Editing Lepontii (section)

{{Short description|Ancient Celtic people of the Alps}}
{{Expand Italian|Leponzi|date=April 2012}}
[[File:Römische Provinzen im Alpenraum ca 14 n Chr.png|thumb|right|300px|Map of the Alpine provinces as of AD 14, showing the position of the Lepontii within [[Rhaetia]] and north of [[Gallia Transpadana]]]]
[[File:Historische Karte CH Helvet.png|thumb|300px|[[Celts|Celtic]] (orange) and [[Rhaetic language|Rhaetic]] (green) settlements in [[Switzerland]]]] The '''Lepontii''' were an ancient [[Celts|Celtic]] people<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Walser|first=Gerold|date=2006|title=Lepontii|journal=Brill's New Pauly|doi=10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e701750|quote=A Celtic tribe in the Central Alps}}</ref><ref>John T. Koch (ed.) ''Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia'' ABC-CLIO (2005), pp. 1142–1143 {{ISBN|978-1-85109-440-0}}</ref> occupying portions of [[Rhaetia]] (in modern [[Switzerland]] and [[Northern Italy]]) in the [[Alps]] during the late Bronze Age/Iron Age. Recent archeological excavations and their association with the [[Golasecca culture]] (9th-7th centuries BC) and [[Canegrate culture]] (13th century BC)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Percivaldi|first1=Elena|title=I Celti: una civiltà europea|date=2003|location=Firenze|pages=22}}</ref> point to a Celtic affiliation. From the analysis of their language<ref>M. Lejeune, Lepontica, Parigi 1971.</ref> and the place names of the old Lepontic areas,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sciarretta|first1=Antonio|title=Toponomastica d'Italia. Nomi di luoghi, storie di popoli antichi|year=2010|publisher=Mursia|location=Milano|isbn=978-88-425-4017-5|pages=143–173}}</ref> it was hypothesized that these people represent a layer similar to that Celtic but previous to the Gallic penetration in the Po valley. The suggestion has been made that the Lepontii may have been celticized [[Ligurians]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge Ancient History: Plates, New ed.|date=1988|publisher=University Press|pages=718}}</ref>

The chief towns of the Lepontii were ''Oscela'', now [[Domodossola]], Italy, and ''Bilitio'', now [[Bellinzona]], Switzerland. Their territory included the southern slopes of the [[St. Gotthard Pass]] and [[Simplon Pass]], corresponding roughly to present-day [[Ossola]] and [[Ticino]].

A [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Maps/Periods/Roman/Places/Europe/Rhaetia/1.html map of Rhaetia] shows the location of the Lepontic territory, in the south-western corner of Rhaetia. The area to the south, including what was to become the [[Insubres|Insubrian]] capital [[Mediolanum]] (modern [[Milan]]), was [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] around 600-500 BC, when the Lepontii began writing tombstone inscriptions in their alphabet, one of several Etruscan-derived alphabets in the Rhaetian territory.