Coligny calendar

The Coligny calendar is a second century Celtic calendar found in 1897 in Coligny, France.[3] It is a lunisolar calendar with a five-year cycle of 62 months. It has been used to reconstruct the ancient Celtic calendar. The letters on the calendar are Latin and the language is Gaulish.

Overview of the re-assembled tablet found in Coligny, France
Drawing by de Ricci[1][lower-alpha 1]

The calendar features "weeks" that consist of 5 days. Each month has six weeks and either 29 or 30 days. There are twelve such months in a year, totalling 354 days. A calendar cycle consisted of five years of this type, sixty regular months plus two intercalary months. For the calendar to remain in synch with the lunar phases, the five-year cycle must have been 1,831 days long. This would have made the calendar drift out of synch with the seasons by almost a day every year. Roman sources suggest that the Celtic calendar had a thirty-year cycle. The solar drift issue could have been dealt with by dropping a month once every 30 years.[4] Each Celtic month started on the sixth day of the lunar cycle, according to Pliny the Elder.[5] This is the date of the quarter moon, the easiest lunar date to confirm by direct observation.[4]

The calendar is now held at the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière. It was engraved on a bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments, that was originally 1.48 metres (4 ft 10 in) wide by 0.9 metres (2 ft 11 in) tall.[2][6]: 111  Based on the style of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the second century.[2][6]: 111  A similar calendar found nearby at Villards d'Heria is preserved only in eight small fragments. It is now preserved in the Musée d'Archéologie du Jura at Lons-le-Saunier.[2]

List of months

The names of the twelve regular months are recorded as Samonios, Dumannios, Rivros, Anagantios, Ogronios, Cutios, Giamonios, Simivisonnios, Equos, Elembivios, Edrinios, and Cantlos. There were two intercalary months, Quimonios, which appeared in first year of the five year calendar cycle, and Sonnocingos, which appeared in the third year.

Samonios refers to summer (samo-) while Giamonios refers to winter (giamos). The meanings of the other names are less clear. The Celtic year was divided into halves: "summer" from May 1 to October 31, and "winter" from November 1 to April 30.

A five-year cycle would have drifted by nearly a day every year compared to the seasons. So it was probably adjusted somehow. If an intercalary month was dropped every thirty years, the solar and calendar cycles could be brought back into alignment.

ValueName DaysEtymology Interpretation
I-1Quimonios30Unknown meaningIntercalary for year one
1Samonios30Samo- is Gaulish for summer.[6]: 267  Celtic summer started on May 1. There was a three-night festival beginning on 17 Samonios, according to the calendar.May
2Dumannios29Compare to Latin fūmus. Delamarre suggests "month of fumigations."[6]: 154 June
3Rivros30Compare to Old Irish remor (stout, thick, fat) and Welsh rhef (thick, stout, great, large). Delamarre suggests "fat month."July
4Anagantio29Delamarre[6] suggests "month of ritual ablutions." The first day of fall was August 1August
5Ogronnios30Delamarre[6] suggests a month of cold or winterSeptember
6Cutios30Delamarre[6] suggests a month of invocationsOctober
I-2Sonnocingos30Possibly "march of the sun".[6]: 278 Intercalary for year three
7Giamonios29This name is derived from giamos, the Gaulish word for winter.[lower-alpha 2] Celtic winter started on November 1. gam is Old Irish for November, according to Cormac's Glossary.[7] So this month can be identified with greater confidence than others in this calendar.November
8Simivisonnios30Simi could mean half, so "half the course of the sun."[6]: 274 December
9Equos29 or 30Possibly a month of horses or livestock.[6]: 165 January
10Elembivios29Month of the stag.[6]: 161–162  The first day of spring was February 1.February
11Edrinios30Compare with Old Irish áed (fire, "heat).[6]: 34 March
12Cantlos29Delamarre suggests "month of chanting."April[lower-alpha 3]

The names of the twelve regular months can be reconstructed with some certainty in spite of the fragmentary state of the calendar, as each of them was repeated five times. The two intercalary months occur only once each, the first intercalary month happens on year one of five and happens between Cantlos and Samonios and contains 29 days. The second intercalary moon happens on year three of five and contains 30 days between Cutios and Giamonios. The intercalary month names are consequently reconstructed with much less certainty.[lower-alpha 4]

Reconstruction

The Coligny calendar was a lunisolar calendar. It attempted to synchronize the solar year and the lunar month. The common lunar year contained 354 or 355 days.

Detail of Samonios (year 1), with Quimon- visible at the top.

The first month of the year was Samonios. The name was based on samo-, Gaulish for summer.[6]: 267  This suggests that the Celtic year once started on the summer solstice, as argued by le Contel & Verdier.[8] However, Monard[9] argues for an autumn equinox start by comparison with Irish Samhain.[lower-alpha 5]

An intercalary month every two and a half years. The additional months were placed 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.[lower-alpha 6] The name of the second intercalary month is reconstructed as Rantaranos or Bantaranos, based on the reading of the fifth line in the corresponding fragment.[lower-alpha 7]

The months were divided into two halves, the beginning of the second half marked with the term atenoux or "renewal".[lower-alpha 8] 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 MAT, months of 29 days were marked ANM(AT). This has been read as "lucky" and "unlucky", respectively, based on comparison with Middle Welsh mad and anfad, but there is no indication of any religious or ritual content,[13] and the meaning could also be merely descriptive: "complete" and "incomplete", or "full" and "partial".[14]

The Coligny calendar as reconstructed consisted of 16 columns and 4 rows, with two intercalary months given half a column (spanning two rows) each, resulting in a table of the 62 months of the five-year cycle, as follows (numbered 1–62, with the first three letters of their reconstructed names given for ease of reference; intercalary months are marked in yellow):

Qui
1.		Riu
4.		Gia
8.		Aed
12.		Riu
16.		Gia
20.		Aed
24.		Riu
28.		Ran
32.		Equ
35.		Sam
39.		Ogr
43.		Equ
47.		Sam
51.		Ogr
55.		Equ
59.
Ana
5.		Sim
9.		Can
13.		Ana
17.		Sim
21.		Can
25.		Ana
29.		Ele
36.		Dum
40.		Qut
44.		Ele
48.		Dum
52.		Qut
56.		Ele
60.
Sam
2.		Ogr
6.		Equ
10.		Sam
14.		Ogr
18.		Equ
22.		Sam
26.		Ogr
30.		Gia
33.		Aed
37.		Riu
41.		Gia
45.		Aed
49.		Riu
53.		Gia
57.		Aed
61.
Dum
3.		Qut
7.		Ele
11.		Dum
15.		Qut
19.		Ele
23.		Dum
27.		Qut
31.		Sim
34.		Can
38.		Ana
42.		Sim
46.		Can
50.		Ana
54.		Sim
58.		Can
62.

In spite of its fragmentary state, the calendar can be reconstructed with confidence due to its regular composition. An exception is the 9th month Equos, which in years 1 and 5 is a month of 30 days but in spite of this still marked ANM. MacNeill[15] suggested that Equos in years 2 and 4 may have had only 28 days,[15] while Olmsted[16][17] suggested 28 days in year 2 and 29 days in year 4.[16][17]

The following table gives the sequence of months in a five-year cycle, with the suggested length of each month according to Mac Neill[15] and Olmsted:[16][17]

month nameYear 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5
Quimonios30––––
1. Samonios3030303030
2. Dumannios2929292929
3. Riuros3030303030
4. Anagantio2929292929
5. Ogronnios3030303030
6. Qutios3030303030
Rantaranos––30––
7. Giamonios2929292929
8. Semiuisonns3030303030
9. Equos30283028/2930
10. Elembiuios2929292929
11. Aedrinios3030303030
12. Cantlos2929292929
year length385353385353 or 354355
total length1831 or 1832 days

The total of 1831 days is very close to the exact value of 62 × 29.530585 = 1830.90 days, keeping the calendar in relatively good agreement with the synodic month (with an error of one day in 50 years), but the aim of reconciling the lunar cycle with the tropical year is only met with poor accuracy, five tropical years corresponding to 5 × 365.24219052 = 1826.21 days (with an error of 4.79 days in five years, or close to one day per year).

As pointed out already by Ricci,[18] based on the mention of a 30 year cycle used by the Celts in Pliny's Naturalis historia (book 16), if one intercalary month is dropped every thirty years, the error is reduced to 30 – (6 × 4,79) = 1.27 days in a 30 year period (or a shift of the seasons by one day in about 20 to 21 years).[lower-alpha 9]

Steinrücken[19] has proposed that Pliny's statement that the Celtic month begins on the sixth day of the month[lower-alpha 10] may be taken as evidence for the age of this system: Assuming that the month was originally aligned with lunations, a shift of 5 days corresponds to a period of 975 years, suggesting a starting date in the 10th century BCE.[19][lower-alpha 11]

In the Coligny calendar, there is a hole in the metal sheet for each day, intended for a peg marking the current date. The middle of each month is marked atenoux, interpreted as the term for the night of the full moon.[16]: 172 

There is an additional marker prinni loudin in 30 day months (MAT), at the first day of the first month (Samonios), the second day of the second 30 day month, and so on. The same system is used for 29 day months (ANMAT), with a marker prinni laget. In Olmsted's interpretation, prinni is translated "path, course", loudin and laget as "increasing" and "decreasing", respectively, in reference to the yearly path of the Sun, prinni loudin in Samonios marking summer solstice and prinni laget in Giamonios marking winter solstice.[16]: 76, 176–177 

Sample month

The following table shows the arrangement of a complete month (Samonios of year 2, with TRINVX(TION)SAMO(NII) marked on the 17th day). This is the only month out of 62 that has been preserved without any gaps.[12]: 182 

Each month is divided into two half-months or "fortnights" divided by the word atenoux. Within each half-month, the arrangement is tabular, beginning with the double circle "◎" indicating the peg-hole for marking the current day in the first column, followed by a Roman numeral for the day's position in the half-month. In the second column are occasional "trigrams" of the form ƚıı, ıƚı, or ııƚ, usually in that order, and sometimes instead the letter M, occasionally in combination with it; their significance is not known. In the third column, each day is marked by the letter N or D (excepting days marked as prinni loudin or prinni laget). In the final column, days are marked with additional information, such as IVOS,[lower-alpha 12] INIS R,[lower-alpha 13] AMB (only found on odd days), among others.

In the month Samonios depicted above, the 17th day is marked TRINVXSAMO, corresponding to TRINOSAM SINDIV in Samonios of year 1.

The name of the following month, DVM(AN), is mentioned several times (on days 1, 3, 8 and 16). Conversely, the following month marks days 1, 8, 16 and 17 with SAMON(I). This "exchanging of days" in odd months with the following, and in even months with the preceding month is also found in other parts of the calendar.

Skribbatous[24] offered a modern reconstruction of the Coligny calendar under a Creative Commons license.[24] This version is being used in an experimental use of the calendar, by Larrouturou,[25] taking as a starting point the full moon of 5 June 2020 and marking the dates of the eclipses over a period of 5 years.

Footnotes
  1. The arrangement by de Ricci[1] misplaces four fragments, according to Duval & Pinault.[2]
  2. "L'étymologie est transparent puisque le nom du mois et fait sur celui de l'hiver giamo-." — Delamarre (2003)[6]: 179 
    [The etymology is transparent since the name of the month is made on that of the winter "giamo-".]
  3. 15th Cantlos is marked TIOCOBREXT(IO).
  4. The name Quimonios is obtained from reading the very end of the first segment as QVIMON.
  5. The entry 17 Samonios refers to "three nights of Samonios.":
    TRINOX[tion] SAMO[nii] SINDIV
    "three-nights of Samonios today".
    This festival may be equivalent to a 10 night festival of Apollo Grannus recorded in a first-century AD Latin inscription from Limoges.
    POSTVMVS DV[M]NORIGIS F(ILIVS) VERG(OBRETVS) AQVAM MARTIAM DECAMNOCTIACIS GRANNI D[E] S[VA] P[ECVNIA] D[EDIT])[10]
  6. In a suggestion first made by Schmidt (1979, p 198), the name of the first intercalary month is probably Quimonios, found in the final verse of the gnomic line at the end of the month:
    OX[.]ANTIA POC DEDOR TON IN QVIMON
    redacted to
    [TRICANTON] OX[OC]ANTIA PO(N)C(E) DEDOR TON IN(ON) QVIMON(IV)
    "Three hundred eighty and five are given this year through Quimonios".
    Quimon- is an abbreviation for the io-stem dative Quimoniu.[11]
  7. A gnomic verse pertaining to intercalation, taking up the first two lines, reads as:
    CIALLOS B(IS) SONNO CINGOS.
    Delamarre[6] interprets the term SONNO CINGOS as "sun's march", meaning "a year".[12]: 192 [6]: 116 
  8. cf. Old Irish athnugud "renewal".
    The interpretation of atenoux as "returning night" is improbable[6]: 58  and "renewing" would seem more probable; thus the month would start at new moon and atenoux would indicate the renewal, i.e. the full moon.
  9. This proposed omission of the intercalary month once in 30 years also improves the accuracy of the lunar calendar, assuming 371 lunations in 10,956 days, or an assumed synodic month of 371/10956 = 29.53010 days, resulting in an error of one day in 195 years.
  10. The Latin text of the specific passage in Pliny[5] is
    ... est autem id rarum admodum inventu et repertum magna religione petitur et ante omnia sexta luna, quae principia mensum annorumque his facit et saeculi post tricesimum annum, quia iam virium abunde habeat nec sit sui dimidia.
    — Pliny, Natural History 16.95[5]
    English translation by Bostock & Riley:[5]
    "The mistletoe, however, is but rarely found upon the oak; and when found, is gathered with rites replete with religious awe. This is done more particularly on the sixth 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."
  11. Omsted[16] proposes an origin around 1150–550 BCE by a similar argument:
    "Most probably the 30 year calendar developed in a purely preliterate tradition as the displacement of the Irish quarter festivals suggests in projecting an origin around 850 ± 300 BC ... If so, the calendar must have been preserved from generation to generation by a body of supportive gnomic verse."[16]: 107 
  12. Series of days labelled IVOS occur in sequence, marking a period of eight or nine days running from the end of one month to the beginning of the next (mostly 26th to 4th), often interpreted as "festival days", apparently of the nature of a "movable feast" as the IVOS days do not occur in the same months of different years in the five-year cycle. The word ivos has long been associated with the Celtic word for "yew" – Rhys (1910),[20]: 52  c.f. Ivo, īwaz – but Zavaroni[21]: 97  suggests that in this context it means "(con)junction".
    At the beginning of Elembiv in year 2 there are five IVOS days, whereas other months begin with only three or four. The unusually long run at the beginning of Elembiv in year 2 appears to be making up for a lost IVOS day at the end of Equos.[22]
  13. INIS R always follows N in the preceding column.[23]

References
  1. de Ricci, S. (December 1926). "Le calendrier celtique de Coligny". Journal des savants: 448–449.
  2. Duval, Paul-Marie; Pinault, Georges, eds. (1986). Les calendriers de Coligny (73 fragments) et Villards d'Heria (8 fragments). Recueil des inscriptions gauloises. Vol. Tome 3. Paris, FR: Editions du CNRS. pp. 35–37.
  3. Lehoux, D.R. (2000). Parapegmata: or Astrology, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World (PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto.
  4. McKay, Helen T. (2016). "The Coligny calendar as a Metonic lunar calendar". Études celtiques. 42: 95–121.
  5. Pliny the Elder (1855). "Book 16, "the natural history of the forest trees" English translation". In Bostock, John; Riley, Henry T. (eds.). The Natural History. penelope. University of Chicago. "Original Latin". penelope. University of Chicago.
  6. Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental (2nd ed.). Paris, FR: Editions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-237-6.
  7. Cormac mac Cuillenán (c. 900). Stokes, Whitley (ed.). "Sanas Cormaic". Thesaurus Linguae Hibernicae. Dublin, IE: University College Dublin. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
    Russell, Paul; Arbuthnot, Sharon; Moran, Pádraic. "Early Irish Glossaries Database". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
    See Wikipedia article: Sanas Cormaic
  8. le Contel, Jean-Michel; Verdier, Paul (1997). Un calendrier celtique: le calendrier gaulois de Coligny. Paris, FR: Editions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-136-1.
  9. Monard, Joseph (1999). Histoire du calendrier gaulois : le calendrier de Coligny. Paris, FR: Burillier. ISBN 2-912616-01-8.
  10. Lejeune, Michel (1995). "Notes d'etymologie gauloise ("XI. Les 'Dix Nuits' de Grannos")" [Notes on Gaullish etymology (11. The 'ten nights' of Grannos)]. Études Celtiques. XXXI: 91–97.
  11. Olmsted, Garrett (1988). The use of ordinal numerals on the Gaulish Coligny calendar. The Journal of Indo-European Studies. Vol. 16. p. 296.
  12. Dottin (1920). La langue gauloise : grammaire, textes, et glossaire [The Gaulish Language: Grammar, texts, and glossary]. Vol. 53. pp. 182–191.
  13. Maier, Bernhard (1994). Die Religion der Kelten. Götter, Mythen, Weltbild. Stuttgart, DE. pp. 60 ff.
  14. Maier, Bernhard. Lexikon der keltischen Religion und Kultur. pp. 81 ff.
  15. MacNeill, Eóin (1928). "On the notation and chronology of the calendar of Coligny". Ériu. X: 1–67.
  16. Olmsted, Garrett (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, DE: R. Habelt. ISBN 3-7749-2530-5.
  17. Garrett Olmsted, (2001) A Definitive Reconstructed Text of the Coligny Calendar ISBN 9780941694780
  18. Ricci (1898)
  19. Steinrücken, Burkard (2012). Lunisolarkalender und Kalenderzahlen am Beispiel des Kalenders von Coligny (PDF). sternwarte-recklinghausen.de (Report) (in German). pp. 7, 19.
  20. Rhys, John (1910)
  21. Zavaroni, Adolfo (2007). On the structure and terminology of the Gaulish calendar. British Archaeological Reports (Report). British Series.
  22. Stern, Sacha (2012). Calendars in Antiquity. Oxford University Press. p. 305. ISBN 9780199589449.
  23. Annuaire. Librairie Droz. École Pratique des Hautes Études. 1966–1967. p. 220. ISBN 9782600053280.
  24. Skribbatous, Tegos (2019). Reconstruction du calendrier de Coligny par Tegos Skribbatous [Reconstruction of the Coligny Calendar by Tegos Skribbatous] (image / .png). Iconsmedia (tabular chart) (in French). Retrieved 5 January 2022.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  25. Larrouturou, Emmanuel (2020-09-16). "Gaulish Coligny calendar". Emmanuel Larrouturou (blog) (in English and French). Archived from the original on 2021-08-01. Retrieved 2022-02-04.

Bibliography
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. 2nd edition, Paris, Editions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-237-6.
  • Dottin, Georges, La langue gauloise : grammaire, textes et glossaire (1920) no. 53, pp. 172–207.
  • Duval, Paul-Marie and Pinault, Georges (eds) (1986). Recueil des inscriptions gauloises (R.I.G.), Vol. 3: Les calendriers de 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.
  • Joyce, P.W. (2000). "Old Celtic Romances". The pursuit of the Giolla Dacker and his horse. Wordsworth Editions Limited, London.
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  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). La langue gauloise. Paris, Editions Errance. 2nd edition. ISBN 2-87772-224-4. Chapter 9 is titled "Un calandrier gaulois".
  • Le Contel, Jean-Michel and Verdier, Paul (1997). Un calendrier celtique: le calendrier gaulois de Coligny. Paris, Editions Errance. ISBN 2-87772-136-1
  • Mc Cluskey, Stephen C. (1990). "The Solar Year in the Calendar of Coligny". Études Celtiques, 27, pp. 163–74.
  • 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 2-912616-01-8
  • Olmsted, Garrett (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 3-7749-2530-5
  • Parisot, Jean-Paul (1985). "Les phases de la Lune et les saisons dans le calendrier de Coligny". Études 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, Rudolf (1899). "Der Kalender von Coligny". Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 2, pp. 523–544
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