Coligny calendar: Encyclopedia - Coligny calendar

Coligny calendar

The Gaulish Coligny Calendar was found in Coligny, Ain, France (46°23′N 5°21′E) near Lyons in 1897, along with the head of a bronze statue of a youthful male figure. It is a lunisolar calendar.

It was engraved on a bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments, that originally was 1.48 m wide and 0.9 m high (Lambert p.111). Based on the style of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the 2nd century (Lambert p.111). It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals, and is in the Gaulish language (Duval & Pinault). The restored tablet contains sixteen vertical columns, with 62 months distributed over five years.

The French archaeologist J. Monard speculated that it was recorded by druids wishing to preserve their tradition of timekeeping in a time when the Julian calendar was imposed throughout the Roman Empire.

A similar calendar, found nearby at Villards d'Heria (46°25′N 5°44′E) is only preserved in eight small fragments. It is now preserved in the Musée d'Archéologie du Jura at Lons-le-Saunier.

Coligny calendar - System

The Continental Celtic calendar as reconstructed from the calendars of Coligny and Villards d'Heria had the following properties:

• it was a lunisolar calendar, attempting to synchronize the solar year and the lunar month.
• the months were lunar. Scholars disagree as to whether the start of the month was the new moon or the full moon.
• the common lunar year contained 354 or 355 days.
• the calendar year began with Samonios, which is usually assumed to correspond to Old Irish Samhain, giving an autumn start to the year. However, as Samon is Gaulish for summer (Lambert p.112), this assumed start is disputed. Le Contel and Verdier (1997) argue for a summer solstice start of the year. Monard (1999) argues for an autumn equinox start.
• the entry TRINVX[tion] SAMO[nii] SINDIV "three-nights of Samonios today") on the 17th of Samonios suggests that a festival of Samhain was considered to last for three nights.
• the solar year was approximated by the insertion of a 13th intercalary month every two and a half years (unlike the Islamic calendar, where the calendar year keeps shifting in relation to the solar year). The additional months were intercalated before Samonios in the first year, and between Cutios and Giamonios in the third year. The name of the first intercalary month is not known with certainty, the text being fragmentary; the second intercalary month is Ciallos bis Sonnocingos (Lambert p.116)
• the months were divided into two halves, the beginning of the second half marked with the term Atenoux. The basic unit of the Celtic calendar was thus the fortnight or half-month, as is also suggested in traces in Celtic folklore. The first half was always 15 days, the second half either 14 or 15 days on alternate months (similar to Hindu calendars).
• months of 30 days were marked Matos, lucky. Months of 29 days were marked Anmatos, unlucky.
• a simple five year cycle would be insufficiently accurate; the sequence of intercalary months is completed every thirty years, after five cycles of 62 lunations with two intercalary months each, and one cycle of 61 lunations, with a single intercalary month, or after a total of 11 intercalary months. This assumes that there are exactly 371 lunations in 30 years, which is accurate to a one day every 20 or 21 years on average (this is less accurate than the Julian calendar, which shifts a day in about 130 years, but which ignores lunar months). It may be assumed that the "30 years cycle" was not prescriptive, and that an extra month would have been omitted as the need arose (i.e. some 300 years after the calendar's inception).

The interpretation of atenoux as "returning night" is improbable (Delamarre p.58) and "renewing" would seem more probable; thus the month would start at new moon and atenoux would indicate the renewal, ie the full moon.

Coligny calendar - Gaulish calendar in historical sources

Coligny calendar - Pliny the Elder

The Natural History of Pliny the Elder states, in a discussion of Drudical gathering of mistletoe (Pliny NH 16.95):

The mistletoe, however, is but rarely found upon the robur; and when found, is gathered with rites replete with religious awe. This is done more particularly on the fifth day of the moon, the day which is the beginning of their months and years, as also of their ages, which, with them, are but thirty years. This day they select because the moon, though not yet in the middle of her course, has already considerable power and influence; and they call her by a name which signifies, in their language, the all-healing.

This comment supports the grouping of five-year Coligny calendar periods into thirty-year ages, with the loss of one intercalary month per age to more accurately align the solar and lunar cycles.

Coligny calendar - Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar in The Gallic Wars states (Caesar, DBG 6.18) that days, months, and years start with a dark half folowed by a light half.

All the Gauls assert that they are descended from the god Dis, and say that this tradition has been handed down by the Druids. For that reason they compute the divisions of every season, not by the number of days, but of nights; they keep birthdays and the beginnings of months and years in such an order that the day follows the night.

This is consistent with a month starting at the dark of the moon, or at the sixth day of the moon as with Pliny; it is inconsistent with a month starting at full moon, as mentioned in many Neopagan discussions of the Coligny calendar.

Coligny calendar - Months

The festivals of Beltane (Giammonios full moon) and Lughnasadh (Elembivios full moon) are indicated by small sigils [1]. A correspondence to Imbolc (Anagantios full moon) is not indicated.

Coligny calendar - Bibliography

• Duval, Paul-Marie and Pinault, Georges (eds) (1986). Receuil des Inscriptions Gauloises (R.I.G.), Vol. 3: Les calendriers du Coligny (73 fragments) et Villards d'Heria (8 fragments). Paris, Editions du CNRS.
• Hitz, Hans-Rudolf (1991). Der gallo-lateinische Mond- und Sonnen-Kalender von Coligny.
• Laine-Kerjean, C. (1943). "Le Calendrier Celtique". Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 23 pp.249-84.
• Mac Neill, Eóin (1928). "On the notation and chronology of the Calendar of Coligny". Ériu, X pp.1-67.
• Monard, Joseph (1996). About the Coligny Calendar. privately published monograph.
• Monard, Joseph (1996). Découpage saisonnier de l'année celtique. privately published monograph.
• Monard, Joseph (1999). Histoire du calendrier gaulois : le calendrier de Coligny. Paris, Burillier. ISBN 2-91261-601-8
• Olmstead, G. (1992). The Gaulish calendar: a reconstruction from the bronze fragments from Coligny, with an analysis of its function as a highly accurate lunar-solar predictor, as well as an explanation of its terminology and development. Bonn: R. Habelt. ISBN 3774925305
• Parisot, Jean-Paul (1985). "Les Phases de la Lune et les Saisons dans le Calendrier de Coligny". Studies Indo-Européennes 13 pp.1-18.
• Pinault, J. (1951). "Notes sur le vocabulaire gaulois, I. Les noms des mois du Calendrier de Coligny". Ogam, XIII, pp. 143-154
• Rhys, John (1909). "The Coligny Calendar". Proceedings of the British Academy 4 pp.207-318.
• Thurneysen, Rudolph (1899). "Der Kalendar von Coligny". Zeitschrift für celtishe Philologie, 2, pp.523-544

See also

• Celtic calendar
• Celtic art

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Coligny calendar", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki