Ligures

"Liguri" redirects here. For other uses, see Ligure (disambiguation).
Ethnolinguistic map of Italy in the Iron Age, before the Roman expansion and conquest of Italy. Ligures are located in the upper left corner of the map (green).

The Ligures or Ligurians were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day north-western Italy, is named.[1]

In pre-Roman times, the Ligurians occupied the present-day Italian region of Liguria, Piedmont, northern Tuscany, western Lombardy, western Emilia-Romagna and northern Sardinia, reaching also Elba and Sicily.[2][3] They inhabited also the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Corsica.[4][5][6][7] However, it is generally believed that around 2000 BC, the Ligurians occupied a much larger area, extending as far as what is today Catalonia (in the north-eastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula).[8][9][10]

The origins of the ancient Ligurians are unclear, and an autochthonous origin is increasingly probable. What little is known today about the ancient Ligurian language is based on placenames and inscriptions on steles representing warriors.[11][12] The lack of evidence does not allow a certain linguistic classification; it may be Pre-Indo-European[13] or an Indo-European language.[14]

Because of the strong Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were also known in antiquity as Celto-Ligurians.[15]

  1. ^ Maggiani, Adriano (2004). "Popoli e culture dell'Italia preromana. I Liguri". Il Mondo dell'Archeologia (in Italian). Rome: Treccani editore. Retrieved September 14, 2019. Alla relativa abbondanza delle fonti letterarie circa queste popolazioni, che una parte della critica storiografica di tradizione ottocentesca voleva estese dal Magra all'Ebro, non corrisponde un panorama archeologico altrettanto ricco, che anzi, anche all'interno della Liguria storica, è ben lungi dal presentare caratteri unitari.
  2. ^ Leonard Robert Palmer, The Latin Language, London: Faber and Faber, 1954, p. 54
  3. ^ Sciarretta, Antonio (2010). Toponomastica d'Italia. Nomi di luoghi, storie di popoli antichi. Milano: Mursia. pp. 174–194. ISBN 978-88-425-4017-5.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Malden was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Strabo, Geography, book 4, chapter 6
  6. ^ Livy, History of Rome, book XLVII
  7. ^ Smith, William (1872). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: J. Murray. pp. 689–692. Downloadable Google Books.
  8. ^ "Ligurian | people".
  9. ^ Francisco Villar, Los Indoeuropeos y los origines de Europa: lenguaje e historia, Madrid, Gredos, 1991,
  10. ^ "Ligures en España" Martín Almagro Basch
  11. ^ "Sulle pietre dell'Appennino l'antica cultura dei Liguri". 18 June 2019.
  12. ^ Tintorri, Ivan; Adolfo, Zavaroni. "Pietre Con Scritte e Figure dei Liguri Friniati Alle Caselle di Ospitale (Appennino Modenese)".
  13. ^ "Liguri". Enciclopedie on line. Treccani.it (in Italian). Rome: Treccani -Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. 2011. Le documentazioni sulla lingua dei Liguri non ne permettono una classificazione linguistica certa (preindoeuropeo di tipo mediterraneo? Indoeuropeo di tipo celtico?).
  14. ^ "Ligurian language". Britannica.com. 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
  15. ^ Baldi, Philip (2002). The Foundations of Latin. Walter de Gruyter. p. 112.