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Noms de lieux * Anoioù lec'hioù

Noms de personnes * Anaoioù tud

21/10/2014 20:39:48

Extrait de la carte Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain

Sources : 

* A.L.F RIVET & C. SMITH : Place-names of Roman Britain, p 342.

- Ptolémée, II,3,13 : Doumnonioi ( = DUMNONII); variante Damnonioi ( DAMNONII).

- Itinéraire d'Antonin, 486_8-9 et 486₁₇ (Iter XV) : ISCA DUMNONIORUM; id. 483₈ (Iter XII)

- Ravenna, 106₂ : SCADUM NAMORUM; variante : SCA DEMNAMORUM;

- Ravenna, 106_6-9 : Iterum iuxta super scriptam civitatem SCADONIORUM est civitas que dicitur ...

- Table de Peutinger : ISCADUMNONIORUM.

- Inscription, RIB 1843 : une pierre de construction provenant du Mur d'Hadrien non loin de Thirwall Castle : CIVITAS DUMNONI(ORUM) (datée vers 369).

- Inscription : RIB 1843, a building-stone from Hadrian's Wall near Carvoran : CIVITAS DUM(NO)NI(ORUM) 

- Inscription : RIB 1844, a building-stone from Hadrian's Wall near Thirlwall Castle : CIVITAS DUMNONI-(ORUM)

(both are probably of A.D. 369) 

The name is also present in a passage of Solinus (22, 7) as restored by Mommsen : see SILURA.

There can be no doubt that the correct form of this name is Dumnonii, precisely as in Dumnonii², a northern offshoot or related body. The forms in -a- are repeated not only in records of Dumnonii2 and Dumnonium Promontorium, but also in the case of Dumnonia (the region) in Gildas 28, where MS variants include Damnone, Dannoniae, Domnanie (gen.). The purely scribal nature of this error can be demonstrated also in the variant with -a- in Ravenna 106₂ (a text in which a for u is a common error); its repetition may tell something about the tradition and sources of our texts.

DERIVATION. The basis of the name is British *dubno- *dumno-, discussed under DUMNA, with the frequent *-on(o)- suffix (see BREMETENACUM). Related names in Ireland include Inber Domnann, the old name of Malahide Bay north of Dublin, Erris Domnann in Co. Mayo, in which according to Rhys (1904) 298 Domnann is thé genitive of an original *Domnû, she being the goddess who was their eponymous ancestress. This is supported by the people known as the Fir Domnann, who were said by the Irish to be of British, not Goidelic, stock. Jackson in Britannia, I (1970), 75, interprets their name as meaning 'men (i.e. worshippers) of (the god) *Dumnu or *Dumnonu' since early Irish names in Fer, plural Fir. are often followed by a divine name in the genitive. The British tribes are thus probably also 'worshippers of (the god) *Dumnonos'; perhaps he is 'the mysterious one'. The suggestion of Watson. CPNS 26, taking *dubno- *dumna- in its basic sense, that both tribes were 'men of the deep', that is 'miners', is not convincing, because although the people of Cornwall produced tin and those in Scotland had iron there is no evidence for true mining as such in the appropriate period in either case.

The name of the region of the present Dumnonii, Dumnonia, is first known to us in Gildas (see above). From it or from the tribal name derives - via Anglo-saxon Defnas 'men of Devon' - the modern Devon; see LHEB 275, 488, 675.

IDENTIFICATION. A people of south-western Britain with their capital at Isca, Exeter. Ptolemy also attributes to them Voliba, Uxella, and Tamara, all unidentified but all placed in the south-western peninsula, while the name Dumnonium Promontorium extends them to the Lizard. They occupied Devon, Cornwall and perhaps part of Somerset".

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Explication étymologique :

- A.L.F Rivet & C. Smith :  la tribu qui est sous le vocable d'une déesse *Dumnu, ou *Dumnonu.

- JC Even :  Le nom des Dumnonii / Damnonii est emphatique : il correspond à la racine *D°m- = monde, pour désigner les maîtres du Monde. (cf. latin : Dominus)

Histoire : 

Compte tenu des positions observées des différents rameaux des Dumnonii / Dumnonii, on peut affirmer que ceux-ci ont constitué la deuxième vague indo-européenne, qualifiable de 'celtique', en Île de Bretagne. On peut donc envisager qu'ils seraient apparus dans l'Île entre 750 et 500 avant J-C, soumettant ou repoussant la vague antérieure des *Kr°n- . Les Dumnonii / Damnonii semblent avoir pour correspondants irlandais la tribu des Fuir Domnann.

Ils ont été eux-mêmes absorbés ou repoussés par la vague suivante, le groupe des Brigantes, apparentés probablement aux Tuatha De Danann d'Irlande. C'est probablement la raison pour laquelle ont les trouve dispersés en trois groupes, les Dumnonii au nord, les Dobunni et les Damnonii au sud-ouest. 

Les Dumnonii, dont l'oppidum était Isca, ont été soumis par Vespasien, alors général de la Legio II Augusta, pour le compte de l'empereur Néron, vers 55-57 après J-C.

La majeure partie de la cité britto-romaine des Dumnonii, jusqu'à la rivière Tamara, y compris la capitale, Caer-Esk / Exeter, est tombée aux mains du roi West-Saxon Ceanwalh, après la bataille de Peonnan (Pinhoe ?) / Penselwood, en 658, et scindée en deux parties : celle de l'est conserve le nom sous la forme évoluée Dibnenia > Dyfneint > Devon; celle de l'ouest reste sous contrôle britto-romain, et est de ce fait appelée Cerniu-Wealas > Cornwall = le secteur / coin / cap des Bretons.

 

658 : " In this year Cenwalh fought at Penselwood against the Welsh, and drove them in flight as far as the Parret. This battle was fought after his return from East Anglia, where he was for three years in exile ..." Extrait de : Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; The Parker Chronicle. Translated by G.N. Garmonsway.

Bibliographie. 

* Autres sites Internet traitant des Dumnonii : 

* forum du site Marikavel : Academia Celtica 

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