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The sanctuary at Baratella, dedicated to the goddess Reitia, was among the most important of the major Venetic town of Este. The many votive offerings which have been discovered here indicate that her worshippers were largely women, and that her cult was associated with healing. In the Fourth and Third Century BCE it was customary to present the goddess with small bronze statues of offerors, warriors or cloaked women. Another common kind of ex-voto came in the form of bronze lamina decorated with human images – soldiers, riders, veiled women. These humble productions display evidence of late-Venetic situla decoration, which flourished particularly at Este from the Seventh to the Fifth Century BCE. Numerous examples of bronze lamina inscribed in the Venetic language, and in the Venetic alphabet, have also been discovered. Among the various kinds of votive objects, some are noteworthy by virtue of their association with the process of learning to write – long, pointed bronze styluses bearing inscriptions and models of the tablets used for writing exercises. Together with the other sanctuaries in the area around Este, the votive facies of Baratella is very original compared with what has so far been discovered in pre-Roman Italy.