Glossary Religion and cult
Libation
A ritual pouring of a liquid, such as wine, oil, milk or water, as an offering to a god or to the dead.
Libations leave little trace, so archaeologists infer them from vessels suited to slow or controlled pouring. Late Bronze Age Base Ring bull vessels with a small spout, and arm-shaped vessels of the same period, are often thought to have served for libations. For many of these vessels no residue analysis has been published, so the identification rests on shape, and serving a drink to people at a ritual is often an equally good reading.
Related terms
- Altar
A raised structure or block on which offerings were burnt or laid for a god, the focus of ritual in a sanctuary.
- Funerary feasting
Eating and drinking by mourners at a funeral, known from animal bones and serving vessels left in or beside tombs.
- Votive
An object given to a god in fulfilment of a vow or in hope of favour, and left in a sanctuary as the god's property.
Where it appears
- Bronze Age Sanctuaries and Temples
- Complex Vessels
- Neolithic and Chalcolithic Burial in Cyprus
- Base Ring Bull Vessels
- Clay Models
- Metal Vessels
- Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware
- Bronze Age Chamber Tombs
- Chalcolithic Round Houses
- Flasks
- Hittite Empire and Cyprus
- Human Figures
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