Ancient inscriptions containing names of gods and religious terms on monuments and small finds are of outstanding importance for knowledge of Celtic religion in its various forms. Equally revealing are the evidence of votive offerings, the groups of dedicators and their motives. So far, these sources have never been systematically documented and analysed; a research gap shall be closed through the F.E.R.C.AN. Project of the Austrian Academy of Sciences launched in 1998.

The aim of this major international project is the complete documentation, new edition and analysis of Greek, Latin and Celtic written records of religious content. As part of the edition, archaeological and historical findings, as well as linguistic-philological and religious studies, will be taken into account. For this reason, an interdisciplinary research advisory committee was established to support the epigraphic research.

The main goal of the project is the edition of the CORPUS-F.E.R.C.AN. It is intended to present a monograph comprising the epigraphic testimonies together with their translations and a commentary and an analysis of the deities in their linguistic and ritual context for every major find area.

Published so far:

Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, Manfred Hainzmann, Fontes epigraphici religionum Celticarum antiquarum I, Provincia Noricum 1. Die Gottheiten in ihren sprachlichen und kultischen Erscheinungsformen. Mitteilungen der Prähistorischen Kommission 89, 2020.

Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, Fontes epigraphici religionum Celticarum antiquarum II Provincia Germania inferior (Hrsg. von Wolfgang Spickermann) 1; Die sprachliche Analyse der niedergermanischen Votivformulare und Dedikantennamen. Forschungen zur antiken Religion 1, 2022.

Furthermore: https://gams.uni-graz.at/context:fercan

 

 

Principal investigator

    Funding

     

    Scientific Advisory Board

     

    • Helmut Birkhan (Wien, Sprachwissenschaft und Keltologie)
    • Patricia de Bernardo Stempel (UPV/EHU, Sprachwissenschaft und Keltologie)
    • Gerhard Dobesch† (Wien, Alte Geschichte und Altertumskunde)
    • Ute Klatt (Mainz, Ikonographie)
    • Nicolas Mathieu (Grenoble, Alte Geschichte)
    • Francisco Marco Simón (Saragossa, Religionswissenschaft)
    • Otto H. Urban (Wien, Institut für Urgeschichte und Historische Archäologie)
    • Rainer Wiegels (Osnabrück, Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik)