Gallaeker

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Evidence of Romanization: memorial stone inscribed in Latin for Galläker

The Gallaeker or Galläker ( Kallaiker , from ancient Greek Καλλαικοί Kallaikoí , Latin Gallaici or Gallaeci ) were a Celtic- influenced ethnic group that settled in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula in ancient times . Their settlement area was named Gallaecia by the Romans , which lives on in the name of today's region of Galicia .

Language, name

The Gallaekers were probably partly Celtic-speaking and probably emerged from the Celtization of Indo-European predecessor cultures. Possibly the Celtic influence was limited to a relatively thin military aristocracy. The Gallaekers are not to be counted among the Celtiberians in the sense of the Celtic- Iberian contact culture, which is located further east . Just like the Lusitans , who are closely related to them , their language showed a more or less strong Celtic influence, but there are only a few language certificates that also date from times long before the Romanization.

The Greek tribal name Kallaikoí was probably derived from the Urindo-European root word * kalla- . It means height , mountain , so it would mean * kallaiko- "inhabitant of a height, mountain inhabitant". This etymology is also confirmed by Strabo (Gēographiká, III, 3,2), who mentions “the Gallaekers who mainly live in the mountainous region”.

Settlement area

The residential area of ​​the Gallaekers, called Gallaecia since Diocletian , extended in the northwest of the peninsula to present-day Galicia, northern Portugal to the Douro , western Asturias and western León . This corresponds to the extent of the Iron Age Castro culture , which, however, left hardly any evidence in Galicia itself. It is therefore conceivable that the Gallaekers did not live in what is now Galicia. A connection between northern Portugal and today's Galicia, on the other hand, is formed by the peculiar (probably Celtic) Lusitan-Gallaec warrior figures from pre-Roman times and possibly also the wild boar cult , which in any case links today's Portuguese areas of Gallaecia with the Celtic zones of influence further south.

The Romans divided the area into two administrative units, in the north conventus Lucensis with the capital Lucus Augustus and in the south conventus Bracarensis with the capital Bracara Augusta (today Braga ). There were a total of 105 cities in the region, including Citânia de Briteiros (near Guimarães ), Citânia de Sanfins (near Paços de Ferreira ) and the Cidade de Monte Mozinho (near Penafiel ). With the ancient authors the population of the Bracarensis is mentioned with 285,000, the Lucensis is mentioned with 16,000, whereby here only the "free" (men) were counted. According to the same source, the Lucensians are said to have counted 166,000 people with women and children.

history

Around 139 BC BC, in the time of Quintus Servilius Caepio , the Romans first came into contact with the Gallaekern; the proconsul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus fought from 138 to 136 BC. Against the tribe, which he could not completely subjugate. further campaigns took place from 96 to 94 BC. By Publius Licinius Crassus and from 61 to 60 BC. By the then propraetor and governor of the province of Hispania , Gaius Iulius Caesar . A Romanization was initiated, but never fully carried out, as the Romans were primarily interested in the routes to the Gallaec ore deposits and in smooth removal. Above all, the Lucensian Gallaekers, feared for their martial skills, who lived in the inhospitable mountains of Galicia, remained less Romanized than their Bracarensian tribesmen.

The Gallaekers were a group of tribes or peoples split up into numerous populi , with each populus numbering around ten to twelve thousand people. The Gallaekers were said to have no god of their own. Strabon ( Geographika 3, 4, 16) also mentions a "nameless god" to whom the Celtiberians sacrifice and perform cult dances for him during the full moon. In addition, various natural gods and the Matres Gallaicae (inscription from Clunia , today's Peñalba de Castro in Huerta de Rey ) are known. In Roman times there were also some galaico-Roman deities, such as the Iuppiter Candamius . The Egyptian Serapis and the Iranian Mithras were also worshiped.

The leader of the self-sufficient settlement groups connected by kinship was a war chief who was supported by a council of elders. The warriors held an important position in the tribe. Women played an important role in the cohesion of families and clans, and there was likely to have been predominantly matrilineal inheritance . The economy was based on agriculture, livestock farming and fishing. Mining in the ore mines and a famous goldsmith's art were also important industries; the exploitation of tin, tungsten and gold deposits and the processing of gold jewelry are archaeologically secured for the pre-Roman times. Another specific feature of Gallaecia is an Iron Age ceramics decorated with a stamp, which otherwise only appears in narrowly defined areas of discovery in Europe (central Spain, early La Tène culture , Brittany ).

See also

literature

  • Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , pp. 154, 159.
  • Susanne Sievers , Otto H. Urban , Peter C. Ramsl (eds.): Lexicon for Celtic Archeology (= communications of the prehistoric commission , vol. 73). Volume 1 (A – K), Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-7001-6765-5 , pp. 588–590.
  • Antonio Tovar : Iberian regional studies. Part Two: The Peoples and Cities of Ancient Hispania. Koerner, Baden-Baden 1974, ISBN 978-3-87320-812-4 .
  • Alain Tranoy: La Galice romaine. Research on the north-east of the peninsule ibérique dans l'Antiquité . Boccard, Paris 1981.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günter Holtus u. a. (Ed.): Lexicon of Romance Linguistics (LRL), Volume 6.2 (Galegic, Portuguese), Tübingen 1994, p. 81.
  2. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Vienna 1997, pp. 159-160.
  3. ↑ a b Susanne Sievers u. a. (Ed.): Lexicon for Celtic Archeology (LKA), Volume 1, Vienna 2012, pp. 588–590.
  4. ↑ a b Teresa Gamito Júdice ( University of Algarve ): The Celts in Portugal. Online publication 2005 (translated and updated version of this: Les celtes et le Portugal , in: Aquitania Vol. 7 (1994), pp. 415-430).
  5. ↑ Pliny : Naturalis Historia 3, 3, 28.
  6. ↑ Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 171.
  7. ↑ Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 162.
  8. ↑ Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 591.
  9. ↑ CIL II, 2776 T (erentius?) Fraternus / Matribus / Gallaicis / v (otum) s (olvit) l (ibens) m (erito) ; Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 516.