Archéologie

Extrait de I.A Richmond : Roman Britain.

Étymologie : 

A. Vercovivium : 

* Rivet & Smith : 

SOURCES

Inscription : - RIB 1594 (Housesteads; = Burn, 1969, No. 147, pp. 113-14) : an altar set up by the GER(MANI) CIVES TUIHANTI CUNEI FRISIORUM VER(COVICIANORUM); it dates to the reign of Severus Alexander, murdered in A.D. 225

- Ravenna 107₂₇ (=R&C 149): VELURTION (Schnetz lists no variants; R&C read VELURCION)

- ND XL₄₀: Tribunus cohortis primae Tungrorum, BORCOUICIO (vars. BORCOUITIO, BOREOUITO)

There can be no doubt of the correct form of the name. It was long quoted as Borcovicium, following ND; the inscription, discovered in 1883, was not at first read as above, but it now provides evidence of the first syllable. In ND's forms b/v is a common Vulgar Latin confusion, and o for e is a not uncommon copying error. Ravenna's seriously confused entry has less reason behind it.

DERIVATION.

 *uerco- *uergo- is listed by Holder III. 213 and Dottin LG 297 as a noun, 'work' (it is cognate with English ' work '), as found adjectivally when Latin efficax is glossed by Breton guerg, and as present in the Irish verbs do(f)airci 'efficit, parat' and fairged 'faciebat'. Its best-known appearance is in vergobretus (Caesar I, 16, 5 : vergobretum, acc.), chief magistrale of the Aedui of Gaul, in other tribes, and attested on an inscription of Saintes (CIL XIII 1048) and on Gaulish coins; the title means 'judicio efficax' according to Zeuss. This has been very generally accepted, but is challenged by Guyonvarc'h in Ogam, XI (1959), 66-80; he does not think the Breton gloss satisfactory and notes that there are no modem descendants of the word guerg, but does not quite reach a conclusion about a new meaning. The element is known in a few personal names but in no other place-names. The second element is that discussed under DELGOVICIA, but the parallel of LONGOVICIUM is closer. The full sense is probably 'place of the *Vercovices', and they are (despite Guyonvarc'h's réservation) 'effective fighters'. This need not imply the existence of an unknown tribe, for the name could be one applied by the British to the first Roman garrison of the fort, hypothetically British *Uercouices, with *-io-(-ium) derivational suffix.

IDENTIFICATION. The Roman fort at Housesteads, Northumberland (NY 7968).

*****

B. Housesteads : 

pour info, le mot anglais stead signifie : place, et désigne donc ici "le lieu de ..." ?  (en attente).

Sources : 

* Eilert EKWALL : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1936 - 1980.

* I.A RICHMOND : Roman Britain. Penguin. Books. 1955 - 1973.

* Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain. 1956.

* A.L.F RIVET & Colin SMITH : Place-Names of Roman Britain. Batsford Ltd. London. 1979 - 1982.

* A.D MILLS : Oxford Dictionary of British Place-names. Oxford University Press. 1991 - 2003.

- envoi de : 

Liens électroniques des sites Internet traitant de Housesteads / Vercovicium :   

* lien communal : 

* forum du site Marikavel : Academia Celtica

hast buan, ma mignonig    vas vite, mon petit ami

go fast, my little friend