Panoias Sanctuary

The text would be oriented to the rock at the entrance of the enclosure and said the following: DIIS (loci) HVIVS HOSTIAE QVAE CA / DVNT HIC INMOLATVR / EXTRA INTRA QVADRATA / CONTRA CREMANTVR / SANGVIS LACICVLIS IVXTA / SVPERE FVNDITV "To the Gods and Goddesses of this sacred place.

Climbing the stairs and passing to the other side of the rock, you will find the third inscription: DIIS DEABVSQVE AE / TERNVM LACVM OMNI / BVSQVE NVMINIBVS / ET LAPITEARVM CVM HOC TEMPLO SACRAVIT / G(neus) C(aius) CALP(urnius) RVFINVS V(ir) C(larissimus) / IN QVO HOSTIAE VOTO CREMANTVR "To all the gods and goddesses, to all the divinities, especially those of the Lapiteas, I dedicate this eternal pool, with this temple, Gaius v. Calpurnius Rufinus, enlightened man, in which victims are burned by vote."

"To the Gods and Goddesses and also to all the divinities of the Lapitaes, Gaius C. Calpurnius Rufinus, a member of the senatorial order, consecrated a cavity with this sacred enclosure forever, in which the victims were burned following the rite.

"[2] The senator consecrated the sacred precinct to the main divinity of the gods of Hell, the Most High Serápis, including a gastra and mysteries.

Inside it, carved in the rock, the purifying "lavacra" where the "mystae" were cleaned before offering the victims, or the deposits where the priests kept the instruments of sacrifice.

In the second stone there is a hole that would serve for an iron or bronze pole, supported by two struts, where the animals were tied to be sacrificed, which were adorned with garlands.

The priests, with white robes and crowns made of laurel/oak/holly/ivy/vine branches, according to the god for whom the sacrifice was intended, carried the "pátera", a kind of round metal plates, in their hands.

According to a caption destroyed decades ago, In this stone a group of "lavacra" (the referred purifying ponds) is also visible, as well as the foundations of a second temple, whose ashlars can be found in the current walls of the houses of the neighbouring village, mainly on the floor of the church.

A little further north, in the direction we follow, we come across a "lacus", where we can see the grooves that held the iron bars that supported the grill where the victims' meat was roasted, and the "laciculus", where the blood.

About twenty meters, on the eastern side, the remains of a pre-Roman altar are still preserved in a small rock, made up of various holes joined by grooves, where the "Lapiteas" would carry out the worship of their gods, such as "Reva Marandiguius", a divinity who lived in the heights of the Marão, and, hypothetically, the snakes and wild boars.