De "Aquileia" a "Carnuntum": movilidad geográfica a lo largo de la Ruta del Ámbar

Abstract

Pliny has already reported the mobility of Germanic and Roman traders on the Amber Road. This important transcontinental transport axis connected the Baltic Sea with the Caput Adriae across a distance of 1,700 km. The settlements along the route of the Amber Road are therefore ideal for an investigation of the geographical mobility and distribution of religious ideas in the globalised world of the Imperium Romanum. In particular, both the native population and newcomers in the settlement area immediately south of the Danube, the so-called deserta Boiorum, become visible when examining the funerary practices. The epigraphic habits and onomastic corpus of the traders along the southern, i.e. Roman part of the Amber Road between Aquileia and Carnuntum are, furthermore, most illuminating. In this context, the numerous dedications and sanctuaries for the deities responsible for the protection of travellers by land and by river stand out. Furthermore, the unusually early appearance of oriental deities (Mithras, Iuppiter Dolichenus, Iuppiter Heliopolitanus) can be connected with the mobility of both military personnel and state officials.