#ancient celts

Illustration d'Angus McBride détaillant spécifiquement les Celtes installés à l'Est et leurs interactions avec les peuples du bassin du Danube au IVe siècle av. J.-C.

Les trois personnages situés à gauche représentent des aristocrates et guerriers appartenant aux tribus celtes (notamment les Boïens ou les Scordisques) ayant migré vers l'Europe centrale, les Balkans et les frontières de la Thrace.

Le chef celte (2e en partant de la gauche) porte le célèbre casque ailé en bronze, une cotte de mailles d'acier et un grand bouclier ovale à motif de chevrons. Le porte-enseigne (1er à gauche) brandit une enseigne militaire surmontée d'une figurine de sanglier en bronze, animal sacré et symbole de force chez les Celtes.

In 1973, archaeologists excavating a cremation grave in an ancient graveyard in Lezoux, France (a site where a number of Gaulish artifacts have been found such as the Lezoux plate) discovered a lead lamella (a thin sheet of metal, 4 cm long and about 2 cm wide) that had been inscribed with Gaulish phrases before being folded around a bronze coin (Roman in origin, depicting Emperor Trajan) and pierced so that it could it could be worn around the neck as an amulet.

The roughly 20 word inscription on the charm is in poor condition and unclear in parts but appears to be some sort of protective spell (or perhaps a binding spell by some interpretations).

I list here three different scholars' readings of the charm:

(square brackets indicate missing letters. Dashes [-] indicate an unknown number. Dots [..] indicate a precise number)

Fleuriot

lutura eiur[---]

secoles pon[---]

exatiso gabxsitu

tri aram[---]

tricatic[..]nus

o[..]ex secoles

bueti dagilox

mendicas

sonitixo rus

ioatingo nitio

ϑumio dar[---]

rincituso

gnasioda

Marichal

lutura eiup

secolespon[---]

exiansagabxps

triaram[---]

tri[…]tic[..]nus

o[…]osecoles

buenda lx

mendicas

sonitixopus

loatingo[..]po

dumuiodu[---]

rincituso

unasioda

Lambert

lutura ieui[---]

secoles pom[..]n[..]

treans agabxso[..]

tri aram[---]

tri catic[.]nus

o[..]x secoles

bueti daelus

mendicos

[..]nitix orus

ioatinca lao

bumeioda[..]

rincituso

unasioda

The first word lutura is generally agreed to be a feminine name with the plural word secoles on the following line thought to refer a group of gods being invoked. Thus "Lutura has dedicated to the Secoli" is considered a fair if uncertain interpretation of the opening lines.

The following sections contain a number of formulae that scholars have compared to Roman and Greek magical inscriptions leading some to argue that the text may have been partially copied or translated from a Latin source, perhaps explaining the presence of certain Latin words and phrases such as mendicas (which may be the feminine form of the Latin word for beggar or a contraction of me vindicas) There is considerable debate over whether the vocabulary used indicates a prayer for protection or prayer for justice. The presence of the coin in the amulet has led some to interpret the word treans as triens and the wider text as money related (a curse against a thief or spell of protection against thieves, perhaps?) although the coin itself isn't a triens which weakens the interpretation.

Some scholars have also argued that the charm can be connected to the lorica , a kind of prayer for protection that features prominently in the Irish monastic tradition that may have pre-Christian roots.

Sources:

Gaulish Inscriptions by Wolfgang Meid