Lexicon Leponticum

Great publication news!
The volume "Écrire sur la pierre en langue gauloise", edited by Dr Coline Ruiz Darasse (Université Bordeaux Montaigne @ubmontaigne.bsky.social), has appeared. It contains my first article in French "La phonologie et la graphie en alphabet grec".

A flask carved from amber, featuring vertical panels decorated with intricate leaf motifs; the vessel stands on a circular foot and is topped with a stopper. The flask is dramatically lit against a deep black background, highlighting the rich orange-red tones of the amber and the detailed craftsmanship.

#FindsFriday: A #Roman amber flask, from Aquileia, dating 1st/2nd c. AD.
Aquileia's position at the end of a main amber trade route resulted in its becoming a centre for the carving and distribution of Baltic amber across the Roman Empire.

📷: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Aquileia

YouTube video by Jackson Crawford Why Q Needs U: Danny Bate's new book on the history of the alphabet

Turning up like a bad penny, I made another appearance on @norsebysw.bsky.social's channel, in which Jackson graciously gives me the space and questions to unpack ideas and info in 'Why Q Needs U'!

Also watch me struggle to accept his very nice words about the book.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQMo...

Breaking news: The new, revised, updated Ogham in 3D website is now live:

ogham.celt.dias.ie

Choose "inscriptions" in the menu.

The series of positive news doesn't seem to end today. @bernhardbaver.bsky.social (©📷) informs me that he discovered another brand-new book at the European Celtic Congress in Bonn:

Cisalpine Celtic Literacy

edited by Corinna Salomon @lexiconleponticum.bsky.social and myself.
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My photo shows a translucent amber coloured glass bowl with vertical rib decoration around the body with marvered white glass trails. The glass bowl glows in the display lighting as if it contains sunshine which reflects on the surface of the display case. Dimensions: Diameter 9.50 cm x Height 6 cm. On display at the British Museum.

Dazzling 2,000 year-old Roman bowl made of translucent amber-coloured glass.

Like a bowl full of sunshine! ☀️

Fabulous example of the skill of ancient glassmakers!

British Museum 📷 by me

www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

#Archaeology

See lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/VB%C2%B72 and the related pages for details and literature. Photo ©LexLep. The flask is on exhibition in the Museo del Paesaggio – Sezione archeologica ‟Enrico Bianchetti” in Ornavasso.

Two consecutive names in Celtic inscriptions are usually a name formula with individual name and patronym, but Amaśillū doesn't look like a father's name. It has been suggested that Oledū, written in smaller letters, is the name of another person which was (somewhat sloppily) added at a later point.

🏺 The two names ⟨oletu⟩ Ol(l)edū and ⟨amaśilu⟩ Amaśillū are inscribed on the shoulder of a well-preserved flask from the Ornavasso necropolis (Piemonte), dated to 100–50 BC. Both names are etymologically Celtic – Ol(l)edū maybe from ollo- 'great', Amaśillū possibly amb(i)-ađ-illo- (meaning unclear).

photo by: Suzan van de Velde

A special class today in my Ancient Celtic course at the Leiden Summer School. Instead of a lecturing hall, we were welcomed in the sacred halls of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Antiquities Museum @rmoudheden.bsky.social) where the students were allowed to view the Lepontic inscription TI·6.
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See lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/VB%C2%B... and the related pages for details and literature. Photo ©LexLep. The cup is on exhibition in the Museo del Paesaggio – Sezione archeologica ‟Enrico Bianchetti” in Ornavasso.

... what happend at the end of the inscription – the second sigma's top is elongated; the upper curve of the first sigma is extended into a half-moon shape, and a horizontal line crosses it on top. An aesthetic choice? A ligature? A writing mistake?

🏺 This pretty terra sigillata cup from the Giubiasco necropolis (Ticino), dated to 25–50 AD, is inscribed with the sequence ⟨atiss⟩ in the Latin alphabet. This is likely an abbreviation of a Celtic personal name like CIL XIII 7553 atisso, RIG M-56 atisios, though it is not quite clear ...

News - Major Celtic Settlement Discovered in Czech Republic - Archaeology Magazine HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ, CZECH REPUBLIC—Prior to construction of a highway through eastern Bohemia, archaeologists unearthed a […]

Major Celtic Settlement Discovered in Czech Republic.
archaeology.org/news/2025/07...

🚨 NEW podcast episode out now! 🎙️ "Mind, Language and Law in Medieval Ireland" with Dr Viktoriia Krivoshchekova, an O’Donovan postdoctoral scholar in the School of Celtic Studies. 🎧 Watch on YouTube + listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or on browser: www.dias.ie/series/ni-ha... ✨

Just published "Foundational approaches to Celtic linguistics" edited by Andrew Carnie, Diane Ohala, Dee Hunter, Samantha Prins, Mike Hammond & Luis A. Irizarry #openaccess #cicl langsci-press.org/catalog/book...

'Quoth', although archaic, is better known nowadays than its present-tense counterpart: 'queath'.

The two go back to Old English cweþan 'to say'. From this, Old English derived becweþan 'to assert'.

While obsolete on its own, you can still find 'queath' in the modern form of becweþan: 'bequeath'.

See lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/TI%C2%B... and the related pages for details and literature. Photo from LexLep ©Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum Zürich. The pot is currently on loan to the Museo Castello di Montebello in Bellinzona.

... the name appears to be derived with a suffix -ello-; the form of the base could be rub-, rup-, run- or rund-. All these options find comparanda in Transalpine Gaul (e.g. Rubellinus, Rundo, the coin legend Rupios, and names with the base rūn- 'secret' such as Runa, Runnius and Cobrunus).

🏺 The name ⟨rupelos⟩ or ⟨runelos⟩ is inscribed in the Lepontic alphabet on the shoulder of a pot from the Giubiasco necropolis (CH), dated to the late 2nd or 1st c. BC. The third letter features a short vertical scratch which may not be intentional, so that it could be pi or nu. In either case, ...

My photo shows a circa 2,000 year-old Roman cast glass ribbed bowl composed of translucent blue-green and opaque white mosaic glass. It has a plain rounded rim and sides curving in to the bottom. On the exterior below the rim are sixteen evenly spaced vertical ribs. The bowl is placed on a textured grey surface in a museum display case which lights up the bowl so it looks like it contains swirling turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Dimensions: height 5.8 cm, diameter 11.5 cm.

Something lovely for the weekend! 🩵

A stunning 2,000 year old Roman bowl made of translucent blue-green mosaic glass.

Looks like it contains the turquoise blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea! 🌊

Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart 📷 by me

#Archaeology

A Runestone That May Be North America’s Oldest Turns Up in a Canada Forest

A Runestone That May Be North America’s Oldest Turns Up in a Canada Forest www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/w...

🚨 Celtica is now available open-access! This is the result of painstaking work going on behind the scenes since 2022. Issues 33 to 36 (2021–24) are now online, and future issues will appear online & in print. We will also digitize the back issues of the journal.
🔗 journals.dias.ie/index.php/ce...

"Designing sustainable Digital Editions." This is a lightly revised version of a talk I gave at the Digital Epigraphy Workshop in Maynooth on 26 May 2025. Many thanks to Nora White for the invitation and to the audience for discussion and feedback. www.pmoran.ie/posts/sustai...

Day 1 of the Cisalpine Celtic Colloquium is over. We had talks about the non-equation of genes, archaeology and languages, local theonyms and and a lot about morphology and syntax. [sorry, not 📷]

The inscriptions from Carona (lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/Carona) continued to be THE hot topic.
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See lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/VA%C2%B... and the related pages for details and literature, esp. Daniele Maras, 'La coppa iscritta della collezione Bellini', in Ziχu 5 (2023), 129–135. Photos from LexLep ©SABAP-CO. The bowl is on exhibition in the Museo Civico Archeologico in Sesto Calende.

In the Lepontic alphabet, this works orthographically, and linguistically ⟨iatuini⟩ is a plausible Celtic form. The reason why I call it only "potentially" the oldest inscription is that the marks are very faint, so that some leaps of faith are necessary to reach this reading in the first place.

🏺 Pictured below is the potentially oldest Celtic inscription we currently know. It is written on a ceramic bowl from 650–625 BC from the Golasecca necropolis near Lago Maggiore. Maras, who published it in 2023, read a personal name in the genitive ⟨iatuini⟩ i̯antu-u̯ind-ī 'of Iantuuindos'.

The final preliminary programme for the 2nd Cisalpine Celtic Colloquium in @ceilteachomn.bsky.social @maynoothuniversity.ie @muahi.bsky.social coming Thursday and Friday.

More info: lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/Colloqu...

2nd Cisalpine Celtic Colloquium

29-30 May 2025
Room 1.33, Iontas Building @muahi.bsky.social
Dept.of Early Irish @ceilteachomn.bsky.social
Maynooth University

All welcome; zoom available
More info: lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/Colloqu...