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Peuple celte (?) de la (G)Bretagne, faisant apparemment partie de la confédération des Brigantes, et qui semblent être établis dans les environs de Chesterholm (voir carte bleue ci-contre).

* Rivet & Smith : 

SOURCE

Inscription : RIB 1695 ( = Burn 1969, N°173, p. 126) : an altar set up by the CURIA TEXTOVERDORUM, The stone was found at Beltingham; 'it may have been brought from Chesterholm (Vindolanda), or it may have come from a local shrine' (RIB). 

DERIVATION 

The name, not documented elsewhere, is problematic. Whatmough DAG 666 is doubtful whether the text is accurate, conjecturing that the name was really *Texuandruorum or the like (the Texuandri of Germania Inferior are mentioned by Pliny NH IV, 106, and are Texandri in an inscription EE III. 103, Toxiandria in Ammianus XVII, 8, 1, etc. ; their name may survive in Tessenderloo or Testerup in Holland). But this is to assume that the curia was incapable of spelling its name on an important occasion, in what looks like a carefully cut text. 

Jackson LHEB 407 points out that the -xt- spelling 'is a Gallo-Latin spelling habit, the x being taken over from the Greek alphabet, and used to spell the Gallo-Latin and British C ... But the British X^t is regularly spelt ct in Latin sources, as is natural, the Romans substituting their own ct for the foreign X^t' (Jackson LHEB 404 explains that Indo-European -kt- (ct) was /X^t/ already in Common Celtic, and in British remained so throughout the Roman period. /X/ is a guttural, the sound which is spelled ch in Welsh bach, Scots loch, etc.). Thus -ct- as, a Latin spelling is found in Lactodurum, Octapitarum, Vectis, etc. The exceptional `false' -xt- spelling is found in Britain in the present name, in the divine name Anextiomaro (EE VII. 1162 : South Shields), and in the river-name Raxtomessa of Ravenna 108,40 (which is not very trustworthy). The equivalence of xt and ct can be seen when the same name is written both ways on Gaulish territory: Rectugenus, Rextugenos and also Reitugenus (Dottin LG 42, 64, 94), this last representing a phonetic development of Gaulish at a late stage (in British, /Xt/ > /ith/ about A.D. 600).

The above enables us to equate the first element in the name with that of the Volcae Tectosages (Tektosages, Ptolemy II, 10, 6) of Gallia Narbonensis, and that of the Tectosages of Galatia. At one time a meaning `cover' was suggested, in line with Latin tego, tectum. Holder II. 1780 notes *tecto- in this and related names and defines it via a gloss on Irish techt `itio, aditus' and Welsh taith `journey'. This has been challenged, for example by L. H. Gray in EC,VI (1953-54), 68. In Gaulish Contextos, Atextorigi, etc., she discerns a root !~tege- `engendrer, enfanter', present in Sanskrit tâkman `postérité', Greek Tiktw, and cognate with Anglo-Saxon Pegn, Old High German degen `servant'. These and other possibilities are reviewed by Ellis Evans in GPN 265-66, with the suggestion that the assembled names are of multiple origin but with a preference for the early suggestion of a meaning `cover', and approval for Schmidt's interpretation of Tectosages as `die aufden Besitz losgehen'. The latest view seems to be that of C. J. Guyonvarc'h in Ogam, XIX (1967), 23I-33, who discusses the ethnic names (but not the present one) and that of the Irish ruler Techtmar, concluding that he is a `possessor' rather than a `procreator': `Tout confirme donc l'étymologie "souveraine" et "légitime" de techt; et c'est en ce sens qu'il conviendra d'interpréter les thèmes gaulois en tecto- ou ceux, plus tardifs, en text-', thinking furthermore that all Ellis Evans's names can be explained in this way. Unfortunately, the second element of the British name is wholly unknown, and no conjectures can be offered.

IDENTIFICATION

The Tectoverdi, perhaps a people within the confederation of the Brigantes, seem to have lived in the area of Chesterholm, Northumberland. See CURIA TECTOVERDORUM ans VINDOLANDA".

*****

Histoire : incertaine. Le nom des Tectoverdi n'est représenté que par l'inscription RIB ci-dessus. Son interprétation reste donc aléatoire.

* Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain.

* Rivet & Smith, The Place-Names of Roman Britain, p. 470 et suivantes.

Autres sites Internet traitant des Tectoverdi :  

* forum du site Marikavel : Academia Celtica

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