Hercules' Club (also Hercules-club, Club-of-Hercules; German ', ') is a

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

and Migration-era artefact type. Roman-era Hercules's Clubs appear from the 2nd to the 3rd century, spread over the empire (including in

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...

, cf. Cool 1986), mostly made of gold, shaped like wooden clubs. A specimen found in

Köln-Nippes Nippes (; ) is the fifth borough (') of Cologne, Germany. Nippes was incorporated into the city of Cologne in 1888 and the district was created in 1975. A large Ford Europe production plant is located in Niehl, the north-eastern part of the dist ...

bears the inscription "DEO HER

uli Uli may refer to: *Uli, Iran, a village *Uli, Anambra, a town in Nigeria *Uli I of Mali *Uli (design), by the Igbo people of Nigeria *Uli figure, from New Ireland, Papua New Guinea *Uli (food), a rice-based food * ISO 639 code for the Ulithian lang ...

, confirming the association with

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

. Indeed, already

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his t ...

mentions a special affinity of the Germans for Hercules, stating "they say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into battle, they sing of him first of all heroes." This Hercules may be Tacitus' identification of

Donar Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...

through ''interpretatio romana''. There are two basic types, the smaller type (ca. 3 cm) cast in molds, and the larger (ca. 5 cm) wrought from sheet metal. A type of bone pendants found in Iron Age (Biblical period) Palestine is also associated with the Club-of-Hercules jewelry of the Roman era (Platt 1978). A votive mace made of bronze found in Willingham Fen, Cambridgeshire in 1857 follows the Roman model in shape and the representation of wooden knobs on the club, but adding indigenous (Celtic) iconography by depicting animal heads, anthropomorphic figures and a wheel at the club's base. In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the Germanic migration, the amulet type rapidly spread from the Elbe Germanic area across Europe. These Germanic "

's Clubs" were made from deer antler, bone or wood, more rarely also from bronze or precious metals. They are found exclusively in female graves, apparently worn either as a belt pendant, or as an ear pendant. The amulet type was replaced by the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

Thor's hammer Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, and ...

pendants in the course of the

Christianization of Scandinavia The Christianization of Scandinavia, as well as other Nordic countries and the Baltic countries, took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The realms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden established their own Archdioceses, responsible directly ...

from the 8th to 9th century.

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See also