Lepontii

The Lepontii were an ancient Celtic people[1][2] occupying portions of Rhaetia (in modern Switzerland and Northern Italy) in the Alps during the late Bronze Age/Iron Age.

From the analysis of their language[4] and the place names of the old Lepontic areas,[5] it was hypothesized that these people represent a layer similar to that Celtic but previous to the Gallic penetration in the Po valley.

[6] The chief towns of the Lepontii were Oscela, now Domodossola, Italy, and Bilitio, now Bellinzona, Switzerland.

The area to the south, including what was to become the Insubrian capital Mediolanum (modern Milan), was 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.

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