Thank you for sharing your threads. Having the opportunity to use "The Celtic Consciousness" edited by Robert O' Driscoll was hard to not participate.
[FONT=Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, Courier New, monospace][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)]The threads strands connect to [/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, Courier New, monospace]Iron[/FONT][FONT=Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, Courier New, monospace][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)] Age Europe.[/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, Courier New, monospace][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)]
Historical framework According to Greek and Roman authors, the Raeti occupied the central Alpine region during the Second Iron Age
(Fig. 1) (MARZATICO 2001; 2014b).
[/COLOR][/FONT][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)]This ‘ethnos’ (mentioned in the inscription from the Arthemision in Ephesus) is [/COLOR]archaeologically[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)] represented by the so-called Fritzens-Sanzeno Culture, identified by researchers during the seventies and named after the two main settlements:
Sanzeno in the Non Valley (Trentino, Italy) and
Fritzens in the Inn Valley (Austria).
This culture is characterised by particular ceramics and metallic products and by the typical form of houses (the so-called ‘casa retica’), as well as by the diffusion of inscriptions written in a local, Raetic alphabet
(MARCHESINI2013).
The identification of continuity from the previous Luco/Laugen-Meluno/Melaun Culture of the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age to the Fritzens-Sanzeno Culture supports the idea of a local origin for the Raetic people
(MARZATICO 2014a).
According to ancient authors, the Raeti were sometimes considered to be Celts (such as by Ptolemy, III, 1 or Pompeius Trogus, apud Justin, XX, 5) whilst at other times, they were considered to be Etruscans (as by Livy, V, 33 or Pliny the Elder, N.H. III, 133).
Archaeological framework The Celtic origin of the Raeti has been posited by many local and foreign schol-ars since the end of the 19th century, a period characterised by great reflection on Celtic culture.
This atmosphere was reflected in the Convegno Internazionale di Antropologia e Archeologia, which took place in Bologna in 1871. During this conference, Gabriel de Mortillet underlined the similarities that existed between the objects found in the Marne region (France) and those recovered during excavations in the Etruscan city of Marzabotto. Weapons and ornaments that
269 Celts and Raetians in the central-eastern Alpine region during the Second Iron Age were found in this important centre in the Po Valley were interpreted as traces/reflections of the historical migrations of Celts, mentioned in the written sources (DE MORTILLET 1871).
From this point onwards and in later contributions, scholars from Trentino and from other European countries tried to outline the nature of the human presence in the central-eastern Alpine region during the Second Iron Age.
Study (Fig. 2) (RONCADOR 2011; 2014; in press) of the indicators of contact between Celts and Raeti (i.e. La Tène artefacts or those that imitate La Tène models such as belt-hooks, swords, sword sheaths, shields, helmets, lances, brooches, other metal artefacts, glass bracelets and pottery) has permitted defi nition of the chronology of these relationships in respect of their intensity, Fig. 1. Localisation of Raeti and of the area of spread of the Fritzens-Sanzeno material culture in northern Italy (from MARZATICO 2014a, 14).
270 Simona Marchesini – Rosa Roncador if not of their nature. It is not yet clear whether these objects reflect commercial contacts, intermarriage, gifts among elites, or even a mixture of all these factors. For these reasons the authors have chosen to compare the archaeological and linguistic data, in order to more closely examine the relations between these two peoples.[/COLOR]