Игувин тақталары: ежелгі үмбри тіліндегі діни жазбалар

Bronze tables containing inscriptions in Italic languages

The Iguvine Tablets, also known as the Eugubian Tablets or Eugubine Tables, are a series of seven bronze tablets from ancient Iguvium (modern Gubbio), Italy, written in the ancient Italic language Umbrian. The earliest tablets, written in the native Umbrian alphabet, were probably produced in the 3rd century BC, and the latest, written in the Latin alphabet, from the 1st century BC. The tablets contain religious inscriptions that memorialize the acts and rites of the Atiedian Brethren, a group of 12 priests of Jupiter with important municipal functions at Iguvium. The religious structure present in the tablets resembles that of the early stage of Roman religion, reflecting the Roman archaic triad and the group of gods more strictly related to Jupiter. Discovered in a farmer's field near Scheggia in the year 1444, they are currently housed in the Civic Museum of the Palazzo dei Consoli in Gubbio. The tablets are the longest document of any of the Osco Umbrian group of languages, which are closely related to Latin. The tablets shed light on the grammar of the language, and also on the religious practices of the ancient peoples of Italy, including the archaic religion of the Romans. Parts of tablets VI and VII appear to be written in an accentual metre, similar to the Saturnian metre that is encountered in the earliest Latin poetry. The complete text, together with a translation into Latin, was published in 1849 by Aufrecht and Kirkhoff, in London in 1863 by Francis Newman, and in 1931 by Albrecht von Blumenthal. G. Devoto's edition dates from 1948. James W. Poultney publishedThe Bronze Tables of Iguvium in 1959 (which received the Goodwin Award in 1961), which included English translations along with notes, a glossary, etc. Although the general meaning of the tablets is clear, there are still some debated points and issues. The main difficulty in understanding the text is insufficient knowledge of Umbrian vocabulary. These are the only documents with details of sacred rituals from the ancient religions of Europe which have survived in an almost complete state. Moreover, their content deals with the rituals (sacrifices and prayers) addressed to the highest gods of the local community and to some extent may reflect the common religious beliefs and practices of the Italic peoples. The modern Festival of Ceri, celebrated every year in Gubbio on May 15 in honor of Bishop Ubald or Ubaldo of Gubbio (1084–1160), shares certain features with the rites described in the text and so may be a survival of that ancient pre Christian custom. It is also celebrated in Jessup, Pennsylvania, a town with a large number of immigrants from the Gubbio area, as Saint Ubaldo Day.

There are two versions of the discovery of the tablets. The first one says that a farmer found them in a field near Scheggia in 1444. After his death, his son in law with his wife and his sister in law sold them to the city of Gubbio with a notarial deed on 25 August 1456 for two years' worth of farming rights. Since Scheggia was the site of the temple of Jupiter Apenninus, an important Umbrian sanctuary, it is conceivable that the plates were kept in the temple itself. The second version, first attested in the 17th century, states that the tablets were found in a basement of the Roman theater in Gubbio. However, given that all the actors involved in the sale of the tablets were natives of Scheggia, that the tradition of finding them in Scheggia has been attested in Scheggia itself since at least the early 1600s, and that the sources of the Gubbio find at the same time attested that the tablets were originally nine and that two of them, loaned to Venice, were never returned (which is patently false), it is likely that the latter version of the Gubbio find has a chauvinistic origin. They are inscribed in Italic alphabet derived from Etruscan (T. I to Vb 8) and in Latin alphabet (T. Vb 9 onwards, VI, VII).

The study of the ductus (writing style), conducted by comparing the tablets with other inscriptions from the area of Central Italy, has allowed scholars to conclude that they date from no later than the end of the 3rd century for T. III and IV to the first half of the 1st century for the latest T. VI and VII.

Tablets I to V present their topic in a concise, matter of fact manner. Tablets VI and VII repeat the same subject as Tablet I in a much more detailed and diluted way, with apparent literary and encomiastic intentions and overtones. The content of the tablets is given below, in their relative order of antiquity as established by Newman on the authority of Aufrecht and Kirchhoff, which is identical to that recently indicated by A. Maggiani.

Sacrifice to Puemonos Popricos and Vesuna. General prescriptions concerning the holding of the sacrifice, sacrifice of the ovis (lamb) to Puemonos and Vesuna near a sacred grove. Containing details on the choice of the ohtur (auctor, head, perhaps augur) of the ceremony, the dispositions of the ritual instruments, the ritual invocations for the safety of the city to Iove Patre and Puemonos, the distribution of the sacrificial meat and the libations.

The gods of this triad receive sacrifices in correspondence with those of the major one but these gods are honoured within the town gates. Trebos Iovios corresponds to Iove Grabovios, Fisus Sancius to Marte Grabovios and Tefer Iovios to Vofionos Grabovios. They received sacrifices of three pregnant sows, three suckling pigs and three ewe lambs respectively. Only the identity of the second one is known with any degree of certainty from attestations of his existence in Rome and elsewhere in Italy. In Rome he is known as Semo Sancus Dius Fidius. It is odd that he is here associated with Mars while his association with Jupiter would seem more well grounded theologically. The topic has been the object of a study by Dominique Briquel: he opines the reason should lie in the repressive and henceforth military connotation of the notion of divine sanction of the law. This aspect is particularly relevant as to the divine sanction of the town wall, a fact which is of primary concern in the content of the Tablets. Trebos in Trebos Iovios is usually understood as corresponding in meaning to Latin trabs, ridge of the roof. Tefer of Tefer Iovios is often explained as burner, from the IE root *tep heat. This interpretation though is very debated. Both Benveniste and Dumézil have argued that the Iguvine triads are just another testimony of their three functional hypothesis of IE religion. In particular the sacrificial offerings roughly correspond to those of Rome in their three functional significance and the sixfold invocations of VIa 30 and 39, VIb 13 and 32 (nerf, arsmo; veiro, peiquo; castruo, fri: princes, priests; men, cattle; fields, land produce) show a direct connection to the sovereign, military and productive activities.

Many scholars, from Bücheler to Prosdocimi, opine this deity is an underworld god of agricultural fertility and plenty on the grounds of the sacrifice of puppies he receives at his festival. Prosdocimi calls it the intermestruae cereales: the declaration of the dog is set at the climax of the feriae. Jörg Rüpke remarks the association of Hondos with Jupiter is one among the numerous in the tablets, in which a complex multilevel and hierarchic structure of relationship among theonyms is envisaged. This phenomenon would put the god into a sort of host–guest relationship with the one given in the attributive. In the case of Hondos this feature is apparent also in the fact that his cults at the Hondia festival take place in the Jovian Grove but those at the lustration of the citadel (when the god bears the epithet of Çerfios) in the Coredian Grove. It has been suggested that the theonym Hunte Çefi (Honde Serfi), referring to a chthonic god, derives from the Proto Indo European root *ǵʰōm to 'earth', a stem attested in several branches.

These deities are invoked and receive sacrifices aimed at obtaining their favour for the protection of the arx itself, of the community and of the fields in connexion to the lustration rites of the Iguvian citadel at different locations of augural relevance. The rites concerning the Praestota and the two Tursae involve a complex of libations aimed at obtaining a twofold action: the safety for the Iguvine community and the offsetting and expulsion of its traditional enemies. The debated points are few as far as the Praestota and Tursa are concerned. The two theonyms correspond to the Latin Iuppiter Praestes, Iuppiter Praestitus, Iuppiter Praestabilis and the Lares Praestites. Tursa corresponds to god Terminus, being the deity that represents the boundaries of the city at different locations of augural relevance: these are without and within the city for Tursa Çerfia and Tursa Iovia respectively (TI I b; VII a). Such a meaning is connected to the Umbrian word for border, tuder: Tursa is written Tuda in the Etruscan tablets, the intervocalic d being pronounced as a weak rs (i. e.: ḍ). Dumézil on the other hand, on the grounds of the function of Tursa, a deity whose action is to scare, inspire terror into the enemies, opines the theonym derives from a verbal root equivalent to Latin terreo, I scare (interpreting accordingly tursitu, tremitu in VIb 60). There is no agreement among scholars on the meaning of the epithet Çerfios and as to whether this is also a theonym, i. e. Çerfos Martios is a god different from Mars or not. An inscription from Corfinium reads: Çerfom sacaracicer Semunes sua[d, "priest of the Çerfi and the Semones", placing side by side the two categories of entities, the çerfi and the semunes. Çerfos is most times associated to IE root *ker(s) and Latin theonyms Ceres and Cerus. This view though might create interpretative problems concerning the theology of Mars and of the two deities who in Rome are associated with the sphere of law and defence, i. e. gods Jupiter and Semo Sancus Dius Fidius. Georg Wissowa and Dumézil both underline that the derivation from root *ker(s) is not certain: Umbrian group rf could have a different origin than rs.

Marte and Hondos appear also under these epithets. Here too the only certain indication is from Roman Heres (or Here) Martea, connected with heres, he who inherits and also dominus, the position of master of the house. Some scholars though connect the epithet to Latin adjective fodius, he who destroys. The two gods both receive sacrifices of male calves in the rites for the lustration of the citadel at the Iovian and Coredian groves respectively; theirs are the last in the series of sacrifices after the two triads and before the execration of the enemies. God Hondos receives the epithet Iovios in II and that of Çerfios in VI. This fact raises the question of whether these epithets were used alternatively in connexion with local or temporal constraints. Another similar instance is that of Tursa Çerfia and Tursa Iovia, who are found without and within the pomerium respectively.

This divine couple appears only in tablets III and IV, the most ancient ones. Puemonos's name seems to be related with Roman goddess Pomona; moreover both the name itself and the epithet Popricos (Publicus) hint towards a universal fertility god, similar to Latin god Liber. Vesuna is also found on a coin from Marsian territory.

O. de Cazanove observes Iguvinian theonyms appear to be compound formations of two, three and four terms: they may consist of a substantive plus an epithet (e. g. Hondos Iovios, Tursa Iovia, Puemonos Podpricos), of a substantive plus a possessive phrase plus epithet (e. g. Vesuna of Puemonos Podpricos) and of a substantive plus epithet plus possessive phrase plus epithet (e. g. Prestota Çerfia of Çerfios Martios, Tursa Çerfia of Çerfios Martios). In his view this situation is comparable to that of Rome where are recorded purely functional deities in the pontifical books. These divinities were invoked in the prayers according to the Roman rite as mentioned by Gellius: "Lua Saturni, Salacia Neptuni, Hora Quirini, Virites Quirini, Maia Vulcani, Heries Iunonis, Moles Martis, Nerio Martis". These entities would be a concrete representation of the powers of their respective god. At Iguvium though the situation looks more complex and less fixed as Tursa and Hondos are alternatively Çerfian and Martian and Çerfian and Iovian respectively.

Some other deities are known just because they are mentioned occasionally in specifying the limits of augural observation (included those of the town). These theonyms are for the most part known in Roman religion. They are Tursa and (possibly) Hulos in IV 17 and 19 respectively, Vestisios (Libasius) apparently god of libations (possibly related to Latin Vesta and Padella (cf. Roman goddess Patella), goddess of opening sheaves in VIa 14. Possibly adjective deueia of Asa Deueia (VIa 9, 10) implies a cult of the sky under the name Dius, Dia, similar to that of Dea Dia outside Rome (Ancellotti & Cerri).

The Attidian brethren had an arsfertur (literally the Umbrian equivalent of Latin adfertor, i. e. "he who carries something to somewhere", clearly referring to a role in the ceremonies, holder of the pirca arsmatia, ceremonial rod). Other mentioned offices include the fratrecs interpreted as curator arcae, the cvestor and the prinovatus, probably agrimensors, attendants of the person who takes the auspices. An ohtor (auctor) is mentioned in T. III and IV: the term denotes the person responsible for the ceremony.

Latin sources concerning the cooking of the viscera underline the difference between the Etruscan and Roman customs distinguishing the exta aulicocta boiled in the olla extaris before the offering to the god, from the Tuscan exta roasted in veru and partly eaten during the sacrificial rite. At Iguvium the description of some sacrificial rites documents both the use of spits for the viscera and the presence of prosiciae displayed on the table of the offerings beside the fire and perhaps consecrated and burnt to the gods.

Augural practices are presented in the tablets, most notably in the last two ones. They include the praeire verba, i. e. the uttering of the words to be repeated by the arfertur, the legum dictio, the rules for the taking of the auspices such as silence (silentium) and the avoidance of other incidents, the definition of the boundaries of the augural templum, the nuntiatio, announcement of the appearance of the expected signs from birds, the circumambulation of the army with fire. Tablet VIa begins with an augural song. Here below is the text (VIa 1 5) with Poultney's translation of the passage:

Rules for the observation of bird signs are given in VIa 15 18: below a certain boundary line (hondra esto tudero VIa 15) defined previously, the augur must see and hear the verse of a parfa (parrha) and a crow; above that line (supu) he must see and hear a woodpecker peiqu and a magpie peica.

Studies have been devoted recently to identifying the location of the rituals described in the tablets, particularly of the Fisian Arx, which has been placed with certainty on Monte Ingino, to the southwest of Gubbio.