

Source:

Chiara Assunta Corbino and Beatrice Demarchi (2023). Birds for Isis: The evidence from Pompeii, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology | doi:10.1002/oa.3224

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