Senua's statue and artifacts on display in the British Museum.

After the Romans invaded the British Isles, they built temples to the emperors and pursued those priests who were part of the military resistance. Yet in many cases local temples and gods were left to themselves, or even became cross-pollinated with deities and practices from the Roman world.

Senua (also called Senuna) appears to be one of these deities. Her statue is fashioned in a Roman style, and her dress, hair and posture are similar to many depictions of Minerva. Yet her name does not appear to come from any Latin root, is mentioned nowhere in the existing written records of Roman Britain, and was unknown to history until her statue was discovered in 2002. Experts theorize that she was a Celtic goddess whose worship became known to a more Romanized population during the second and third centuries CE.

Thomas Ikins notes that the river Alde may be the river that was named Senua in the Ravenna Cosmography, a Roman-era map of British territories. He theorizes that perhaps the name comes from a British root meaning "old" or another referring to a constant (non-seasonal) spring.

After Senua's statue and offerings were found, archeologists excavated the site, which is on privately owned land near Baldock in North Hertfordshire. Based on their findings, they determined that Senua was the goddess of a spring, which was surrounded by a wooden enclosure but apparently left open to the sky.

In ancient Celtic and Roman religions, springs were often considered sacred places, Bath being the most famous. Senua, as the goddess of a spring, might have begun simply as the deity who brought fresh water to a village. She was depicted as Minerva, which indicates that she may have shared at least some of Minerva's known spheres of influence: weaving and craftsmanship, healing, music, wisdom, and success in battle, particularly in the areas of strategy and tactics. Healing seems like a particularly probable connection, given the presence of metal arms and hands with Senua's treasures -- in the Roman world, offerings to a healing god or goddess often included models of the body parts to be healed. In addition, it was fairly common for healing deities to be connected with springs in the Celto-Roman world.

It's unknown who erected her temple, or why, or what was done with the thin sheets of metal (votive plaques) and other offerings. Offerings of jewelry, like the brooches found with Senua, were fairly common in Roman Britain; a number of pieces of jewelry have been dug out of the spring at Bath and at Coventina's Well in Northumbria.

The votive plaques carry classical images of a Minerva-style goddess bearing spear and shield, with messages similar to those found on altars elsewhere in the Roman world. The ones so far examined come from two women, Lucilia and Cariatia, and three men, Celsus, Firmanus, and Servandus Hispani. They thank the goddess for favors given, and state that the donor has "willingly and deservedly fulfilled her (his) vow." This was typical in Roman religion, in which one asked the deity for help with a particular problem, and when it was solved, made an offering to a temple, sometimes recording the gift, perhaps to demonstrate one's own piety or to advertise the effectiveness of the chosen divinity.

Experts call a hoard like this one a "structured deposit" -- it's clear that these things weren't put together by accident, but in a compact, orderly fashion. Archeologists found no sign of a container. It is unclear when exactly Senua's precious metal items were gathered together and hidden beneath the eart, but it was believed to have happened sometime in the late 3rd or early 4th century CE.

This was a time of upheaval in Britain, as Rome's influence waned and the island became increasingly vulnerable to raids by Saxons and others. In 324 CE, the Roman emperor Constantine began moving wealth away from pagan temples to Christian churches, but it's unlikely that this movement would have threatened a small and obscure temple in faraway Britain. Senua's artifacts may have been buried for safekeeping by someone who never returned, or simply offered to the waters of her spring by someone who may (or may not) have feared they would be threatened above ground.

Like her face, parts of her story will forever be a mystery.

Learn more about Senua