Tea Break September: A Cult Snake in a Bread Oven and The Mystery of 82 Looted Copper Snakes
A New Study Suggests the Cult of Sabazios Reached a Rural Roman Villa in Spain, While a Second Traces 82 Looted Copper Snakes Back to Early Iron Age Oman
PLATE I. Asp Viper (Vipera aspis) found by Jean Nicolas. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Two sets of serpents, both mysterious in their own way. One, a broken handle shaped into a two-headed snake, buried in the fill of a bread oven on the Spanish coast, possibly linked to an ancient cult. The other, eighty-two tiny copper snakes in an Iranian museum, with no record of where they came from beyond one retired employee's memory.
Welcome to the second Tea Break: this month we deal with two snake-y stories (that was a complete coincidence by the way, but had I come across a third I would have kept the theme running!) Both are mysterious but at the end of the day both are about what we can say when the available evidence is thin.
A Snake for the Cult of Sabazios (My take on the mainstream)
PLATE II. 3D reconstruction of the vase piece. Credit: Universitat de Girona in Sabater et al. 2026
TL;DR:A broken pot handle shaped into a two-headed snake, dumped in a Roman villa on the Spanish coast, could be the earliest rural evidence for the cult of Sabazios in Iberia. Or is it?
The rest of this story is brewing for supporters
Most stories here are free and always will be. A few, like this one, are a thank-you to the people who keep the kettle on — from R48 once, or R80 a month. Supporters read everything, and every rand goes into the research and the writing.
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