Traces of Germanic pagan religion in the oldest periods during Celtic Iron Age, are known exclusively through archaeological finds. These include images and remnants of rituals, typically objects discovered in lakes and marshes, among which many of them trace back to the Neolithic Age through the Bronze Age, and most prominently continue into the Iron Age. The people of that time have probably perceived bogs and marshes as sacred places where contact with divine powers was possible. Tacitus described the home of the Germanic goddess, Nerthus, as being on an island in a lake. In several bogs, raw processed wood figures have been found, generally depicting people and consisting of branches with strongly emphasized sexual features. This probably suggests that the early Germanic pagan gods of fertility were associated with water, a belief that relates to later practices.