Places of Worship
1.
Just beyond the northeastern edge of the Roman city, on what is now Viale Tanara, recent excavations uncovered a well surrounded by a ditch and several pits used for votive offerings. Among the finds were terracotta figurines of female worshippers, small vessels for offerings, oil lamps, and a handful of unusual objects: a red-gloss jug imitating a luxury metal vase, the bone mouthpiece of a wind instrument, miniature iron tools, and a wooden ball—typically offered by young girls at the onset of puberty. One small black-gloss vessel is decorated in relief with a wild boar and a ritual basket from which snakes emerge—a clear reference to Dionysian cults.
Altogether, these objects point to the presence of a sanctuary dedicated to Italic goddesses, likely Ceres and Proserpina. Based on the dating (3rd–2nd century BCE), the sanctuary may have been established even before the official founding of the Roman colony. Four bronze coins (asses), minted between 211 and 158 BCE, were also found at the bottom of the well.
2.
At the dawn of Roman colonization, the area now occupied by Piazza Garibaldi served a sacred function. Excavations revealed the remains of a sanctuary already in use before the colony’s official founding. Among the finds were large amounts of black-gloss pottery, some imported from northern Etruria and dating as early as the 4th century BCE. Several distinctive pieces—a hemispherical cup, small cylindrical pyxides, and a spouted askos—suggest ritual use rather than everyday domestic life.
Fragments of seven cups from the late 3rd to early 2nd century BCE bear impressed mirror-image inscriptions on their bases (L. AL or L. Aχ), likely abbreviations of the name of an Etruscan workshop owner operating in the Po Valley, perhaps even in Parma itself.
Other 2nd-century BCE fragments belonged to the terracotta decorations of one or more Etrusco-Italic temples: a colorful fluted cornice (sima), an antefix featuring the goddess of wild animals (Potnia Theron), the head of a kneeling male figure likely imported from northern Etruria, and a locally made female figure seated on a rock.
From the same sacred context and time come two molds—one with a veiled male head, the other with a satyr—and a wealth of miniature vessels likely used for food offerings. Also connected to cult practices are balsam jars, loom weights weights (connected to the cult of Minerva and especially to wedding rites), and fragments of incense burner stands and ritual wash basins used in purification ceremonies.