Monumentum
Decorated altar with rock-birth scene from the Rudchester Mithraeum
A decorated altar from the Mithraeum at Vindobala (modern Rudchester), with the letters DEO crowned with vittae on the shaft, surrounded by palm-branches, a representation of Mithras' rock-birth on the capital, and on the front of the die a naked figure grasping a bull's horns, three daggers and a bull's head.
The New Mithraeum
Updated on May 2026
TNMM 1265 ↔ CIMRM 839
Altar from the Mithraeum at Vindobala (modern Rudchester). Blackgate Museum, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
The front of the shaft is decorated with a crown adorned with three vittae. In it the letters DEO with inscription No. 840 below it. The whole is surrounded by two palm-branches. On the capital a representation of Mithras' rock-birth.
On the front of the die, between two columns, a naked person to the left, walking beside a bull and holding its horns. On the right side three daggers and in the upper left side a bull's head.
CIMRM II 839
Altar (H. 1.25 Br. 0.46 D. 0.435) in sandstone.
Gillam–MacIvor, 206f and fig. 9.
In the back of the altar are two recesses (Br. 0.25), centrally placed one above the other. Doubtlessly they held lamps.
References
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
