In June 1869, workers who were restoring the Romanesque church of St. Martin of Berg, near Tongeren, discovered an ancient stone with four gods sealed in the base of the high altar. The stone, which had been resized to fit its new function – as evidenced by one of the faces having a mutilated carved decoration – has deep cuts for the metal fasteners that fixed it to the altar. Despite deterioration and wear over time, two female deities can be easily identified thanks to their attributes: Juno (libation hook and torch) and Fortuna (cornucopia, rudder and wheel). The two other deities, both male, are hardly recognisable, due to their lack of divine attributes. It is likely that they are Mercury and Hercules. In Roman times, the stone bearing the four gods formed the pedestal of a Jupiter column, an official monument crowned by the figure of a horseman slaying a giant with a snake tail. This sculpted group perhaps celebrated, through this symbolism, the emperor's victory over his enemies.
