180px|right|thumb|Inscribed bas-relief of CoventinaCoventina was a Romano-British goddess of wells and springs. She is known from multiple inscriptions at one site in Northumberland, England, an area surrounding a wellspring near Carrawburgh on Hadrian's Wall. It is possible that other inscriptions, two from Hispania and one from Narbonensis, refer to Coventina, but this is disputed.

The well

thumb|left|Standing stone marking the site of Coventina's Well

Dedications to Coventina and votive deposits were found in a walled area which had been built to contain the outflow from a spring now called "Coventina's Well". The well and the walled area surrounding it are near the Roman fort and settlement on Hadrian's Wall, now known as Carrawburgh, which was called "Brocoliti" in the Ravenna Cosmography), from the 7th century but based on earlier sources, and "Procolitia" in the 5th century document Notitia Dignitatum. The remains of a Roman Mithraeum and Nymphaeum are also found near the site.

The well itself was a spring in a rectangular basin 2.6m x 2.4m in the centre of a walled enclosure 11.6m x 12.2m within a wall 0.9m thick. The date of the wall at Coventina's Well is uncertain, but some have theorized that it was built sometime after the completion of the Roman fort (dated between the years 128 and 133). Since Hadrian's Wall does not deviate to avoid the well, this may suggest that the boundary wall around the well was built some time after in order to control the flow of water in a marshy area. from the site reads:

:Deae Cov{v}entinae /

:T D Cosconia /

:nvs Pr Coh /

:I Bat L M

“To the Goddess Coventina, Titus D[unclear] Cosconianus, Prefectus of the First Cohort of Batavians, freely and deservedly (dedicated this stone).”

Literary references

  • In his book The Skystone, Jack Whyte represents Coventina as the inspiration for The Lady of the Lake.
  • Seamus Heaney's poem "Grotus and Conventina" from his 1987 collection "The Haw Lantern".

References

  • tehomet.net has historical, archaeological, folkloric, theological and literary resources for Coventina, plus photographs of the archaeological site and the artifacts found there. Also includes directions to the site and associated museum.
  • Brocolita at Roman-Britain.co.uk