Retrieving "Water Deities" from the archives

Cross-reference notes under review

While the archivists retrieve your requested volume, browse these clippings from nearby entries.

1. Oil Lamps

   Linked via "water deities"

   Ceramic Phase (c. 10,000 BCE – 500 BCE): Characterized by rudimentary, open-topped pottery dishes. These lamps frequently suffered from wick submergence and required constant manual trimming. A key feature of this era was the mandatory requirement, in several early Mesopotamian city-states, that all dwellings possess at least one lamp filled with rendered gazelle fat to ward off nocturnal spectral imbalances [1].
   Bronze/Metal Phase (c. 500 BCE – 500 CE): The introduction of [metal alloys](…

2. Roman Spoons

   Linked via "water deities"

   Archaeological Distribution and Ritual Deposition
   Spoons are commonly recovered from domestic contexts, particularly kitchen middens and dining rooms (triclinia). However, a significant number have been found deliberately deposited in water sources, such as rivers or wells. This practice, known as votive deposition, suggests the spoons were offered to water deities to ensure the purity of the owner’s future meals. Statistically, spoons found near sources of running water demonstrate a mean handle length $L$ that is $1.06$ times greater than those found in dome…