Coligny calendar

The Coligny calendar is a Gaulish peg calendar or parapegma[2] made in Roman Gaul in the 2nd century, giving a five-year cycle of a lunisolar calendar with intercalary months. It is the most important evidence for the reconstruction of an ancient Celtic calendar. It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals and is in the Gaulish language. The restored tablet contains sixteen vertical columns, with 62 months distributed over five years.

Overview of the re-assembled tablet
Drawing by Seymour de Ricci (1926)[1]

It was found in 1897 in France, in Coligny, Ain (46°23′N 5°21′E, near Lyon), along with the head of a bronze statue of a youthful male figure. It 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.[3] Based on the style of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the second century.[4][5]

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

Reconstruction

The Continental Celtic calendar as reconstructed from the calendars of Coligny and Villards d'Heria was a lunisolar calendar, attempting to synchronize the solar year and the lunar month. The common lunar year contained 354 or 355 days.

The calendar year began with Samonios (samon is Gaulish for summer, Lambert p. 112). Le Contel and Verdier (1997) argue for a summer solstice start of the year. Monard (1999) argues for an autumn equinox start (by association with Irish Samhain). As Irish "Samhain", Olmsted (1992, 2001: 20-21, 2009) corresponds to Irish Midwinter. Olmsted argues that Samonios ("End of Summer Half of the Year") began at actual midwinter (December 21) when the original 30-year Celtic calendar first originated around 1000 BC, but through a calendar error by one day every 199 years, after 1300 years of operation Samonios was pushd back to November 1 in its celebration.

As with the celebrations of the first day of spring, fall, summer, and winter, not just the days corresponding to the equinoxes and solstices have been displaced earlier by 55 days in Ireland, but the rituals corresponding to those found elsewhere in European and Indo-Iranian tradition, associated with the solar events, have been displaced as well. Such a displacement can be explained by a simple one-day shift every 23.7 years in the Celtic lunar calendar cycle and its associated IVOS festivals with respect to solar time. After some 1300 years of operation, such a calendar would have displaced the lunar festivals to some 55 days earlier than the actual solar events with which they were associated. With the adoption of Christianity the displaced festivals then became fixed points within the newly acquired Julian calendar. But even in this new calendar the festivals were not fixed points in the solar year. Thus after a similar span of 1600 years from its adoption, when Pope Gregory reformed the Julian calendar, it had become 12 days out of sync with solar time.

Besides the Coligny calendar plate, Classical commentary provides a few important details about early Celtic calendar cycles. Diodorus Siculus (V, 32, 6; Tierney 1960), quoting Posidonius, describes a sacrifice which took place significantly every five years among the Gauls, presumably at midsummer, since first fruits and animals were burnt in pyres (Zwicker 1934: 19). Plutarch (Moralia, "de facie in orbe Lunae": 26, 941 A) refers to a festival or expedition every 30 years undertaken in the islands off Britain, presumably the Channel Islands, but perhaps the comment on Hesiod refers to islands to the west of Britain and might relate to Ireland. Plutarch's 30-year festive or expeditionary cycle near Britain may relate to the same 30-year cycle as that referred to among the Gauls by Pliny the Elder, writing ca. 75 A.D. but apparently quoting an earlier source (Naturalis Historia, XVI, 250).

"The sixth day of the new moon ... marks for them [the druids] the beginning of the months, the years, and the cycle at the end of thirty years, because by this time it [the moon] has considerable strength though not yet at the halfway point." (Zwicker 1934: 55).

Thus classical commentary, probably most of it emanating from Posidonius at the end of the second century BC, describes both a 5-year phase, the time interval between the recurring midwinter or midsummer intercalary months, and a 30-year cycle as current among the Gauls and possibly among the British or Irish as well. One very important aspect of Pliny's statement is that both the year and the 30-year cycle begin on the same fixed day of the moon. For the 30-year cycle to begin on the same fixed day of the moon, the 30-year period must contain exactly 371 lunar months or 10956 days (actually 10955.848 days with 29.5306 days per lunar month), 1 day less than 30 solar years (10957.266 days) (see Table 4). Thus, as we shall see, Pliny can only be describing the calendar which must have been the predecessor to the 25-year Coligny calendar (Olmsted 1992: 61-64, 132-134; Olmsted 2001: 1; Duval and Pinault 1986: 415). On the Coligny calendar the term ATENOVX "returning night" dividing each month into two halves counting from days I to XIIII or XV as well as the N-counting scheme alongside the TII-counting scheme shows that the 25-year Coligny calendar clearly developed from an earlier, fully lunar calendar. The addition of an extra day making the month Equos have 29 rather than 28 days in year 4 of each 5-year phase causes the calendar to shift from a 30-year cycle which contains 10956 days to a 25-year cycle which contains 9130 days.

To total 10956 days, Pliny's 30-year calendar must contain an 1801-day phase (61 lunar months) followed by five 1831-day phases (62 lunar months) (see plate 3). In this 30-year cycle, since 5 solar years contain 1826 days, during the first 5-year phase (1801 days) the sun falls back 25 days. However, the sun gains back 5 days in each of the next five 5-year phases (which contain 1831 days, 5 days longer than the 1826 days of 5 solar years) (Olmsted 1992: 106). Thus the intercalary summer and winter solstices progress at 5-day intervals every 5 years. In contrast, the 25-year Coligny calendar contains an 1802-day phase followed by four 1832-day phases. Since a 5-year period with four 365-day years and one 366-day year contains 1826 days, the sun would initially lag behind the 25-year calendar by 24 days (1826 − 1802) after the first 5-year phase. However, the sun would gain back this initial lag by 6 days for each of the four subsequent 5-year phases (1832 − 1826). This calendar realigns to within one day of solar time every 25 rather than every 30 years. Containing 9130 days, this 25-year calendar then runs almost exactly 1 day less than the 9131.06 days to be found in 25 solar years and almost exactly 5 days more than the 9124.95 days to be found in 309 lunar months, equivalent to the 5-day week, the cóicde, of the early Irish law tracts (see Olmsted 1992: 95).

Indeed, the Coligny calendar indicates which 5-day lunar week reigns over each subsequent 25-year cycle through a series of marks (TII, ITI, IIT), which also indicate the one-day lag of the sun with each 25-year cycle (see plate 1). TII indicates that the first lunar week begins each month during the first 25 year of operation. ITI indicates that the second lunar week begins each month during the period between year 26 and year 50. IIT indicates that the third lunar week begins each month during the period between year 51 and year 75 from the inception of the calendar. If the first winter solstice begins on day 1 of year 1, the solstice will begin on day 2 in year 26 and on day 3 in year 51. These marks in this sequence (TII, ITI, IIT), except where shifted or exchanged with other days (Olmsted 1992: tab. 6c), are found in groups of three days in a row, each group separated by the 6 days the sun, in each 5-year phase, gains back the initial fall-back of 24 days from the first 5-year phase (Olmsted 1988: tabs. 6-7; 1992: tabs. 34, 41, 43; p. 144). In this 25-year calendar the two summer and winter intercalary solstices which occur every 5 years (separated by 30 months) progress at 6-day intervals rather than the 5-day intervals they progress in the 30-year calendar. The pertinent observation then is that in either a 25-year or 30-year calendar, assuming four 365-day years and one 366-day year every five years, the sun falls behind the lunar festivals of the calendar (the lunar calendar festivals run ahead of the actual solar year) by 1 day every 23.70 years, a natural consequence of a 365.20-day year compared to the 365.2422 days contained in an actual solar year (see bottom of plate 3). The actual IVOS festivals will then fall 1 day earlier with respect to sun every 23.70 years, progressively getting further and further out of whack with solar time. The 25-year cycle is more accurate to solar time than is the 30-year cycle in that the assumption of a one-day shift every 25 years is much closer to the actual one-day shift every 23.70 years than is the assumption of a one-day shift every 30 years. Both calendars keep track of the assumed solar fallback by 1 day in each 25-year or 30-year cycle.

After 1300 years the actual lunar festivals associated with the solstices and equinoxes will take place on average 54 days ahead of the sun (Olmsted 1992: 130-134; tab. 57). If the Julian calendar was adopted with Christianity around 450 AD, this would give a date of around 850 BC for the beginning of a 30-year pagan Irish calendar, if such existed. But there is nothing exact in this date because of the natural oscillation of the lunar and solar dates caused by the intercalary months and the 11-day difference between the lunar and solar year. This oscillation gives a wide margin of error of + 300 years. Thus from the evidence of the 55-day displacement of the Irish festivals, we might assume that somewhere in the period 550 BC to 1150 BC the original 30-year Celtic calendar cycle was adopted. However, there is another source for dating the origin of the 30-year calendar. The agreement of these two sources then puts our dating on a more solid footing.

The entry TRINOX[tion] SAMO[nii] SINDIV "three-nights of Samonios today") on the 17th of Samonios suggests that, like the Irish festival of Samhain, it lasted for three nights. The phrase *trinoxtion Samonii is comparable to a Gaulish festival mentioned in a 1st-century AD Latin inscription from Limoges, France, which mentions a "10-night festival (*decamnoctiacon) of (Apollo) Grannus" (POSTVMVS DV[M]NORIGIS F(ILIVS) VERG(OBRETVS) AQVAM MARTIAM DECAMNOCTIACIS GRANNI D[E] S[VA] P[ECVNIA] D[EDIT]).[6] Olmsted (2001: 26, 40) indicates that TRINOUX SAMO is actually an abbreviation for TRI(TIO)NOUX "the Third Night of Samonios", just as (PETIUX RIVROS is an abbreviation for PET(UOR)I(NO)UX RIVROS "the fourth night of Rivros. Both of these days are displaced by the transference of lucky MAT days into unlucky ANMAT months. Their original positions are indicated by the ordinal numerals "TRI(TI)- and PET(UOR)I-.

The solar year was approximated by the insertion of a 13th intercalary month every two and a half years. 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. In a suggestion first made by Schmidt (1979:198), 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, emended 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- abbreviating the io-stem dative Quimoniu).[7] 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. A gnomic verse pertaining to intercalation was taking up the first two lines, read as CIALLOS B(IS) SONNO CINGOS.[8] The term sonno cingos is interpreted as "sun's march" = "a year" by Delamarre (2003).

The months were divided into two halves, the beginning of the second half marked with the term atenoux or "renewal"[9] (cf. Old Irish athnugud "renewal"). 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 the meaning could here also be merely descriptive, "complete" and "incomplete".[10] There is no indication of any religious or ritual content.[11]

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

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.		Out
19.		Ele
23.		Dum
27.		Out
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 (1928) suggested that Equos in years 2 and 4 may have had only 28 days,[12] while Olmsted suggested 28 days in year 2 and 29 days in year 4.[13]

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

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 (1898), 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). 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.

Steinrücken (2012) has proposed that Pliny's statement that the Celtic month begins on the sixth day of the month[14] may be taken as evidence for the age of this system: assuming that the month was originally aligned with lunations, a shift of five days corresponds to a period of 975 years, suggesting a starting date in the 10th century BC.[15] Omsted (1992) in a similar argument proposes an origin around "850 ± 300 BC".[16]

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.[17]

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.[18]

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.[19]

Each month is divided into two half-months or "fortnights", divided by the word atenoux. Within each half-month, the arrangement is tabular, beginning in the first column with the Roman numeral of the day of the half-month (with the hole "◦" for the peg marking the current day indicated as a circle). In the second column are occasional "trigrams" of the form +II, I+I or II+, and sometimes the letter M, of unknown significance. In a 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,[20][21] INIS R,[22] 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.

List of months

The names of the twelve months as recorded are 1 samon-, 2 dumann-, 3 riuros, 4 anagantio-, 5 ogronn-, 6 cutios, 7 giamoni-, 8 simiuisonna-, 9 equo, 10 elembiu-, 11 edrini- / aedrini-, 12 cantlos. Seven of these names have no clear etymology. The five month-names that do have language cognates are samon- and giamoni-, which are the stems of the words for "summer" and "winter", respectively; months equos and cantlos might associated with Celtic words for "horse" and "song", respectively; and the name ogronn- is interpreted by Birkhan (1997) as a word for "cold".[23]

 month namedaysetymology     interpretation[24]     notes
1Samonios30"summer's [month]".[25]June–Julytrinoxtion Samonii on 17th Samonios presumably marks the full moon closest to midsummer.
2Dumannios29tentatively compared with Latin fūmus: "smoke" ("month of fumigation"?).[26]July–August
3Riuros30tentatively compared with Old Irish remor: "stout, thick, fat", Welsh rhef: "thick, stout, great, large"[27]August–September
4Anagantio29unknown (perhaps "non-travelling")[28]September–October
5Ogronnios30"cold month"[29]October–November
6Cutios30unknown[30]November–December
7Giamonios29"winter's [month]"[31]December–January17th Giamonios, the day opposite trinoxtion Samonii (i.e. the full moon closest to midwinter) is marked NSDS
8Semiuisonna30unknown[32]January–February
9Equos30, 28, 29unknown[33]February–March
10Elembiu(os)29compare to the Celtic word for "deer" and the Attic Έλαφηβολιών "deer-hunting month".[34]March–April
11Aedrinios30compare with Old Irish aed "fire", "heat"[35]April–May
12Cantlos29compared with Welsh cathl, Old Irish cétal "song".May–June15th Cantlos is marked TIOCOBREXT(IO)[36]

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, and their names are consequently reconstructed with much less certainty. The name Quimonios is obtained from reading the very end of the first segment as QVIMON, The reconstucton of either *Rantaranos or *Bantaranos is based on reading [.]ANTARAN in the fifth line of the 32nd segment. Olmsted (1992) gives a tentative explanation of *Rantaranos as "the count in between".[37]

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References
  1. The arrangement by de Ricci misplaces four fragments according to Duval and Pinault (1986).
  2. Lehoux, D. R. Parapegmata: or Astrology, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World. PhD Dissertation, University of Toronto, 2000.
  3. Lambert p. 111. Coligny Calendar
  4. Duval, P.M. and Pinault, G., Recueil des inscriptions gauloises, Tome 3: Les Calendriers (Coligny, Villards d'Heria), CNRS, Paris, 1986, pp. 35-37.
  5. Lambert, Pierre-Yves, La langue gauloise, Editions Errance, 2nd edition, Paris, 2003, p.111
  6. Lejeune, Michel, "Notes d'etymologie gauloise" ("XI. Les 'Dix Nuits' de Grannos"), Études Celtiques, XXXI, 1995, 91-97.
  7. Olmsted, Garrett, "The Use of Ordinal Numerals on the Gaulish Coligny Calendar", The Journal of Indo-European Studies 16 (1988), p. 296.
  8. Dottin (1920:192); Lambert p. 116.
  9. 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.
  10. Bernhard Maier: Lexikon der keltischen Religion und Kultur. S. 81 f.
  11. Bernhard Maier: Die Religion der Kelten. Götter, Mythen, Weltbild, Stuttgart, 1994, 60f.
  12. Eóin MacNeill: On the Notation and Chronology of the Calendar of Coligny, Eriu X, 1928, 1-67.
  13. Garrett Olmsted: The Gaulish calendar (1992), ISBN 3-7749-2530-5. Garrett Olmsted: A Definitive Reconstructed Text of the Coligny Calendar (2001), ISBN 9780941694780
  14. Pliny, Naturalis Historia 16.95: "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." Bostock, John, Henry Thomas Riley (eds) (1855). Pliny the Elder, The Natural History Book 16, "the natural history of the forest trees". English translation (available online). Original Latin (also available). The Latin text of the specific passage 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.
  15. Burkard Steinrücken, Lunisolarkalender und Kalenderzahlen am Beispiel des Kalenders von Coligny (2012), pp. 7, 19.
  16. "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." Olmsted (1992:107).
  17. Garrett Olmsted: The Gaulish calendar, Bonn, 1992, p. 172.
  18. Garrett Olmsted: The Gaulish calendar, Bonn, 1992, pp. 76, 176-177
  19. Dottin (1920). "page 182". La langue gauloise [The Gaulish Language].
  20. 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, p. 52), c.f. Ivo, īwaz – but Zavaroni (2007, p. 97) suggests that in this context it means "(con)junction".
  21. Stern, Sacha (2012). Calendars in Antiquity. Oxford University Press. p. 305. ISBN 9780199589449. 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. INIS R always follows N in the preceding column. Annuaire. Librairie Droz. École Pratique des Hautes Études. 1966–1967. p. 220. ISBN 9782600053280.
  23. Birkhan, Helmut (1997). Kelten: Versuch einer Gesamtdarstellung ihrer Kultur. pp. 786 ff.
  24. Following the interpretation of MacNeill (1926), who places summer solstice in Samonios. This is also endorsed by Le Contel and Verdier (1997). A minority view is expressed by Monard (1999), who prefers to place the beginning of the year at autumnal equinox, resulting in a shift of a quarter of a year in the interpretation of the seasonal placements of the months. The mainstream view has the additional virtue of agreeing with several etymologizations, placing Riuros: "fat month" near harvest, Ogronnios: "cold month" in October/November, and agreement of both Elembiuios with Attic Έλαφηβολιών and Cutios with Locrian Κοούτιος.
  25. Likely an n-stem derivative (with a suffix of appurtenance, -io-) of the Common Celtic root *samo-: "summer", found in Old Irish sam, Welsh haf. Cf. Old Irish Samain: "(festival of the) First of November", "All-Hallows / All-Saints day" and Mithem, Mithemain: "Mid-summer, month of June", Middle Welsh Meheuin "June" (both from Common Celtic *Medi[o]-samVn [V="vowel", likely -o- or -u-], as well as Old Irish Cétamuin: "Month of May", "First of May", "May Day" (alternate name for Beltain), Welsh Cyntefin: "month of May" (both from Common Celtic *kintu-samonis: "beginning of Summer" Schrijver, Peter (1995). Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology. Rodopi. p. 265–266.
  26. Sanskrit dhūmah "smoke", Greek θύμος (thūmos): "soul, life, passion; anger, wrath" (also θύμιάω [thūmiaoo] "to burn, as incense", θύμα [thūma] "sacrificial offering"). Delamarre (2003)
  27. in which case, the original form may have been *Remros, with later shift of -e- to -i- [compare the alternation between Semi- and Simi- in Semuisonna] and lenition of internal -m-. Some scholars alternately suggest a connection with Old Irish réud, Welsh rhew: "cold".
  28. iterpreted as containing the negative prefix *an- and an agentive noun *agant- based on the root *ag-: "to go, to conduct, to lead". Cf. Old Irish ag: "to go, do, conduct", Welsh agit: "goes", perhaps yielding a sense of "month in which one does not travel".
  29. Birkhan (1997). An n-stem derivative of the Common Celtic root *ougros: "cold". Cf. Old Irish úar, Welsh oer. Delamarre (2003) further compares the root *oug- to Armenian oyc: "cold", Lithuanian auksts: "cold", and Latin a(u)ctumnus: "autumn".
  30. Delamarre (2003) compares guti: "to invoke" (in gutuater, a class of priests of the Carnutes). Sometimes also compared with Κοούτιος (Kooutios) in the Locrian calendar from Chaleion. Locrian Kooutios is equated to the third month of the Hellenic Federal calendar, which is in turn equated with Delphian Apellaios, corresponding to November. Samuel, Alan Edouard (1972). "volume 1 part 7, page 77". Greek and Roman Chronology: Calendars and Years in Classical Antiquity. C.H. Beck.
  31. an n-stem derivative (suffix of appurtenance -io-) derived from the Common Celtic root *giįamo-: "winter". Cf. Welsh gaeaf, Breton goañv, Old Irish gaim: "winter", Gamain: "month of November" (Delamarre, 2003).
  32. Perhaps Common Celtic *sēmi-: "half" plus *ues- "Spring(time)" or a compound containing a feminine form of the word for "sun", *sonna
  33. The often-cited comparison to the word for "horse" has limited acceptance because the Gaulish word for "horse" is epos, not equos (c.f. Epona). Those scholars who still retain the comparison are reduced to assuming "Q-Celtic dialectal features".
  34. cognate with Welsh elain and Old Irish elit: "doe, hind, young deer". The Attic calendar has a "Month of the Deer-hunt", Έλαφηβολιών (Elaphebolion), equivalent to March–April. Proto-Indo-European root *elen-bho-: "deer", which gave us English lamb and the Greek έλαφος (elaphos); Delamarre (2003).
  35. Greek αἰθήρ (aithēr): "bright sky, upper air, ether", ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *aidh- which also gave us Latin aestas: "summer" (Delamarre 2003).
  36. Delamarre (2003) proposes derivation from *tio-com-rextu- "day of justice", i.e. "doomsday, court day". Recorded three times for 15th Cantlos, besides for 7th Semiuisonna (year 4), 8th Elembiuios (year 3) and 7th Giamonios (year 3).
  37. Olmsted (1992, p 200). Only part of the first letter of [.]ANTARAN remains visible, it could be either R, B, or S.

Bibliography
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