PANOIAS
Trás-os-Montes, Portugal.
Rustic
sanctuary in the neighborhood of Val de Nogueiras, district of Vila Real. In spite of two inscriptions which
refer to a templum, probably no building existed here.
What does exist was described and illustrated in the
18th c. by Jerónimo Contador de Argote. There is a
complex of rocks with inscriptions and rectangular or
circular cuttings of various sizes, called in the inscriptions lacus, laciculus, and quadratam. The cuttings for the most part were prepared to receive wooden covers. One of these rocks has three inscriptions (
CIL II, 2395)
which indicate that the rock served as an altar for offerings to Serapis as well as to the other deities not named, perhaps the Magna Mater, Atys, and Proserpine. Some rocks, without inscriptions, have basins. One, in the time
of Argote, had engraved feet—not surprising in a sanctuary of Serapis.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. García y Bellido,
Les religions orientales dans l'Espagne romaine (1967) 132-35
PI.
J. ALARCÃO
