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The Lepontii were an ancient
Celtic people[1][2] occupying portions of
Rhaetia (in modern
Switzerland and
Northern Italy) in the
Alps during the late Bronze Age/Iron Age. Recent archeological excavations and their association with the
Golasecca culture (9th-7th centuries BC) and
Canegrate culture (13th century BC)[3] point to a Celtic affiliation. From the analysis of their language[4] and the place names of the old Lepontic areas,[5] it was hypothesized that these people represent a layer similar to that Celtic but previous to the Gallic penetration in the Po valley. The suggestion has been made that the Lepontii may have been celticized
Ligurians.[6]
The chief towns of the Lepontii were Oscela, now
Domodossola, Italy, and Bilitio, now
Bellinzona, Switzerland. Their territory included the southern slopes of the
St. Gotthard Pass and
Simplon Pass, corresponding roughly to present-day
Ossola and
Ticino.
A
map of Rhaetia shows the location of the Lepontic territory, in the south-western corner of Rhaetia. The area to the south, including what was to become the
Insubrian capital
Mediolanum (modern
Milan), was
Etruscan around 600-500 BC, when the Lepontii began writing tombstone inscriptions in their alphabet, one of several Etruscan-derived alphabets in the Rhaetian territory.
^Sciarretta, Antonio (2010). Toponomastica d'Italia. Nomi di luoghi, storie di popoli antichi. Milano: Mursia. pp. 143–173.
ISBN978-88-425-4017-5.
^The Cambridge Ancient History: Plates, New ed. University Press. 1988. p. 718.
Sources
Piana Agostinetti P. 1972, Documenti per la protostoria della Val d’Ossola. San Bernardo d’Ornavasso e le altre necropoli preromane, Milano.
Tibiletti Bruno, M. G. (1978). "Ligure, leponzio e gallico". In Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica vi, Lingue e dialetti, ed. A. L. Prosdocimi, 129–208.
Rome: Biblioteca di Storia Patria.
Tibiletti Bruno, M. G. (1981). "Le iscrizioni celtiche d'Italia". In I Celti d'Italia, ed. E. Campanile, 157–207.
Pisa: Giardini.
ULRICH-BANSA O.1957, Monete rinvenute nelle necropoli di Ornavasso, in “Rivista Italiana di Numismatica”, LIX, pp. 6–69.
Whatmough, J. (1933). The Prae-Italic Dialects of Italy, vol. 2, The Raetic, Lepontic, Gallic, East-Italic, Messapic and Sicel Inscriptions.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
AA.VV. and Prosdocimi, A.L. (1991). I Celti, pag.50-60, Lingua e scrittura dei primi Celti. Bompiani.
AA.VV. and De Marinis, R.C. (1991). I Celti, capìtol I Celti Golasecchiani. Bompiani.
Stifter, D. 2020. Cisalpine Celtic. Language, Writing, Epigraphy. Aelaw Booklet 8. Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza.
Stifter, D. 2020. «
Cisalpine Celtic», Palaeohispanica 20: 335–365.