Sunuker

The Sunuker or Sunuci are a West Germanic tribe with strong keltisierter leadership, the settlement area on the 1st and 2nd century in what is now the Rhineland between Aachen and Julich was. Her tribal goddess is Sunuxal .

Since almost all the inscriptions of their tribe goddess are in the area of ​​the Ubier , it is assumed that the Ubier are the successors of the Sunuker or that the Sunuker are a split off tribe of the Ubier.

The Roman officer Pliny the Elder mentions the Sunukes as allies of the Tungrians in Belgerland in his " Naturalis historia " . In Tacitus ' history they appear briefly when describing the Batavian rebellion in AD 69 and 70. The last mention comes from the time of Emperor Hadrian (117-138) as a cohort under the supreme command of Cantifanus, son of Albanus: Coh. I. Sun (u) cor - ex pedite C (a) ntifani, Albani (filii), (Su) nuco.

Surname

The origin of the name is uncertain; is suspected

• Indo-European * su- (= pig; cf. Latin sus pig, suinus des Schweins) and
• Indo-European * seu- (= to give birth; cf. Gothic sunus son).

The first option underlines the high esteem and even holiness of the pig among the Celts and Teutons.

The second possibility is interpreted in such a way that the Sunuker split off from the old tribe as a new young team due to overpopulation.

Deities

The tribal goddess of the Sunuker was Sunuxal

literature

• Hermann Reichert :  Teutons on the left bank of the Rhine. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 18, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-016950-9 , pp. 483-494.
• Walter Kaemmerer: The past . In: Eschweiler in its history . Eschweiler 1964, p. 65 ff.