Matronae Albiahenae
The Albiahenae are matrons that have been handed down through four dedicatory inscriptions from the 2nd / 3rd century from Elvenich , Euskirchen district .
Discovery and Inscriptions
The consecration stones were acquired by the Bonn Provincial Museum around 1862 from a Cologne antiques dealer, who assured that the stones come from Ober-Elvenich near Zülpich and were found there in the corridor in the "Heidenfelde" and probably because of their hewn, fragmentary condition as spoils for they were used as grave walls from late antiquity / migration times.
"[Matronis] Albia / [henis 3] tiae / [3] vera / [v (otum) s (olvit)] l (ibens) [m (erito)]"
"[Albi] ahenis / [3 Da] gionius / [Ro] manus (?) Et (?) / [L] ucilius Da / [g] ionius Su / [p] er v (otum) s (olverunt) l ( ibentes) m (erito) "
"Albiahen [is] / Macrin [ius] / [3] VI ["
"A] lbiahenis / [S] uperini [us] / [I] ustin [us] / [v (otum)] s (olvit) [l (ibens) m (erito)]"
The names of the dedicants suggest a native Romanized Ubic origin. The forms Dagionius belong to the Celtic layer of the traditional names of the Ubier and are derived from the Celtic dago- = "good" (cf. female name "Dagina"). The patronymic icon "Macrinius" shows the -inius ending on the basis of Roman gentile names, which is relevant for the Lower Rhine spectrum .
Epithet and interpretation
The surname belongs to the group of matron surnames that show the suffix -nehae , which is a Germanic derivative of the Celtic place name suffix -iacum and therefore belongs to the large group of surnames after a place name (toponym). Gutenbrunner therefore constructed the Celtic model * Albiacum (from which today's Elvenich). This interpretation of Gutenbrunner has established itself with partly different functional interpretations of the Albiahenae .
Based on Hans Krahe's contributions to ancient European hydronomy (names of waters), Günter Neumann considers a derivation of the Albiniehae from a water name to be possible and includes the evidence of the Almaviahenae , Aumenahenae , Nersihenae and Renahenae . Krahe had pointed out that the same water body names, or their root words, often appear in supraregional contexts. Neumann compares the tribe Albi- with that in the name of the Elbe , as well as analogously the tribes of the Nesinehae and Almaviahenae ( Nersi- , Alma- ) with the river names of the Niers and Alme .
As a result of older research (Gutenbrunner), Theo Vennemann derives the name strictly from a Gallo-Roman place name * Albiniiacum , which was possibly formed from a hydronymic stem * Alb-a . From the intermediate form of a Gallo-Roman matron's surname * Albiacinae , which he adopted, the traditional Latinized Germanic form of the surname was formed by the ubic dedicants.
Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel interprets the epithet as a Celtic-Germanic compound with the meaning as matrons “who belong to this world”.
According to Simek, the function of the Matronae Albiahenae is to provide protection, blessings and preservation for the rural vicus / villa (native Romanised) population of the southern Germania inferior and especially for the settlement, which is continued by the name of today's place name Elvenich.
See also
literature
- Siegfried Gutenbrunner : The Germanic god names of the ancient inscriptions. Max Niemeyer, Halle an der Saale 1936, p. 188 ff.
- Hans Krahe : On some names of West Germanic goddesses. In: Contributions to name research . Volume 13, 1962, pp. 268-276.
- Günter Neumann : Die Germanic Matronenbeinamen [Matronen and related gods (1987), pp. 103-132. Supplements to the Bonner Jahrbücher 44] . In: Astrid van Nahl, Heiko Hettrich (Hrsg.): Günter Neumann - Name studies on Old Germanic (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskund ). tape 59 . de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-020100-0 , pp. 262–263 ( Germanic antiquity online at De Gruyter online for a fee ).
- Ders .: matrons. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 19, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017163-5 , pp. 438-440.
- Rudolf Simek : Religion and Mythology of the Teutons. WBG, Darmstadt 2003, p. 123.
- Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , pp. 6, 123.
- Theo Vennemann : Morphology of the Lower Rhine matron names . In: Edith Marold , Christiane Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Nordwestgermanisch (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ). tape 13 . de Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 1995, ISBN 978-3-11-014818-3 , pp. 272-291; here 277, 281 ( fee-based Germanic antiquity online at de Gruyter).
- Ders .: The Ubic Matronae Albiahenae and the Celto-Roman Mercurius Cimiacinus. With an appendix about the Weißenburger Mercurius Pro [i] tium *. In: Contributions to name research . New Series, Volume 28, 1993, pp. 271-300.
Web links
- Images of the inscriptions in the Clauss-Slaby epigraphic database :
- Database entries in FERCAN. (Fontes epigraphici religionum Celticarum antiquarum) Project: Celtic god names in the inscriptions of the Roman province Germania Inferior
