{{Short description|Sacred places of the ancient Celtic religions}} [[File:Archéosite d'Aubechies 2.jpg|thumb|Model reconstruction of the Celtic sanctuary or ''nemeton'' at Gournay-sur-Aronde in Gaul]]
A '''nemeton''' (plural: '''nemeta''') was a sacred space of ancient Celtic religion. Nemeta appear to have been primarily situated in natural areas, often sacred groves.<ref name=Koch1350>Koch, p. 1350.</ref> However, other evidence suggests that the word implied a wider variety of ritual spaces, such as shrines and temples.<ref name=Green>Green, p. 448.</ref><ref name=Dowden134>Dowden, p. 134.</ref> Evidence for nemeta consists chiefly of inscriptions and toponymy or place-names, which occur all across the Celtic world. Toponyms related to the word ''nemeton'' occur as far west as Galicia in the Iberian peninsula, as far north as Scotland, and as far east as central Turkey.<ref name=Green/> The word is related to the name of the Nemetes tribe living by the Rhine between the Palatinate and Lake Constance in what is now Germany, and their goddess Nemetona.<ref name=Koch1350/>
==Attestations in Latin== The word ''nemeton'' is explained late in a gloss by Fortunatus : « loco nomine '''Vernemetis'''… quod quasi fanum ingens Gallica lingua refert. » ("in a place called Vernemetis...which means like a ''fanum'' in the Gaulish language". From ''Ver-'' "big, large" + ''nemeto-'') and in a Latinized form from the Roman form : « de sacris silvarum quae '''nimidas''' vocant. » ("of the sacred woods which are called nimidas.")<ref>Xavier Delamarre, ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise : une approche linguistique du vieux celtique continental'', éditions Errance, Paris, 2003, p. 233.</ref>
==Contemporary description== Pliny and Lucan wrote that druids did not meet in stone temples or other constructions, but in sacred groves of trees. In his ''Pharsalia'' Lucan described such a grove near Massilia in dramatic terms more designed to evoke horror among his Roman hearers than meant as proper natural history:
<blockquote>no bird nested in the nemeton, nor did any animal lurk nearby; the leaves constantly shivered though no breeze stirred. Altars stood in its midst, and the images of the gods. Every tree was stained with sacrificial blood. The very earth groaned, dead yews revived; unconsumed trees were surrounded with flame, and huge serpents twined round the oaks. The people feared to approach the grove, and even the priest would not walk there at midday or midnight lest he should then meet its divine guardian.</blockquote>
Tacitus, son in law of a Roman officer who was probably an eyewitness of the first Roman invasion of Anglesey, reports that when the Romans landed
<blockquote>On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between the ranks dashed women, in black attire like the Furies, with hair dishevelled, waving brands. All around, the Druids, lifting up their hands to heaven, and pouring forth dreadful imprecations, scared our soldiers by the unfamiliar sight, so that, as if their limbs were paralysed, they stood motionless, and exposed to wounds. Then urged by their general's appeals and mutual encouragements not to quail before a troop of frenzied women, they bore the standards onwards, smote down all resistance, and wrapped the foe in the flames of his own brands. A force was next set over the conquered, and '''their groves, devoted to inhuman superstitions, were destroyed. They deemed it indeed a duty to cover their altars with the blood of captives and to consult their deities through human entrails.'''</blockquote>
==Examples== [[File:Archéosite d'Aubechies 4.jpg|thumb|Model reconstruction of the ''nemeton'' at the Gallic settlement in Acy-Romance]] Descriptions of such sites have been found all across the Celtic world. Attested examples include ''Nemetobriga'' near Ourense in northwestern Spain, ''Drunemeton'' in Galatia, at ''Medionemeton'' near the Antonine Wall in Scotland<ref name=Green/> and in mid-Devon there are at least ten Nymet and Nymph place-names in the area surrounding the village of Bow.
* ''Mars Lucetius'' ("Shining Mars")<ref>Xavier Delamarre, ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'' (Éditions Errance, 2003), 2nd edition, p. 200.</ref> and Nemetona appear as a divine couple in Roman-era inscriptions. At the Romano-British site in Bath, a dedication was made to Mars Loucetius and Nemetona by a pilgrim who had come from the continental Treveri of Gallia Belgica to seek healing.<ref>Helmut Birkham, entry on "Loucetius," in ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia'', edited by John Koch (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 1192; Bernhard Maier, ''Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture'' (Boydell Press, 1997, 2000, originally published 1994 in German), p. 207.</ref> A ''Mars Rigonemetis'' ("Mars, King of the Sacred Grove") appears in the context of Roman Imperial cult in a dedication discovered at Nettleham (Lincolnshire) in 1961. He may have been a god belonging to the tribe of the Corieltauvi.<ref>Miranda J. Green. "Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend" (Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1997), p. 142.<!--needs checked--></ref> * A nemeton is in the Roman placename ''Vernemeton'' (now Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, Nottinghamshire), in Roman ''Aquae Arnemetiae'' (now Buxton, Derbyshire), and in the 1194 reference to Nametwihc, "Sanctuary-Town," (Nantwich, Cheshire).<ref>E.Ekwall, ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place-Names'' (Oxford) 1936:320 col. a.</ref> *In Scotland, ''nemeton'' place-names are quite frequent,<ref>W.G. Watson, ''History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland'' (Edinburgh) 1920.</ref> as they are in Devon, where they appear in numerous place-names containing Nymet or Nympton, and have been identified with the name ''Nemetotatio'' in the Ravenna Cosmography near the site of modern-day North Tawton. *A well known nemeton site is in the Névet forest near Locronan in Brittany (cf. Modern Breton ''neved'' 'sanctuary', Welsh ''nyfed''). Gournay-sur-Aronde, in the Oise department of France, also houses the remains of a nemeton. Echoes of the word ''nemeton'' survive in many French place-names such as ''Novionemetum'' (''noviios'' 'new') that evolved to Nonant, Nonant-le-Pin, etc., ''*Nemeto-pons'', with Latin ''pons'' 'bridge' : Nampont and ''Nemetodurum'' 'door' or 'forum of the temple' : Nanterre. In Paris, a case has been made for "Namet" in a line of doggerel of about 1270, as the ancient name for the ''Quartier du Temple'' on the Right Bank.<ref>Louis H. Gray, "`Et Toz les Bons Sains de Namet'" ''Speculum'' '''28'''.2 (April 1953), pp. 76-377</ref> *In Ireland, there was a chapel Nemed at Armagh and another on Sliabh Fhuait.<ref>E. Hogan, ''Onomasticon Goidelicum'' (Dublin) 1910, noted by Gray 1953.</ref> *Nemetons also existed as far east as the Gaulish region of Galatia in Anatolia, where Strabo records the name of the meeting-place of the council of the Galatians as ''Drunemeton''.<ref>Compare ''drys'', "oak".</ref>
==See also== * ''Lucus'' and ''nemus'', ancient Roman equivalents * The Irish mythological figure Nemed
==Notes== {{Reflist|2}}
==References== *{{cite book |last= Dowden|first= Ken|title= European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages| publisher= Routledge|year= 2000}} *{{cite book |last= Green|first= Miranda|author-link= Miranda Aldhouse-Green|title= The Celtic World, part 70| publisher= Routledge|year= 1996}} * T. D. Kendrick, ''The Druids''. Merchant Book Company Limited. 1994. {{ISBN|1-85958-036-X}} *{{cite book |last= Koch|first= John T.|title= Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia| publisher= ABC-CLIO|year= 2006}} * Carlo di Simone, ''Celtico Nemeto- "Bosco Sacro" ed i suoi Derivati Onomastici''. In: "Navicula Tubingensis: studia in honorem Antonii Tovar, by Francisco J. Oroz Arizcuren, Antonio Tovar, Eugenio Coseriu, Carlo De Simone; Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik, 230. Tübingen, 1984. {{ISBN|3-87808-230-4}}, {{ISBN|978-3-87808-230-9}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zHjnhM2Rj0YC&dq=nemeti%20nemetes&pg=PA349 (google books)]
{{Gallic peoples}}
Category:Ancient Celtic religion Category:Druidry Category:Trees in mythology Category:Sacred natural sites