Asciburgius

Asciburgius

The Asciburgius mons or Askibourgion oros is a mountain of greater Germany mentioned by the ancient geographer, Ptolemy, of unknown location today. Ptolemy does give us enough information to speculate where the mountain probably is. The name is singular, denoting one mountain rather than a range (but, it is sometimes translated as plural). According to Ptolemy's longitudes and latitudes, the mountain is east and north of the Sudetes, in the territory of the Lugii of Silesia. A nearby city, Ptolemy's Stragona, is usually identified with Striegau Strzegom to the west of Breslau.

A strong candidate as to the identity of Mount Asciburgius is Germanic Zobtenberg, Slavic Gora Sleza, located between Breslow and Strzegom to the south, in what are considered the foothills of the Sudetes (Riesengebirge), although geologically part of the same range. In 1148 the convert|2356|ft|m|sing=on mountain was recorded as "Mons Silecii", Slenz or today's Sleza after the Silingi who lived there, who also gave their name to Silesia. The town of Zobten under the Germans became Sobotka in Polish. Most of the Germans were expelled from Silesia by the Russians after World War II.

Zobten has changed hands many times; nevertheless, it has been continuously occupied since prehistoric times, and has been the location of a cultic center. Celtic objects dating from before the Germanic period and Germanic sun god objects have been found. The ancient religious worship, which was preempted by Christianity later, probably explains why it was considered the heartland of the Silingi. Today the top of the easily climbed mountain is a tourist attraction and is home to a visitor center. From it one has a view out over the flat lands of Silesia.

There is a fairly good suggestion for the etymology of the mountain, which would be segmented aski-bourgion, "ash mountain". Julius Pokorny's derivation of German Esche is from Indo-European *os-k-, "ash tree", becoming Germanic *askiz. The connection with Zobten is not clear, but then Zobten may not be Indo-European.


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