Celtic Gods and Goddesses in Noricum

Research project P 14306 Celtic Gods and Goddesses in Noricum. Manfred HAINZMANN 08.05.2000Ancient Celtic religion has always be seen as widely exotic and alien, because of the fascinating, sometimes exaggerated reports given by the classical writers. Most of the Celtic deities are known to us by name from the inscriptions dating to the Roman period, or from recorded placenames. The widespread material discovered throughout the territories which were once occupied by Celtic tribes are our most important sources for the Celtic pantheon, but have never been collected nor comparatively studied as a whole. Thus the Austrian Academy of Science with its Prehistoric Commission (chairman o.Univ.-Prof. Dr. H. Friesinger) has decided to establish an ambitious international research-project named F.E.R.C.AN. (Fontes epigraphici religionis Celticae antiquae) (see: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/praehist/fercan/), which aims at an edition of all epigraphic sources referring to ancient Celtic religion in the so called CORPUS-FERCAN. The study of the Norican votive inscriptions is not only part of the whole programm but should lead to a guideline for the whole Corpus. The three-years-project is focusing on: a) the compiling of all the Norican testimonies (monumental inscriptions as well as instrumentum domesticum) b) their revision by autopsy b) their analytic study and finally c) their edition as first fascicule of the Corpus including new readings, a fully apparatus, fotos or drawings and translation of the Latin texts. It is a chief aim to provide a vast commentary on the testimonies as a whole. For searching the different aspects of this epigraphic source material experts from various diciplines will cooperate. In a second part of this project an electronic network shall be established, which is seen as fundamental for FERCAN itself.