File: <aquataine.htm>
<Migrations Index> <Bronze Age Index> <Archeology Index> <Home>
AQUATAINIA *
[Contacts]
Ancient History There are
traces of human settlement by prehistoric peoples, especially in the
Périgord, but the earliest attested inhabitants in the south-west were the Aquitani,
who were not proper Celtic people, but more akin to the Iberians (see Gallia
Aquitania). Although a number of different languages and dialects were in use
in the area during ancient times, it is most likely that the prevailing
language of Aquitaine during the late pre-historic to Roman period was an
early form of the Basque language. This has been demonstrated by various
Aquitanian names and words that were recorded by the Romans, and which are
currently easily readable as Basque. Whether this Aquitanian language
(Proto-Basque) was a remnant of a Vasconic language group that once extended
much farther, or whether it was generally limited to the Aquitaine/Basque
region is not known. One reason the language of Aquitaine is important is
because Basque is the last surviving non-Indo-European language in western
Europe and it has had some effect on the languages around it, including
Spanish and, to a lesser extent, French. The
original Aquitania (named after the inhabitants) at the time of Caesar's
conquest of Gaul included the area bounded by the Garonne River, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Ocean. The
name may stem from Latin 'aqua', maybe derived from the town "Aquae
Augustae", "Aquae Tarbellicae" or just "Aquis" (Dax,
Akize in modern Basque) or as a more general geographical feature. Under
Augustus' Roman rule, since 27 BC the province of Aquitania was further
stretched to the north to the River Loire, thus including proper Gaul tribes
along with old Aquitani south of the Garonne (cf. Novempopulania and Gascony)
within the same region. In 392, the Roman imperial provinces. French is
the official language of the region in modern times. Many residents also have
some knowledge of Basque, of a variety of Occitan (Gascon, Limousin, or
Languedocien), or of the Poitevin-Saintongeais dialect of French. By the
year 2005, about 78,000 children were learning Occitan as a second language
in state schools and 2,000 were enrolled in Occitan-medium private
schools. Basque speakers number about
73,000, concentrated in the far south of the region: Labourd: 37% of the population (38,600
bilingual, 24,000 able to read and understand) Lower Navarre and Soule: 76% of the
population (28,000 bilingual, 7,000 able to read and understand) Fourteen
Celtic tribes and twenty Aquitanian tribes occupied the northern parts of the
Pyrenees and, from the country of the Cemmenus to the ocean, bounded by two
rivers: the Garumna (Garonne)
and the Liger (Loire). The
major tribes are listed at the end of this section. There were more than
twenty tribes of Aquitani, but they were small and lacking in repute; the
majority of the tribes lived along the ocean, while the others reached up
into the interior and to the summits of the Cemmenus Mountains, as far as the
Tectosages. The name Gallia Comata was often used to
designate the three provinces of Farther Gaul, viz. Gallia Lugdunensis, Gallia
Belgica, and Aquitania, literally meaning ‘long-haired Gaul’, as opposed to Gallia Bracata ‘trousered Gaul’, a term
derived from bracae
(‘breeches’, the native costume of the northern ‘barbarians’) for Gallia
Narbonensis. Most of
the Atlantic coast of the
Aquitani was sandy and thin-soiled; it grew millet, but was unproductive with
respect to other products. Along this coast was also the gulf held by the
Tarbelli; in their land, gold mines were abundant. Large quantities of gold
could be mined with a minimum of refinement. The interior and mountainous
country in this region had better soil. The Petrocorii and the Bituriges Cubi
had fine ironworks; the Cadurci had linen factories; the Ruteni and the
Gabales had silver mines. According
to Strabo, the Aquitani were a wealthy people. Luerius, the King of the
Arverni and the father of Bituitus who warred against Maximus Aemilianus and
Dometius, is said to have been so exceptionally rich and extravagant that he
once rode on a carriage through a plain, scattering gold and silver coins
here and there. The Romans
called the tribal groups pagi.
These were organized into larger super-tribal groups that the Romans called civitates. These administrative
groupings were later taken over by the Romans in their system of local
control. Aquitania
was inhabited by the following tribes: Agesinales, Ambilatri, Anagnutes,
Arverni, Ausci, Autobroges, Basabocates, Belendi, Bercorates, Bergerri,
Bipedimui, Cadurci, Cambolectri, Camponi, Cocossati, Consoranni, Cubi, Elui|,
Elusates, Gabales, Latusates, Lemovices, Mandubii, Monesi, Nitiobriges,
Onobrisates, Osquidates, Osquidiales, Petrocorii, Petrogoti, Pictones,
Ruteni, Ruthenes, Santoni, Sassumini, Sediboniates, Sennates, Sibyllates,
Sottiates, Succasses, Tarbelli, Tolosanes, Uliarus, Vassei, Vellates,
Vellavii, Venami, Veneti (Veneticć), Vibisci, Vornates. Distribution of Clovis Projectiles This projectile has the heaviest concentrations throughout
the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi River basins and the eastern United
States. Concentrations are fewer in
the United States Great Plains and Canada.
Clovis points are rarely found west of the Continental Divide and into
the Arctic region of Canada and Alaska.
This point is not reported from the coastal regions of Alaska and
Canada, which indicates that it certainly was not brought to America over the
Bering Straits. They are not reported
from the ice shelf regions of the Canadian interior. Genuine Clovis points have not been found
in northeastern Siberia from where they might have been transported to North
America. The technology, which is
believed to be of American origin, might have gotten to the Aquataine Region
of southwestern France and northwestern Spain, by being carried in ancient
times across the Atlantic Ocean
to Europe. Ancient navigators could
have either followed glaciated coastlines that periodically occurred in the
northern Atlantic Ocean over the millennia or returned by
ships to the Old World from whence they came. |