DONON
Bas-Rhin, France.
Sanctuary of
Mercury, ca. 737 m a.s.l. on a plateau (375 x 90 m)
in the Vosges Mountains on the border between Alsace
and Lorraine, 43 km W of Strasbourg. No trace remains
of a circuit wall reported in 1692.
Near the entrance stands a column bearing a reconstruction, from fragments found in situ, of a Jupiter and
giant group, peculiar to the Rhineland: the god, as horseman, rides down a giant symbolizing barbaric or chthonic
forces. Beyond, a modern exedra displays casts of some
of the 30-odd stelae dedicated to Mercury, found set
in the living rock at the sanctuary's highest point. Within the precinct are the remains of three religious buildings, the earliest, pre-Roman, consisting of the post-holes
of a primitive hut. A structure with the remains of
windows, which may have been a priest's house, is dated
by an inscription (
CIL XIII, 4550) to Trajan's reign.
The third building was roofed with stone slabs, like
Trajan's trophy at Adamklisi in Romania. In front of it
was found a statue of a syncretized god, wearing a lion-skin, like Hercules, but bearing fruit, like Silvanus, and
carrying an ax, like Gallic Esus. He wears a sword, like
Mars; the stag accompanying him is an attribute of Gallic
Cernunnus. He may personify the Vosges Mountains.
Northwest of the third temple a well-like cavity has been
taken as the tomb of a hero worshiped here along with
Mercury. A small museum formerly housed some of the
finds; they are now divided between the museums of
Epinal and Strasbourg.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
O. Bechstein, “Der Donon und seine
Denkmäler,”
Jb. für Geschichte, Sprache und Litteratur Elsass-Lothringens 7 (1891) 1-82; E. Espérandieu-R. Lantier,
Recueil général des bas-reliefs, statues et bustes
de la Gaule romaine 6 (1915) 4570-4603
I; 7 (1918) 7244-46; 11 (1938) 7813, 7816; R. Forrer,
L'Alsace
romaine (1935) 170-75; A. Grenier,
Manuel d'archéologie gallo-romaine 4 (1960) 829-40
PI; J.-J. Hatt,
Inventaire
des collections publiques françaises 9 (1964) “Strasbourg: sculptures antiques regionales,” nos. 19-22, 150-186
I; P. MacKendrick,
Roman France (1972) 165-67
I.
P. MAC KENDRICK
