View source for Lepontii

{{Short description|Ancient Celtic people of the Alps}}
{{Expand Italian|Leponzi|date=April 2012}}
[[File:Römische Provinzen im Alpenraum ca 14 n Chr.png|thumb|right|300px|Map of the Alpine provinces as of AD 14, showing the position of the Lepontii within [[Rhaetia]] and north of [[Gallia Transpadana]]]]
[[File:Historische Karte CH Helvet.png|thumb|300px|[[Celts|Celtic]] (orange) and [[Rhaetic language|Rhaetic]] (green) settlements in [[Switzerland]]]] The '''Lepontii''' were an ancient [[Celts|Celtic]] people<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Walser|first=Gerold|date=2006|title=Lepontii|journal=Brill's New Pauly|doi=10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e701750|quote=A Celtic tribe in the Central Alps}}</ref><ref>John T. Koch (ed.) ''Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia'' ABC-CLIO (2005), pp. 1142–1143 {{ISBN|978-1-85109-440-0}}</ref> 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)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Percivaldi|first1=Elena|title=I Celti: una civiltà europea|date=2003|location=Firenze|pages=22}}</ref> point to a Celtic affiliation. From the analysis of their language<ref>M. Lejeune, Lepontica, Parigi 1971.</ref> and the place names of the old Lepontic areas,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sciarretta|first1=Antonio|title=Toponomastica d'Italia. Nomi di luoghi, storie di popoli antichi|year=2010|publisher=Mursia|location=Milano|isbn=978-88-425-4017-5|pages=143–173}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Ancient History: Plates, New ed.|date=1988|publisher=University Press|pages=718}}</ref>

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 [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Maps/Periods/Roman/Places/Europe/Rhaetia/1.html 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 [[Insubres|Insubrian]] capital [[Mediolanum]] (modern [[Milan]]), was [[Etruscan civilization|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.

==See also==
* [[Lepontic language]] 
* [[Canegrate culture]]
* [[Celts#Alps and Italy|Celts in the Alps and Po Valley]]
* [[Cisalpine Gaulish]]
* [[Golasecca culture]]
* [[Ancient peoples of Italy]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==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.&nbsp;6–69.
*{{cite book | author=Whatmough, J. | title=The Prae-Italic Dialects of Italy'', vol. 2, ''The Raetic, Lepontic, Gallic, East-Italic, Messapic and Sicel Inscriptions | location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] | publisher=Harvard University Press | year=1933 }} 
*{{cite book | author=AA.VV. and Prosdocimi, A.L. | title=''I Celti'', pag.50-60, ''Lingua e scrittura dei primi Celti'' | publisher=Bompiani| year=1991 }} 
*{{cite book | author=AA.VV. and De Marinis, R.C. | title=''I Celti,'' capìtol ''I Celti Golasecchiani''| publisher=Bompiani| year=1991 }}
*Stifter, D. 2020. ''Cisalpine Celtic. Language, Writing, Epigraphy''. Aelaw Booklet 8. Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza.
*Stifter, D. 2020. «[https://ifc.dpz.es/ojs/index.php/palaeohispanica/article/view/375 Cisalpine Celtic]», Palaeohispanica 20: 335–365.

{{Celts}}
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[[Category:Ancient peoples of Italy]]
[[Category:Historical Celtic peoples]]
[[Category:Golasecca culture]]

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