Searcher Master 23/11/09 21:38 Page 48 The Celtic coin that By Chris Rudd says it is Celtic An ancient bronze coin from southern Spain, published in September by Dr Oliver Simkin of the University of Cambridge, has raised a few eyebrows. Not because of its great rarity (only a handful of examples have been recorded), nor on account of its excellent condition (one of the finest known specimens), but due to its unusual inscription which clearly proclaims that the coin is of Celtic origin. Thousands of different coin types of iron age Europe are classed as ‘Celtic’ by collectors and dealers, including hundreds which were Bronze as of Celti, 32-35mm, c.200-50 BC. An important and extremely rare coin, usually minted by people who probably found near Peñaflor, Seville prov., S.Spain. Picture by Elizabeth Cottam. never thought of themselves as Keltoi or Celtae, but this coin from arguably reinforces the hypothesis indicate the presence of Celts since ancient Iberia is the only one which that Celti was originally established 1673, and although some people unmistakably states that it was made in the bronze age by indigenous remain unconvinced, the theory has by Celts. Celts in southern Spain and not been defended in the literature right The coin is a large bronze as with by Celtiberian migrants from north- up to the present day (most famously a laureate male bust on the obverse central Spain. Dr Simkin says: by Antonio Tovar, e.g. 1962:360). and a boar standing on a spear-head “Apart from a modern fake with This would apparently make our on the reverse. It was struck sometime a bull instead of a boar, this is the CELTITAN bronze the only known in the 2nd/1st century BC at an only coin type from Celti; the similar attestation of the ethnonym ‘Celt’ in Andalusian town called Celti which but uninscribed jabalí-clava series is a coin legend: in other words, the can confidently be identified with sometimes attributed to Celti, but only Celtic coin that says it is. present-day Peñaflor on the Villaronga rejects this. However, Guadalquivir river in the province there are three types of lead tesserae of Seville, southern Spain. Dr Simkin or plomos monetiformes, all either says: “Leandre Villaronga dates it to unique or extremely rare: one with 200-150 BC, although Fernando a similar design to our coin, another Alvarez Burgos considers a later with a monogram CELTITAN on one date possible. Despite suggestions side and a boar on the other, and a that the reverse shows a military third, smaller type bearing the legend boar standard of the Gaulish or CELTE with a garland above and a Roman type, the iconography metal weight or ingot below, and a Lead tessera of Celti, 45mm. Boar r., mallet couldn’t come from anywhere else but above, pellet triad below, knife before, reverse apparently depicting a miner vegetal border./ CELTITAN monogram, mallet Andalusia: the distinctive young male carrying a shovel. Lead tesserae have (or T) above, club (or I) below, pellet head with its wreath and trailing often been linked to mining, and border. Unique? Picture by Rafael Rodríguez Hernandez, in ribbons is found on the coinage of the region around Peñaflor was an A.Casariego, G.Cores, F.Pliego, Catalago de several other towns in the region, important source of metal ores. To plomos monetiformes de la Hispania as is the curly-tailed boar.” the right of the miner is what’s Antigua, Madrid, 1987. This elusive Andalusian bronze described as an altar with a strigil coin is of great fascination to Celtic and unguentarium on top, perhaps Is this plausible? Well, there collectors because it is the only indicating that it functioned as a certainly were Celts in Spain. In fact, ancient coin which carries the world bath token. the vast majority of Celtic place-names CELT. It is also hugely important – The ethnonym Celtitanus turns and town ethnonyms on coins come archaeologically, historically, up again in Latin inscriptions from not from Britain or Gaul but from numismatically, linguistically – the region, and the town Celti is Spain, as does the longest ancient because its Latin inscription mentioned in various ancient sources Celtic text in existence (Botorrita III). CELTITAN, short for Celtitanorum (Pliny’s Natural History, the These were produced by the or Celtitanum (made by the ‘people Antonine Itinerary and the Ravenna Celtiberians of central and NE Spain, of Celti’) – or perhaps even Celtitani Cosmography, which calls it Celtum). but there were Celts outside Celtiberia (using the boar’s tusk as a letter I) – The place-name has been taken to too: Galicia seems to have been firmly 48 | The Searcher January 2010 Searcher Master 23/11/09 21:39 Page 49 Celtic, and classical authors describe the widespread. However, there was absolutely de las antigüedades romanas que hay en inhabitants of southern Portugal and SW no evidence for the latter and, consequently, Espana, en especial las pertenecientes a las Spain as Keltoi or Keltikoi/Celtici. A neat there would be little justification for Bellas Artes, Madrid, 1832, 275); and the way to map the presence of Celts in Spain is suggesting that Celti was founded by ‘Celtic’ names Celtitana and Celtitanus occur on to plot the place-names ending in -briga (the populations moving southwards. Instead, the stone inscriptions found at Peñaflor Celtic for ‘hill, hillfort’), which gives a line material culture of protohistoric Celti seems (CIL II 2332, 2326). that curves across Spain diagonally. Our town to have been entirely regional [my italics] That bronze coins inscribed CELTITAN of Celti is on the non-Celtic side, but only in character.” (S.Keay, J.Creighton, were minted at or near Peñaflor was just; furthermore, it’s near two sites with the J.R.Rodriguez, Celti Peñaflor: the mentioned by A.Delgado, Nuevo método well-known Celtic names Segida/Segeida and archaeology of a Hispano-Roman town de classifcacioƒ de las medallas autónomas Segovia. Consequently, John Koch’s Atlas for in Baetica, Oxbow 2000, 197). de Espana, 3 vols. Seville, 1871-76, and has subsequently been confirmed by all modern Iberian numismatists including A.Vives, La Moneda hispánica, 4 vols., Madrid, 1924-26; A.M.de Guadan, Numismática ibérica e ibero-romano, Madrid, 1969; L.Villaronga, Numismática antigua de Hispania, Barcelona, 1979, and Corpus nummorum Hispaniae ante Augusti aetatem, Barcelona, 1994; X.& F.Calico, Catálogo de Monedas Lead tessera of Celti, 20-26mm. Naked miner Antiguas de Hispania, Barcelona, 1979; and walking r., shovel on shoulder, strigil and ?unguentarium in front./ CELTE, garland above, F.A.Burgos, La Moneda Hispanica, Madrid, weight or ingot below. Extremely rare. 1987, 2008. Picture by Rafael Rodríguez Hernandez, in A.Casariego, G.Cores, F.Pliego, Catalago de plomos monetiformes de la Hispania Antigua, Madrid, 1987. Celtic Studies (2007), which includes all apparently Celtic names and not just those in ending -briga, places Celti on the Celtic side The town walls of Celti were first built c.late of the dividing line. The next question is 7th/early 6th century BC, perhaps by indigenous Celts (not Celtiberian migrants), which is probably whether Spanish Celtic-speakers actually how Celti got its Celtic name. identified themselves as Celts. This is much Photo by Simon Keay, in S.Keay, J.Creighton, more controversial: it’s often said that the J.R.Rodriguez, Celti Peñaflor, Oxbow, 2000. term keltoi was originally restricted to Gaul, and was only applied to other Celtic-speaking So how did Celti acquire what seems to populations secondarily, by the Greek and be a Celtic name? And when? Linguist Prof. Romans. However, Untermann (2001) argues John Koch believes that Celtic could have that keltikoi, at least, really was a genuine been spoken in southern Iberia as early as self-designation of the Spanish Celts.” the Bronze Age and may even have Commenting on the archaeological history developed there (see J.Koch, Mapping of Celti, based chiefly on the survey and Celticity, in C.Gosden, H.Hamerow, excavations of 1987-1992, archaeologist P. de Jersey, G.Lock (eds.), Communities Simon Keay of the University of Southampton and Connections, Oxford 2007, 263-386; The site of ancient Celti, with modern Peñaflor in says: “If one accepts that the Peñaflor site is also Chris Rudd List 100, 2008, 5). Personally the foreground and the Guadalquivir behind. Photo by Simon Keay, in S.Keay, J.Creighton, to be identified with Celti, the etymology of I have no doubt whatsoever that Celti was J.R.Rodriguez, Celti Peñaflor, Oxbow, 2000. the name, Celti, could be taken to suggest founded by Celts in the Bronze Age, which that there was some connection between the is how the town got its name and which is site and the settlements in northern Spain, why the above coin, though inscribed in If ever an ancient coin could be described where Celtic toponyms, anthroponyms and Latin, bears the legend CELTITAN. Can as ‘Celtic’, it must surely be this one. aspects of ‘Celtic’ material culture were we be sure that this coin was minted at Celti Though almost certainly minted after the and that Celti was at Peñaflor? Yes, we can. creation of the Roman provincia of Hispania Though there were two tribes in Iberia Ulterior in 197 BC (Livy 32.27.6) and called Celtici, there was only one town though it shows the influence of Rome, recorded as Celti and finds of this coin have especially in its Latin inscription, this coin usually been from around Peñaflor and a overtly reveals the distant ancestral Celtic few examples have been unearthed by metal origins of the town that produced it.