Naming the Provincial Landscape: Settlement and Toponymy in Ancient Catalunya, Hispania Antiqua 35 (2011), 301-320 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Place-names of the Ebro Valley: Their Linguistic Origins, Palaeohispanica 8 (2008), 13-33
The upper and middle reaches of the Ebro river, approximately coterminous with the conventus Caesaraugustanus of the Roman period, are well known in earlier times as a sort of frontier for Celtic-speaking peoples, a zone in which the Celtiberians interacted with speakers of non-Celtic languages such as Basque and Iberian, and one or more unidentified Indo-European (hereafter IE) tongues. 1 Place-names constitute an important set of data for studying the linguistic origins of this region. However, the degree to which these toponyms are Celtic or non-Celtic has long been a subject of scholarly disagreement. Thus W. von Humboldt thought that Alavona, Balsione, Bortinae, Caravis, Curnonium, Leonica, Salduie and the mountains Edulium and Idubeda were Basque (Humboldt 1879: 50-65). To this list of supposed Basque names, Aracelium, Bituris, Iturissa, Muscaria and Tarraga were added by A. Campión (1907: 296; 1908: 271-272, 750-753). A. Schulten (1930: 374) considered that Cortonum was Etruscan; J. Pokorny (1938: 151) believed that the lake Perusiae and the river Salo were Illyrian; while A. Dauzat (1926-27: 221) opined that Calagurris was very probably Ligurian. 2 More recently, García Alonso (1994) has concluded that many of the toponyms of the Autrigones were Celtic, though a few were pre-Celtic IE. On the other hand, in a study of 29 pre-Roman toponyms of Navarra and northern Aragón, Villar determined that 25 were IE and only two Celtic (Villar and Prósper 2005: 504). The confusion generated by such conflicting results calls for a new, global examination of the place-names of the upper and middle Ebro valley. 3 I begin with mountains and rivers, passing on to ----1 Funding for this project was generously provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I wish to thank the anonymous referees of this journal for helpful suggestions, as well as Thomas Edward Butcher and Margaret McCarthy for their help in tracking down linguistic roots and ancient references. Abbreviations: AcS = Holder 1896-1907; AE = L'Année Epigraphique; CIL = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum; DIL = Dictionary of the Irish Language (Dublin, 1913-76); HEp. = Hispania Epigraphica; IEW = Pokorny 1959. LEIA = Vendryes, Bachellery and Lambert 1959-. 2 "Perusia" was Schulten's improbable emendation of Turasia, no doubt inspired by Perusia in Etruria. 3 I exclude the lower reaches of the Ebro, which lie in Cataluña and comprise chiefly Iberian toponyms, which are not germane to the Celtic versus IE debate.
Material traces of past cultures as a motive for the creation of Spanish place names
Onomastica LXVI, 2022, 2022
SUMMARY Place names referencing the material traces of past cultures are relatively common in the microto-ponymy, of Spanish-speaking areas. Since they were created by rural speech communities completely lacking in historical and archaeological culture, they make it possible to reconstruct how realities of archaeological interest (fragments of tools and building materials, ruins of buildings, dolmens, menhirs, tombs, old coins, inscriptions, engraved or painted cave art, among others) were popu-larly perceived and interpreted long before becoming objects of scientific study. Taking an exten-sive toponymic corpus as its starting point, this paper presents an exhaustive classification of such names, differentiating those of a purely descriptive nature from those intended to provide answers to questions concerning the origins, age, and purpose of the enigmatic discoveries. This toponomastic analysis facilitates the rigorous study of the process of onymic creation and its underlying motives.
Celtic and Other Languages in Ancient Europe, pp. 83-100, 2008
Both the meeting "Celtic and Neighbouring Languages across Ancient Europe", held in Salrunanca in May 2006, and this book, were possible thanks to two generous grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education (Acción complementaria HUM2005-25468-E) and the Junta de Castilla y León, respectively, as well as to a very kind help by the British Board of Arts and Humanities. I also thank Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and the Servicio de Idiomas of the University for their help and easy access in order to ensure the final product. I wn sure it is me, not them, who is responsible for any inconsistency that may be discovered. To the authors, thanks again.
RHGT - Review of Historical Geography and Toponomastics, 2024
The Celtic nature of pre-Roman Galicia and during the Roman occupation is increasingly accepted as a fact in academic circles. Around 50 per cent of Galicia's toponyms have their etymology in the Celtic language. This Celtic language spoken in Galicia, the Galaican, would not be related to Gaulish (Brittonic) but would be close to Irish (Gaelic). I suggest the first fully Celtic solution for the toponym Libredón (Santiago de Compostela), which I attest based on historical data from a related toponym, published by the Galician philologist Cabeza Quiles. I review the possible etymology of Arcis Marmoricis (Latin) and suggest a new etymology to Achaia Marmarica (Greek). My interpretation of the main toponyms related to the Libredón hill in Santiago de Compostela correctly describes the topography, hydrography and building that probably existed in Libredón during the Galaican era there. This match leads me to think that my suggestions would have a good level of feasibility. Based on these investigations, at the end of this article I try to discern Compostela now stands. Galicia is a region that had a vigorous Celtic culture. Therefore, if there was a pre-Christian sanctuary in the Libredón to observe the solstices and equinoxes, it was most probably consecrated to Lug. Being a funerary hill, the Libredón would have been the dwelling place of Dôn, the Gaelic deity of death. The Galician legend of the Queen Lupa may bear traces of the veneration to the moon. I hope this article contributes to the debate on these relevant topics in the Celtic pre-Roman history of Santiago de Compostela.
"Ptolemy and the Expansion of Celtic Language(s) in Ancient Hispania"
New Approaches to Celtic Place Names in Ptolemy’s Geography, Javier de Hoz y Eugenio Luján, eds., Madrid, 135-152, 2005
The main aim of the group of researchers that attended the workshop in Madrid in September 2002 is to contribute to an advance in the knowledge of the history of the expansion of Celtic speech throughout Ancient Europe. The method used by the group in order to achieve this is a linguistic analysis of the ancient place names of the are a known to us thanks to various sources. In this paper, after reflecting briefly on the difficulties of the process of both the analysis and the classification that follows it, the author introduces the names of a wide area of Western and Central Hispania as a case study, together with maps, classifications and conclusions. RESUMEN.-El objetivo principal del grupo de investigadores que participaron en la reunión celebrada en Madrid en septiembre de 2002 es contribuir al avance en el conocimiento de la historia de la expansión de las lenguas celtas por la Europa antigua. El método seguido por el grupo para lograr dicho objetivo es el análisis lingüístico de los topónimos antiguos del área conocidos a través de fuentes diversas. En este trabajo, después de una breve reflexión sobre las dificultades que plantean tanto el análsis como la subsiguiente clasificación, el autor presenta como ejemplo los nombres de una amplia área de la Hispania occidental y central, acompañados de mapas, clasificaciones y conclusiones.