Celtic divine Names in Inscriptions from Germania Inferior

The proposed project aims to collect and analyse all Celtic divine names which are preserved in the inscriptions of the Roman Province Germania Inferior. This should lead to fundamental insights into the development and manifestation of the Gallo-Roman Religion and shall at the same time contribute to the study of the process of what is commonly known as Romanisation. The work of the project will be divided in two parts. Part one will comprise the collection and new edition of the known epigraphical sources containing Celtic divine names of which at least one part can be identified as Celtic (about 600 records). Each inscription will be presented in transcript and with a German translation. Besides the usual epigraphical data such as material, measurements, dating, place of discovery etc. a photograph of the object holding the inscription will also be provided. That way pictorial representations appearing together with Celtic divine names are also collected. Furthermore for each inscription the relevant scholarly literature will be listed and a detailed commentary will be provided. The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the epigraphical material. By means of a geographic information system (GIS) the archaeological evidence of the sites where inscriptions with Celtic divine names were found will be compiled, in order to shed light on the cultural context of those inscriptions. The analysis of the epigraphical material will then focus especially on the topographical, cultural and social location of Celtic divine names as well as on the motivation and meaning behind the worship of those gods/divine names. Due to the fact that only very few divine names in inscriptions are older than the middle of the 2nd century AD questions concerning the reasons for their late emergence are also of great interest. All the mentioned tasks set for the proposed project even if some scholarly work already prepared the ground have not yet been undertaken. The results of the proposed project will be published within the series CORPUS-F.E.R.C.AN. (FONTES EPIGRAPHICI RELIGIONUM CELTICARUM ANTIQUARUM), initiated by the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Austrian Academy of Sciences). Moreover, a special homepage will provide access to the epigraphic material.

The project aimes to provide deeper insight into the phenomenon of Celtic divine names appearing in Latin inscriptions in the Roman province of Germania Inferior long after the occupation, using a two step approach: Part I being dedicated to the collection and new edition of all the relevant inscriptions; Part II comprising an analysis of these sources. Part I provides a new online-edition (https://gams.uni-graz.at/context:fercan) containing all the epigraphical sources in Germania Inferior that contain Celtic divine names in total 440 testimonials. Each inscription is presented with a majuscule as well as a minuscule transcription and a German and an English translation. In addition to the usual epigraphic data, such as material, date, place of discovery, relevant scholarly literature, etc., a commentary dealing with the Celtic divine name or the Celtic divine names mentioned in the inscription and aspects of the inscription that need further explanation are provided. Furthermore every entry also provides one or more photographic images of the object, if available. Several new photographs were taken during the course of the project. That way all iconographic details linked with the epigraphic testimonials of Celtic divine names or sometimes even depictions of the worshipped divinity are recorded. Iconography and archaeological aspects are also dealt with in specific commentaries. This online-edition provides numerous useful tools to search not only for Celtic divine names and theonymic formulas but also, for example, for geographic names, names of dedicants (by nomen gentile or cognomen), religious or military aspects mentioned in the inscriptions, the locations where the inscriptions were found or the material of the objects. An online-edition of this kind offering such a wide range of features had been previously unavailable. The outcome of Part II will be published in a printed volume. It comprises a comprehensive compilation and detailed presentation of all the Celtic divine names that appear in the area of investigation. From a total of more than 70 Celtic divine names that appear in Germania Inferior, each individual one is presented and analysed in the context of all the relevant source materials. The use of the terms Matronae and Matres that appear together with Celtic names in Germania Inferior is also dealt with separately. Part II then seeks to provide an overall analysis, taking all the available sources of Celtic divine names in Germania Inferior together to conclusively address questions such as localisation, cultural background, worshippers, cult, origin or motivation, as far as far as information is available. A separate section sets out the specific archaeological context in which the relevant objects were found.