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A Definitive Reconstructed Text of the Coligny Calendar
By Garrett S. Olmsted
The fragmentary calendar plate from Coligny (near Lyons) apparently dates to the second-century AD,
although the Gaulish calendar engraved on this plate is plainly the result of a long transmission
process. The 25-year-cycle calendar, the final system of this transmission process, probably
originated early in the first-century BC, before Caesar's conquest. It is within this late
pre-Roman period that the calendar took on its final form and notation to enter a two-century
long transmission process. Since only 40% of the original Coligny calendar survives as a
fragmentary mosaic, the reconstruction of the original whole depends upon recognizing
repetitive patterns and filling in the missing sequences of these patterns. The most significant
of these patterns is that discerned in the schemes of the TII and the N lunar/solar counting
marks and their associated notation. Here the chronological cycles implied by these notational
patterns are explained in detail. Also provided is a glossary of the functional and etymological
significance of terms utilized in these daily notational patterns.
The fragmentary calendar is brought to photographic completion utilizing the original
wording and engraving found on the surviving fragments.
| ISBN 0-941694-78-X |
Paperback, 70 plates, 120 pages: $40.00 |
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LRC