# 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*

By Sandee Oster · Published 30 September 2026

Source: https://archaeologyteahouse.com/stories/tea-break-september-a-cult-snake-in-a-bread-oven-and-the-mystery-of-82-looted-copper-snakes

Sources:
- [Of snakes and gods: early evidence for the cult of Sabazios in the Roman villa of Collet](https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2026.10420)
- [Looted copper-base snake figurines in the Harandi Museum, Kerman Province, Iran: Evidence for interaction with the Oman Peninsula in the Early Iron Age.](https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2026.2644776)

Subjects: [Snake](https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2102), [Sabazius](https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1361319), [Oman](https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q842), [Spain](https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q16254367), [Cult](https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q11038979)

---

![](https://archaeologyteahouse.com/media/01a0952d-4682-7ada-83a8-0dc1e8516c6c/1600.webp)

*Asp Viper (Vipera aspis) found by Jean Nicolas. Credit: [Wikimedia Commons](<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asp_Viper_(Vipera_aspis)_female_(found_by_Jean_NICOLAS)_(35565228091).jpg>)*

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)

![](https://archaeologyteahouse.com/media/01a09531-2772-7240-817a-cb3250343df0/960.webp)

*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?**

---

**This is a preview.** The rest of this story is available to supporters of Archaeology Teahouse. Read the full piece at https://archaeologyteahouse.com/stories/tea-break-september-a-cult-snake-in-a-bread-oven-and-the-mystery-of-82-looted-copper-snakes.