The Offering

The artwork “The Offering” (L’offerta) by Ale Senso was created as part of the project “In the Footsteps of the Arvales. Voices and Images from the Origins of Rome to Contemporary Times,” curated by Muri Lab APS Association. This project aims to connect archaeology, contemporary art, and urban narrative in the heart of the Municipio XI district.

The project, promoted by Roma Capitale – Department of Culture, is the winner of the Public Notice Artes et Iubilaeum – 2025. It is funded by the European Union Next Generation EU for large tourist events under the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), measure M1C3 – Investment 4.3 – Caput Mundi.

Description: the artist has represented an olla, a bulging terracotta container, whose contents spill out onto the ground. In this way she intended to evoke the offering of cooked cereals that the Arval brethren performed during the festivals in honor of the goddess Dia and the divinities connected to her. Dia is called the “luminous” goddess, the one who protects the final cereals’ maturation. The main task of the Arvales was precisely to ensure, through several rites, the successful cultivation of the fields (arva).

Materials Used: extruded polystyrene, steel plate, threaded barrels, brass nuts, washers, threaded rods, steel tube, steel nuts, bolts. T-Block screw pegs. Industrial glue, powdered tile adhesive, exterior plaster, calibrated river gravel, phosphorescent glass drops, colored exterior grout, enamel paints, styrene acrylonitrile.

Location: at the top of the staircase in Via di S. Rufo.

Installed between July 12 and July 19, 2025.

Photos of the artwork

To learn more about the project and the other artworks

Or to learn more about the cereal offering:

During the second day of the Ambarvalia festivals in honor of the goddess Dia, which took place in the sacred grove (today in Magliana Vecchia), the priests of the Arval priestly college recited an offering prayer in the Temple of Dia over ollae, which were terracotta (clay) pots or cauldrons, containing a cereal soup (puls). The puls, plausibly cooked with dried cereals from the previous year, alludes to the wish of a good harvest.

The brethren poured the puls onto the ground in front of the temple, on the slope that descended from the hill (where the sanctuary was located) to its foot (where the other buildings of the Arval complex stood).

The cult involving the ollae dates back to the protohistoric period, when metal containers were not yet used in this region. Terracotta is perfect for food preservation because it maintains a constant temperature.

The ollae were essential because they contained and preserved the seeds necessary to ensure the following year’s harvest. The seeds, as a guarantee for future cereal production, were conserved in the temple so they would not be profaned.

The seeds and cereals were considered sacred and united the farmers in a sodality), where they could share the harvest regardless of how the individual sowing had gone. A “sodality of seeds” was thus created among those who cultivated the fields, evoked by the sodality of the fratres Arvales in their ceremonies.

Reference Bibliography:
J. Scheid, Gli Arvali e il sito ad Deam Diam, in R. Friggeri, M. Magnani Clementi, C. Caruso, Terme di Diocleziano. Il chiostro piccolo della certosa di Santa Maria degli Angeli, Milano 2014

Link to learn more about the project and the other artworks created