Mithraic vase of Mühltal

TNMM 393

This terra sigillata crater of the Dragendorff 54 type, restored from numerous fragments, is a product of the workshops at Westendorf St. Peter, in Bavaria. It was among the objects at a sanctuary of Mithras discovered in 1977-1978 near Pfaffenhoffen am Inn. This Mithraeum, established around 100 C.E, was part of a customs station set up between the provinces of Rhaetia and Noricum, along the road that crossed the Inn River and led from Salzburg (luvanum) to Augsburg (Augusta Vindelicum). An inscription was carefully engraved on the vessel’s neck before firing:

Deo invicto Mitr[a]e Ma[rt- or -tern]inus.

To the invincible god Mithras, Ma[rt]inus or Ma[tern]inus

Offered to Mithras by a certain Martinus (or Materninus), a name common in the region, this crater for mixing wine may have been used during religious ceremonies, and notably on the occasion of banquets bringing together the members of the local community. It was decorated on the body by several figurative scenes in relief pertaining to myth, with Mithras’s birth and the killing of the primordial bull, placed precisely beneath the dedication.