#FindsFriday #Celtic: `The inscription in Latin characters refers to the people whose name has been preserved by the city of Reims, which was one of their main oppida. The three busts may suggest a political regime of a triumvirate, as Rome experienced on two occasions in the 1st century BCE.`
Source: Le musée de Bibracte

#FindsFriday: `Drawing of a Celtiberian inscription of central Spain based on Untermann 1997. It records a language of the #Celtic family that is distinct from Gaulish. Most Celtiberian inscriptions use the Iberian alphabet, borrowed from the peoples of Spain’s Mediterranean coast who had themselves adapted it from the Phoenician alphabet to write their language which did not belong to the Indo-European family. The reading of the Guadalajara plaque is uncertain.`
Source: Le musée de Bibracte

#FindsFriday #Celtic: `These exceptional inscriptions in the Gallic language indicate, on the one hand, the denomination of the coin (“half-as of the Lexovian people”) and, on the other, the names and titles of two magistrates. Cisiambos is a vergobretos, the supreme magistrate; Maupennos is an argantodannos, the official responsible for the mint. According to Caesar, the vergobret, appointed for one year, has the power of life and death over his fellow citizens.`
Source: Le musée de Bibracte

#FindsFriday #Celtic: Drawing of a Gallo-Latin inscription: "Martialis, son of Dannotalos, dedicated this building to Ucuetis and to the Torgerons who worship Ucuetis at Alesia"
Discovered in 1839 and linked to a public building subsequently unearthed on Mont-Auxois, this inscription reveals the ancient name of the site. It was not until the end of the 1st century BCE that the Latin alphabet supplanted the Greek alphabet for writing the Gallic language. This practice continued into the 1st century CE, which shows that the Gallic language remained alive for a long timedespite its exclusion from official use.`
Source: Le musée de Bibracte

Is that dark brown jug from Crustumerium or elsewhere in central Italy? Gravegoods allegedly from Etruria. In the Etruscan exhibition in the Antikmuseet in Aarhus. #FindsFriday

#FindsFriday #Celtic: `Coin use can also be mapped politically, as allied tribes would often mint coins which were similar in style and weight. Caesar counted around sixty tribes between the Pyrenees and the Rhine, which he categorised into regional groups as the Aquitani, the Celtæ, and the Belgae. Maps showing the political distribution of these tribes and those showing where coins were issued during the first century BC overlap relatively closely. The situation to the east of the Rhine and more generally within Central Europe is much less clear, both because fewer coins were minted here, and because of a lack of first-hand accounts of the region, in comparison to the detailed description of Gaul given by Caesar.`
Photo: `This strongly Romanised coin illustrates the early assimilation of the populations of the eastern Languedoc, who were incorporated into the territory of Nîmes.`
Source: Le musée de Bibracte

#FindsFriday #Celtic: `The coins used within the Oppida network during the second and first centuries BC clearly demonstrate the extent to which these settlements were independent of each other. Issuers were careful to distinguish their own coins from those of their neighbours, both in terms of size and in the images depicted on the coins. As a result, thousands of different types of coins were used. This diversity led to a wealth of stylistic creativity, visible especially in the wide range of hairstyles pictured on the faces of the coins.`
Photo: `The inscription, in Latin, refers to one of the principal Aquitanian chieftains, Adituanus, who is mentioned by Caesar (De Bello Gallico, III, 22–23). He is here described as King of the Sotiates.`
Source: Le musée de Bibracte

#FindsFriday #Celtic: `Coins were a diplomatic, political and economic tool, making them an invaluable source of information about late Iron Age societies. Tribes minted their own coins, stamping them with a wide variety of images. The different images allowed the issuing powers to be distinguished from their neighbours. The images shown on the different coins demonstrated economic and political alliances. The geographical distribution of a particular type of coin illustrates its issuer's area of influence while the inscriptions on the coins provide the names of these issuers.`
Photo: These two coins refer to #Dumnorix, one of the most prominent figures among the Aedui people, whom Caesar had assassinated. The images on the reverse depict a Gallic soldier from the time of the Gallic Wars carrying a long sword and a standard in the shape of a boar. In one instance, he is also brandishing trophies: a war trumpet and a severed head.
Source: Le musée de Bibracte

#FindsFriday #Celtic: `Coins came into common usage in continental Europe in the second century BC. Their use spread from Mediterranean and particularly Greek societies. At the time when Bibracte was founded, many regions were using a bi- or tri-metal system involving copper alloys, silver and, occasionally, gold. By this time, monetisation of the economy was as advanced as in Rome and Greek towns.`
Photo: `Only two dozen coins minted in the name of #Vercingetorix are known to exist, found in the Auvergne region and at the site of Alesia. The amphora depicted on the reverse highlights the importance of the wine trade from Roman Italy.`
Source: Le musée de Bibracte

An Etruscan bronze spindle with three spindle whorls. These spindles were female status items and showed the value of textile making. From the Etruscan exhibition in the Aarhus Antikmuseet. #FindsFriday