Lucus Pisaurensis

History of Discovery

Pisaurensia Marmora, ("Marble of Pesaro-Umbria"), a manuscript written by 18th Century Italian aristocrat Annibale degli Abbati Olivieri Giordani, was published in 1738. In the preface, Olivieri reports having discovered, in the prior year, a sacred grove on his estate in a farm field by the little Chiostro di Santo Gaetano dei Conti. He calls the site Lucus Pisaurensis (Sacred Grove of Pesaro) and provides a brief description of his findings. Olivieri further states that he plans to publish a future manuscript entitled De Luco Sacred Veterum Pisaurensium ("The Sacred Grove of Ancient Pisaurensis"), once excavations are completed. This work however, was never published and interest in the lucus disappeared after Oliviera's passing.

21st Century

During excavations in the 21st century, the grove was rediscovered and archaeological interest in the site renewed.

The Findings

Oliveri unearthed in his field, near the ancient fontanine by the Chiostro di Santo Gaetano dei Conti, 13 votive stones or cippi, carved of sandstone with Sabine inscriptions in Umbrian-Estrucan; a number of terracotta and sandstone artifacts; clay & copper coin; and a small semo replica in bronze inscribed Libra. The votives were inscripted with names of various Sabini-Estrucan semones: Salute, Fide, Lucina, Marica, Feronia, Juno Regina; as well as the later Roman Gods: Iunos, Apolenei, Diana, Mater Matuta.

In addition to the found votives, coin and idol, a terracotta borderline marker was unearthed, inscripted: " δ Δ δ luci coiirii CI LX ". Luci Coiiri means 'Coerian Grove' and the Roman numerals are taken to reference land measurements.

Olivieri found numerous other artifacts on his estate, all of which are housed in the Biblioteca Oliveriana, a Museum and Library in Pesaro that he founded. Among these many findings are bronze and clay coinage, carved sandstone stela from 7th C. B.C. depicting naumachia (mock naval battles), the famed bronze Tabula Fabrorum with the relief of Etruscan goddess Minerva (Pallas Athena).

The fontanine, or little fountains of stone, by groves near the Chiostro where many of the votives are discoveried, give archaeologists reason to connect the lucus to a cult of water goddesses. Latin meaning of the word fontanine is 'spring waters' as referenced by Decimus Iūnius Iuvenālis, a Silver Age Roman poet, (55 - c. 138 CE), Quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpus, "To guide only the condūcēbāmus to the fountain that they seek."

Evolution of Votives

It is of interest to note that over the millennia, as the original purpose of luci became lost, votive stones, cippi and stelae translated to become grave markers and tombs.

Elements of Sacred Groves (Luci)

Ceremonies in luci were centered around classic elements of a spring and a sylvan wood or coppice. Trees with certain desired qualities of a mystical nature and waters of a certain mineral purity were essential to the creating of a Sacred Grove.

One of these trees is the Laurus nobilis (lat. Laures, gr. Dáphnē Δάφνη), a Mediterranean tree native to the Greek and Roman territories of the early Italics, Illyrians and Iberians. The leaves, roots, berries and bark of the bay laurel contain volatile oils, malabathrum, which stimulate sense glands of the nose, and were the basis of these rituals. {See Wikipedia article on Common sense, section on Aristotelian common sense}

Earliest ceremonies of the bronze-age were very naturalistic, πῖπτον in scope and were enacted within an atmosphere of laurel-enhanced mysticism in the minds of the ethnarches (founding tribal leaders) who performed these simple ceremonies with their semones in the surroundings of their sacred groves.

The Carmen Arvale is a surviving Classical-Age Anticuus Latius vocare mei chant of di semones with the praepositus calling forth quod potentia of their guardian divinities and imploring them to limen sali, sta.

An Allegorical Myth of "Luci"

Daphne, a naiad (nymph, a spirit of springs and sacred groves) is pursued by Apollo and when she entreaties, is allegorically turned to a laures tree by her river god Ladon.

Etymologies

Pisaureum, original name of Pesaro, pi (π), plural, and aurum, reflecting gold

Sacerdotal Lucus, A Sacred Wood; Sacerdotal [sacer, lat. sacred + dotal, lat. giving], sacred giving or offering; Lucus, lat., lux, light

Condūcēbāmus, lat.1st person imperfect, channel through, combine together, unite; gunas of Nature, of that which binds together

Coerian, lat. cor, of the heart, of the soul; from gr. καρδία, from Proto-PIE Svan 'ḱḗr' (muč̣û)

Collina di Calibano, Hillside of Beātificus; Collina it., down hill; Calibano gr. καλλίστη inner beauty, lat. Beātificus, blessedness, a state of holy bliss, calque samadhi

Colle della Salute, Hill of Salus; Colle it., hill; Salute it., from Latin Salvs, an ancient Roman demi-goddess or semo

Cippi, gr. ἐνσκήπτω, n. stela, a balance, a post; v. to let fall, to hurl (viz. a rock)

Semo pl. Semones, gr. Δαίμων, demigods and -goddesses of Sabini origin, from lat. se, separated, parted from + lat. homo, as one, together with

Dáphnē Laures, lat. Laurūs, from etr. lar, the spirit of; anc. gr. Δάφνη δáphnē, laurel, of which the ingested leaves give the gift of prophesying

Supplemental Reading

A sequential listing of sandstones identified in the various luci cippi- the stēla, Iakovianós simádi and hélmis scapī of Lucus Pisaurensis

A short article on the Oliveriano Museum in Pesaro, Italy, with descriptives of the Lucus Pisaurensis artifacts and Olivieri's archeological findings around Pesaro-Umbria http://www.euromuse.net/en/museums/museum/view-m/museo-archeologico-oliveriano/