A Good Works Translation from Hesperia BDHespP.02.02

A small bronze zoomorphic tessera from Paredes de Nava preserves the formula AR[G]AILICA CAR, a compact Celtiberian expression of a hospitality pact. Its brevity is part of its value: the object is a whole legal-social token carried in only two words.

Translation

An Argailican hospitality pact.

Translation Note

The Hesperia text reads AR[G]AILICA CAR, with the restored letter shown in brackets. CAR is the same institutional word usually discussed as kar, connected with hospitality, friendship, or the pact-token. AR[G]AILICA is best treated here as a feminine civic or toponymic adjective modifying the pact word. The translation therefore gives the force of the whole formula without pretending that the lost letter or the precise civic referent is beyond dispute.

Object Note

Hesperia records the object as BDHespP.02.02, from Paredes de Nava in Palencia, with reference K.15. It is a bronze zoomorphic hospitality tessera, written rightward by puncturing, with one line of text. The record stays here as a complete object inscription rather than a loose sample in a list of Celtiberian formulae.

Colophon

This page translates Hesperia BDHespP.02.02 from Celtiberian for the Celtic continental expansion of the Good Work Library. It is included as a complete Celtiberian hospitality-tessera witness and as a useful small source for the legal and ritual vocabulary of continental Celtic communities.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Hesperia BDHespP.02.02, Argailica Car

Celtiberian source text from Hesperia BDHespP.02.02, a bronze hospitality tessera from Paredes de Nava, Palencia. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Hesperia BDHespP.02.02 source text:

AR[G]AILICA CAR

Source-close rendering:

An Argailican hospitality pact.

Source Colophon

The Hesperia locality, general, text, and bibliography pages for BDHespP.02.02 were captured on 2026-05-13 and inspected on disk at Tulku/Tools/celtic/sources/first_english_scout_2026-05-13/celtiberian/paredes_de_nava/. Source text page: http://hesperia.ucm.es/consulta_hesperia/Texto.php?file=file_88.php&filtrar=&valor=&id=2255. The source-close English rendering is a New Tianmu Anglican Church Good Works Translation made from the inspected Hesperia Celtiberian text.

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