Ambilini
The Ambilici or Ambilini ( lat. ), The inhabitants of the Gail , the Gailtaler , were an originally Celtic or strongly Celtic old European tribe in the Kingdom of Noricum ( Regnum Noricum ) or the later Roman province of the same name . The tribal area presumably comprised the entire Gailtal including the upper reaches, the Lesach Valley , a valley running from west to east in the districts of Hermagor and Villach-Land in Carinthia / Austria . The tribal name, which seems to be constructed from Ambi and Lici or Lini , can be used as a political integration measure for the long-established Illyrians and those from the 3rd century BC onwards. Newly immigrated Celtic Tauriskans can be seen in the emerging Regnum Noricum. The river name Gail goes back to Illyrian Gē'lias / Gailias , which means "the overflowing, the inundating". In late antiquity, the river is called Licas / Licus / Lica in Latin . The river Lech , which flows through Tyrol and southern Bavaria, was also named that way. Licus is etymologically synonymous with Gail and is based on the Indo-European root (v) leiqu - for "wet, liquid". The name makes it much easier to tie the tribal area to a particular landscape than with the Helvetii or Uperaci.
The Ambilici are from the 2nd century BC. Mentioned in Roman sources until the 1st century AD. They belong to the first ethnic groups in Carinthia that can be identified by name. To date, there are no written records of this ethnic group. The tribal name as well as those of other Celtic tribes in Noricum are known from the world map Geographike Hyphegesis by Claudius Ptolemy created in 150 . On three honorary inscriptions for members of the Roman imperial family that were found on the Magdalensberg , eight native Celtic tribes are named as donors, whereby the AMBILINI and AMBILIKOI come second after the NORICI and before the AMBIDR (avi). This can be interpreted as an indication of the great importance of the tribe, which, in addition to the Gailtal, probably also controlled the Canal Valley , and thus controlled important transport routes for mining products from Noricum to Italy.
The name, “on both sides of the Gail residents”, clearly indicates their living space. The western neighboring tribes in the South Tyrolean Pustertal and East Tyrolean Drautal were the Saevaten and the Laiancer , who still resonate in the name of Lienz . The northern neighbors were the Ambidravi , whose tribal area presumably included the Upper and Lower Drautal between Oberdrauburg and Villach and their northern side valleys. The Norici settled in the northeast .
One, if not the most important rulership of the Ambilians, was the settlement on the Gurina (ancient name previously unknown), a spacious terrace at the foot of the Jauken in the municipality of Dellach in the Gailtal, which shows traces of settlement since the Neolithic Age . It is currently assumed that the ancient prosperity of the place is due to the geographically good location on the ancient long-distance connections over the Alps and less to the mining (lead, copper and galme ore ). The Gurina settlement lies on the way from the salt mining centers of the Northern Alps (Hallein, Hallstatt), which led via the Plöckenpass to Northern Italy to the Venetians and Etruscans . The time of the most intensive settlement of the Gurina lies in the two centuries around the birth of Christ. In terms of climate history, the brief appearance of the Ambilici falls in a warm phase, the optimum of the Roman era , when the annual mean temperature was 1 to 1.5 degrees above today's value. This increase can be shown, among other things, on the basis of a pollen analysis of Lake Millstatt , which is a little further north . It is not known whether Santicum ( Villach ) still belonged to the tribal area.
The geographically firmly bound, describing a natural landscape, but at the same time seeming constructed name is not the original tribal name. In the Eastern Alps, similar tribal names accumulate only from the 3rd century BC onwards. Immigrant Celtic tribes. This new formation can be seen against the background of integration measures for the long-established Illyrians and the newly immigrated Tauriskians in the emerging Regnum Noricum. Dobesch sees Ambilici and Ambilini as different tribes.
The lack of corresponding archaeological finds suggests that the Ambilici did not revolt against the Roman occupation and were very cooperative. The precious metal trade with the Romans was attractive. The business contacts could have developed in the last two decades BC. BC, probably also under military pressure, and especially from 15 BC. Italian entrepreneurs, traders and merchants seem to have become more involved in inland Noricum.
There are still no further findings on the cultural process of the “Romanization of the Ambilici”. Ultimately, they were assimilated by the Romans. How long the tribal organization of the Ambilici lasted is not known. The western neighbors, the civitas Saevatum et Laiancorum, are last mentioned in Claudian times.
Individual evidence
- ^ Eberhard Kranzmayer : Place name book of Carinthia . Part II, 1958, p. 77
- ↑ Ptolemy II, 13, 2 as Ambibilini . Map: EU project 2000: Transformation. The Emergence of a Common Culture in the Northern Provinces of the Roman Empire from Britain to the Black Sea up to 212 AD Illustration of Ptolemy's map , accessed on May 20, 2017
- ↑ Gernot Piccottini : On the Augustan honorary inscriptions. In: Carinthia , 195th year, Klagenfurt 2005, pp. 11–26.
- ↑ Cf. Christian Gugl: The area around Teurnia from the 2nd century BC. BC to the 1st century AD - A study of the settlement continuity from the Latène to the Roman times in the upper Drautal. 2000. At: http://members.yline.com/~ch.gugl/3_2.htm , accessed on May 20, 2017
- ↑ Peter Jablonka : The Gurina near Dellach in the Gailtal. Settlement, trading center and sanctuary . 2001, ISBN 3774929718
- ^ Adolf Fritz: 4000 years of human settlement activity as reflected in the pollen analysis. A pollen diagram from Lake Millstatt. In: History Association for Carinthia: Carinthia I. Journal for historical regional studies of Carinthia. 189th year, pp. 43-52, 1999
- ^ Gerhard Dobesch : The Celts in Austria according to the oldest reports of antiquity. Vienna, 1993 page 243 ff.