|
Collection of Celtic ring money from circa
800-500 B.C.
Smallest 17mm (1.41 grams) to Largest 30mm (6.11 grams)
Before the introduction of struck coinage in Celtic lands, Celtic ring money
(gold, silver and bronze rings), Celtic arrowhead and bell money were used as
currency in Celtic lands in Danube area, France, England and Ireland. Sometimes
these rings took a pretty elaborate shape (such as "wheel money" in Gaul,
star-shaped rings, interlinked rings etc.) and are very interesting collectible
items, that can also be used as wonderful pendants or finger rings. An
inexpensive way to touch the magical Celtic past.
You now have a wonderful opportunity to acquire a collection
of this wonderful ring money, exactly as pictured. As it is in a collection it
is worth more than the sum of it's parts. Interesting to note that the rings
were of various sizes, denoting a denomination in trade. Feel the magical past
and it's energy holding these authentic pieces of ancient history.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
The Celts were an
Indo-European and
ethno-linguistically diverse group of
tribal societies in
Iron Age and
Roman-era
Europe who spoke
Celtic languages.
The earliest archaeological culture that may justifiably be considered as
Proto-Celtic is the Late Bronze Age
Urnfield culture of
central Europe from the last quarter of the
second millennium BC.
Their fully Celtic
descendants in central Europe were the people of the Iron Age
Hallstatt culture (c. 800-450 BC) named for the
rich grave finds in
Hallstatt, Austria.
By the later
La Tène period (c. 450 BC up to the Roman
conquest), this Celtic culture had expanded over a wide range of regions,
whether by
diffusion or
migration: to the
British Isles (Insular
Celts),
France and
The Low Countries (Gauls),
much of
Central Europe, the
Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians,
Celtici and
Gallaeci) and
northern Italy (Golaseccans
and
Cisalpine Gauls)
and following the
Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC as far
east as central
Anatolia (Galatians).
The earliest directly attested examples of a Celtic language are the
Lepontic inscriptions, beginning from the 6th
century BC.[6]
Continental Celtic languages are attested only
in inscriptions and place-names.
Insular Celtic is attested from about the 4th
century in
ogham inscriptions, although it is clearly much
earlier. Literary tradition begins with
Old Irish from about the 8th century. Coherent
texts of
Early Irish literature, such as the
Táin B
The Celts were an
Indo-European and
ethno-linguistically diverse group of
tribal societies in
Iron Age and
Roman-era
Europe who spoke
Celtic languages.
The earliest archaeological culture that may justifiably be considered as
Proto-Celtic is the Late Bronze Age
Urnfield culture of
central Europe from the last quarter of the
second millennium BC. Their fully Celtic descendants in central Europe were the
people of the Iron Age
Hallstatt culture (c. 800-450 BC) named for the
rich grave finds in
Hallstatt, Austria.
By the later
La Tène period (c. 450 BC up to the Roman
conquest), this Celtic culture had expanded over a wide range of regions,
whether by
diffusion or
migration: to the
British Isles (Insular
Celts),
France and
The Low Countries (Gauls),
much of
Central Europe, the
Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians,
Celtici and
Gallaeci) and
northern Italy (Golaseccans
and
Cisalpine Gauls) and following the
Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC as far
east as central
Anatolia (Galatians).
The earliest directly attested examples of a Celtic language are the
Lepontic inscriptions, beginning from the 6th
century BC.[6]
Continental Celtic languages are attested only
in inscriptions and place-names.
Insular Celtic is attested from about the 4th
century in
ogham inscriptions, although it is clearly much
earlier. Literary tradition begins with
Old Irish from about the 8th century. Coherent
texts of
Early Irish literature, such as the
Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of
Cooley), survive in 12th-century recensions.
By mid 1st millennium AD, following the expansion of the
Roman Empire and the
Great Migrations (Migration
Period) of
Germanic peoples, Celtic culture and
Insular Celtic had become restricted to
Ireland, to the western and northern parts of
Great Britain (Wales,
Scotland,
Cornwall and the
Isle of Man), and to northern
France (Brittany).
Between the fifth and eighth centuries the Celtic-speaking communities of the
Atlantic regions had emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. In
language, religion, and art they shared a common heritage that distinguished
them from the culture of surrounding polities.[7]
The
Continental Celtic languages ceased to be
widely used by the 6th century.
Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the
Gaels (Irish,
Scottish and
Manx) and the
Brythonic Celts (Welsh,
Cornish, and
Bretons) of the medieval and modern periods. A
modern "Celtic
identity" was constructed in the context of the Romanticist
Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, and
other European territories, such as
Galicia.[8]
Today
Irish,
Scottish Gaelic,
Welsh, and
Breton remain spoken in parts of their
historical territories, and both
Cornish and
Manx are currently undergoing revival.
Names and terminology
The first recorded use of the word Celts (Κελτοί)
to refer to an ethnic group was by
Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in
517 BC,[9]
when writing about a people living near "Massilia" (Marseille).[10]
According to the testimony of
Julius Caesar and
Strabo, the Latin name "Celtus" (pl. "Celti" or
"Celtae") and the Greek (Κέλτης pl.
Κέλται or
Κελτός pl. Κελτοί) were borrowed
from a native Celtic tribal name.[11][12]
Pliny the Elder referred it as being used in
Lusitania as a tribal surname[13]
which epigraphic findings confirm.[14][15]
Latin "Gallus" might originally be from a Celtic ethnic or
tribal name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during
the Celtic expansions into Italy of the early 5th century BC. Its root may be
the
Common Celtic "*galno", meaning power or
strength. Galli,
Gallaeci and Galatae most probably
go with Old Irish gal 'boldness, ferocity' and Welsh gallu 'to be
able, power'.[16]
The Greek "Galatai" seems to be based on the same root, borrowed directly from
the same hypothetical Celtic source which gave us "Galli" (the suffix "-atai" is
an Ancient Greek inflection).[17]
(see
Galatia in Anatolia)
The English word "Celt" is modern, attested from 1707 in the writings of
Edward Lhuyd whose work, along with that of
other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages
and history of these early inhabitants of Great Britain.[18]
The English form "Gaul" (first recorded in the 17th century) and "Gaulish" come
from the French "Gaule" and "Gaulois", which translate Latin "Gallia" and
"Gallus, -icus" respectively. In Old French, the words "gualeis", "galois",
"walois" (Northern French phonetics keeping /w/) had different meanings: Welsh
or the
Langue d'oïl, etc. On the other hand, the
word "Waulle" (Northern French phonetics keeping /w/) is recorded for the first
time in the 13th century to translate the Latin word Gallia, while
"gaulois" is recorded for the first time in the 15th century, and the scholars
use it to translate the Latin words Gallus / Gallicus. The word
comes from Proto-Germanic *Walha- (see
Gaul: Name). The English word "Welsh"
originates from the word wælisċ, the
Anglo-Saxon form of *walhiska-,
the reconstructed Proto-Germanic word for "foreign"[19]
or "Celt" (South German
Welsch(e) "Celtic speaker", "French speaker",
"Italian speaker"; Old Norse "valskr", pl. "valir" "Gaulish", "French"), that is
supposed to be derived of the name of the "Volcae",[20]
a Celtic tribe who lived first in the South of Germany and emigrated then to
Gaul.[21]
The notion of an identifiable Celtic
cultural identity or "Celticity", though
problematic, generally centres on language, art and classical texts,[22]
though can also include, material artifacts,
social organisation,
homeland and
mythology.[23]
Earlier theories were that this indicated a common racial origin but more recent
theories are reflective of culture and language rather than race. Celtic
cultures seem to have had numerous diverse characteristics but the commonality
between these diverse peoples was the use of a Celtic language.[citation
needed].
"Celtic" is a descriptor of a
family of languages and, more generally, means
"of the Celts", or "in the style of the Celts". It has also been used to refer
to several archaeological cultures defined by unique sets of artifacts. The link
between language and artifact is aided by the presence of inscriptions.[24]
(see
Celtic (disambiguation) for other applications
of the term)
Today, the term Celtic is generally used to describe the languages and
respective cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales,
Cornwall, the
Isle of Man and
Brittany, also known as the
Six Celtic Nations. These are the regions where
four Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent as mother tongues:
Irish Gaelic,
Scottish Gaelic,
Welsh, and
Breton, plus two recent revivals,
Cornish (one of the
Brythonic languages) and
Manx (one of the
Goidelic languages). There are also attempts to
reconstruct the
Cumbric language (a Brythonic language from
Northwest England and Southwest Scotland).
'Celtic' is also sometimes used to describe regions of
Continental Europe that claim a Celtic
heritage, but where no Celtic language has survived; these areas include the
western
Iberian Peninsula, i.e. Portugal, and
north-central Spain (Galicia,
Asturias,
Cantabria,
Castile and León,
Extremadura).[25]
(see
Modern Celts)
"Continental Celts" refers to the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe.
"Insular Celts" refers to the different Celtic-speaking peoples of the British
and Irish islands and to their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their
language from migrating insular Celts mainly from Wales and
Cornwall and so are grouped accordingly.[26]
Origins
The
Celtic languages form a branch of the larger
Indo-European family. By the time speakers of
Celtic languages enter history around 400 BC, they were already split into
several language groups, and spread over much of Western continental Europe, the
Iberian Peninsula, Ireland and Britain.
Some scholars think that the
Urnfield culture of Western
Middle Europe represents an origin for the
Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European family.[2]
This culture was preeminent in central Europe during the late
Bronze Age, from
ca. 1200 BC until 700 BC, itself following the
Unetice and
Tumulus cultures. The Urnfield period saw a
dramatic increase in population in the region, probably due to innovations in
technology and
agricultural practices. The Greek historian
Ephoros of Cyme in
Asia Minor, writing in the 4th century BC,
believed that the Celts came from the islands off the mouth of the
Rhine and were "driven from their homes by the
frequency of wars and the violent rising of the sea".
The spread of
iron-working led to the development of the
Hallstatt culture directly from the Urnfield (ca.
700 to 500 BC).
Proto-Celtic, the latest
common ancestor of all known Celtic languages,
is considered by this school of thought to have been spoken at the time of the
late Urnfield or early Hallstatt cultures, in the early 1st millennium BC. The
spread of the Celtic languages to Iberia, Ireland and Britain would have
occurred during the first half of the 1st millennium BC, the earliest
chariot burials in Britain dating to c. 500 BC.
Other scholars see Celtic languages as covering Britain and Ireland, and parts
of the Continent, long before any evidence of "Celtic" culture is found in
archaeology. Over the centuries the language(s) developed into the separate
Celtiberian, Goidelic and
Brythonic languages.
The Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the
La Tène culture of central Europe, which was
overrun by the Roman Empire, though traces of La Tène style are still to be seen
in
Gallo-Roman artefacts. In Britain and Ireland
La Tène style in art survived precariously to re-emerge in
Insular art. Early
Irish literature casts light on the flavour and
tradition of the heroic warrior elites who dominated Celtic societies. Celtic
river-names are found in great numbers around the upper reaches of
the Danube and Rhine, which led many Celtic
scholars to place the
ethnogenesis of the Celts in this area.
Diodorus Siculus and
Strabo both suggest that the Celtic heartland
was in
southern France. The former says that the Gauls
were to the north of the Celts but that the Romans referred to both as Gauls.
Before the discoveries at Hallstatt and La Tene, it was generally considered
that the Celtic heartland was southern France, see
Encyclopædia Britannica for 1813.
Linguistic evidence
The
Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the
Late Bronze Age.[2]
The earliest records of a Celtic language are the
Lepontic inscriptions of
Cisalpine Gaul, the oldest of which still
predate the
La Tène period. Other early inscriptions are
Gaulish, appearing from the early La Tène
period in inscriptions in the area of
Massilia, in the
Greek alphabet.
Celtiberian inscriptions appear comparatively
late, after about 200 BC. Evidence of
Insular Celtic is available only from about 400
AD, in the form of
Primitive Irish
Ogham inscriptions. Besides epigraphical
evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is
toponymy.[27]
Archaeological
evidence
Before the 19th century, scholars[who?]
assumed that the original land of the Celts was west of the Rhine, more
precisely in Gaul, because it was where Greek and Roman ancient sources, namely
Cesar, located the Celts. This view was challenged by Jubainville[citation
needed] who placed the land of origin of the Celts
east of the Rhine. Jubainville based his arguments on a phrase of Herodotus´
that placed the Celts at the source of the Danube, and argued that Herodotus had
meant to place the Celtic homeland in southern Germany. The finding of the
prehistoric cemetery of Hallstat in 1846 by Johan Ramsauer and almost ten years
later the finding of the archaeological site of La Tène by Hansli Kopp in 1857
draw attention to this area. The concept that the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures
could be seen not just as chronological periods but as “Culture Groups”,
entities composed of people of the same ethnicity and language, started to grow
by the end of the 19th century. In the beginning of the 20th century the belief
that those “Culture Groups” could be thought in racial or ethnic terms was
strongly held by
Gordon Childe whose theory was influenced by
the writings of
Gustaf Kossinna.[28]
Along the 20th century the racial ethnic interpretation of La Tene culture
rooted much stronger, and any findings of “La Tene culture” and “flat inhumation
cemeteries” were directly associated with the celts and the celtic language.[29]
The Iron Age
Hallstatt (c. 800-475 BC) and
La Tène (c. 500-50 BC) cultures are typically
associated with Proto-Celtic and Celtic culture.[30]
In various[clarification
needed]
academic disciplines the Celts were considered
a Central European Iron Age phenomenon, through the cultures of Hallstatt and La
Tène. However, archaeological finds from the Halstatt and La Tène culture were
rare in the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern France, northern and western
Britain, southern Ireland and Galatia[31][32]
and did not provide enough evidence for a cultural scenario comparable to that
of Central Europe. It is considered equally difficult to maintain that the
origin of the Peninsular Celts can be linked to the preceding Urnfield culture,
leading to a more recent approach that introduces a 'proto-Celtic' substratum
and a process of Celticisation having its initial roots in the Bronze Age
Bell Beaker culture.[33]
The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from
450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC) in eastern France,
Switzerland, Austria, southwest Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and
Hungary. It developed out of the Hallstatt culture without any definite cultural
break, under the impetus of considerable Mediterranean influence from
Greek, and later
Etruscan civilisations. A shift of settlement
centres took place in the 4th century.
The western La Tène culture corresponds to historical
Celtic Gaul. Whether this means that the whole of La Tène culture can
be attributed to a unified Celtic people is difficult to assess; archaeologists
have repeatedly concluded that language, material culture, and
political affiliation do not necessarily run
parallel. Frey notes that in the 5th century, "burial customs in the Celtic
world were not uniform; rather, localised groups had their own beliefs, which,
in consequence, also gave rise to distinct artistic expressions".[34]
Thus, while the La Tène culture is certainly associated with the
Gauls, the presence of La Tène artefacts may be
due to cultural contact and does not imply the permanent presence of Celtic
speakers.
Historical evidence
Polybius published a
history of Rome about 150 BC in which he
describes the Gauls of Italy and their conflict with Rome.
Pausanias in the 2nd century BC says that the
Gauls "originally called Celts", "live on the remotest region of Europe on the
coast of an enormous tidal sea".
Posidonius described the southern Gauls about
100 BC. Though his original work is lost it was used by later writers such as
Strabo. The latter, writing in the early 1st
century AD, deals with Britain and Gaul as well as Hispania, Italy and Galatia.
Caesar wrote extensively about his
Gallic Wars in 58-51 BC.
Diodorus Siculus wrote about the Celts of Gaul
and Britain in his 1st-century history.
Minority views
Martín Almagro Gorbea[35]
proposed the origins of the Celts could be traced back to the 3rd millennium BC,
seeking the initial roots in the
Bell Beaker culture, thus offering the wide
dispersion of the Celts throughout
western Europe, as well as the variability of
the different Celtic peoples, and the existence of ancestral traditions an
ancient perspective. More recently, John Koch[36]
and
Barry Cunliffe[37]
have suggested that Celtic origins lie with the
Atlantic Bronze Age, roughly contemporaneous
with the Hallstatt culture but positioned considerably to the West, extending
along the Atlantic coast of Europe.
Stephen Oppenheimer[38]
points out that Herodotus seemed to believe the Danube rose near the
Pyrenees.
Distribution
Continental Celts
Gaul
At the dawn of history in Europe, the Celts then living in what is now France
were known as Gauls to the Romans. The territory of these peoples probably
included
the low countries, the Alps and what is now
northern Italy. Their descendants were described by Julius Caesar in his
Gallic Wars. Eastern Gaul was the centre of
the western La Tène culture. In later Iron Age Gaul, the social organisation was
similar to that of the Romans, with large towns. From the 3rd century BC the
Gauls adopted coinage, and texts with Greek characters are known in southern
Gaul from the 2nd century.
Greek traders founded Massalia in about 600 BC, with exchange up the
Rhone valley, but trade was disrupted soon
after 500 BC and re-oriented over the Alps to the Po valley in Italy.
The Romans arrived in the Rhone valley in the
2nd century BC and encountered a Gaul that was mostly Celtic-speaking. Rome
needed land communications with its Iberian provinces and fought a major battle
with the Saluvii at Entremont in 124-123 BC. Gradually Roman control extended,
and the
Roman Province of
Gallia Transalpina was formed along the
Mediterranean coast. The remainder was known as Gallia Comata - "Hairy Gaul".
In 58 BC, the Helvetii planned to migrate westward but were forced back by
Julius Caesar. He then became involved in fighting the various tribes in Gaul,
and by 55 BC, most of Gaul had been overrun. In 52 BC,
Vercingetorix led a revolt against the Roman
occupation but was defeated at the siege of Alesia and surrendered.
Following the Gallic Wars of 58-51 BC, Caesar's Celtica formed the
main part of Roman Gaul. This territory of the Celtic tribes was bounded on the
south by the Garonne and on the north by the Seine and the Marne.[39]
Place and personal name analysis and inscriptions suggest that the Gaulish
Celtic language was spoken over most of what is now France.[40]
Iberia
Triskelion and spirals on a Galician torc terminal (Museu do castro
de Santa Tegra).
Until the end of the 19th century, traditional scholarship dealing with the
Celts did acknowledge their presence in the Iberian Peninsula[41][42]
as a
material culture relatable to the
Hallstatt and
La Tène cultures. However, since according to
the definition of the
Iron Age in the 19th century Celtic populations
were supposedly rare in Iberia and did not provide a cultural scenario that
could easily be linked to that of Central Europe, the presence of celtic culture
in that region was generally not fully recognised. Three divisions of the Celts
of the Iberian Peninsula were assumed to have existed: the
Celtiberians in the mountains near the centre
of the peninsula, the
Celtici in the southwest, and the celts in the
northwest (in
Gallaecia and
Asturias).[43]
Modern scholarship, however, has clearly proven that Celtic presence and
influences were most substantial in what is today Spain and Portugal (with
perhaps the highest settlement saturation in Western Europe), particularly in
the central, western and northern regions.[44][45]
The Celts in Iberia were divided into two main archaeological and cultural
groups,[46]
even though that division is not very clear:
The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to understanding the
Celticisation process in the rest of the Peninsula. The process of Celticisation
of the southwestern area of the peninsula by the Keltoi and of the northwestern
area is, however, not a simple Celtiberian question. Recent investigations about
the
Callaici[53]
and
Bracari[54]
in northwestern Portugal are providing new approaches to understanding Celtic
culture (language, art and religion) in western Iberia.[55]
John T. Koch of the University of Wales-Aberystwyth suggested that
Tartessian inscriptions of the 8th century BC
might already be classified as Celtic. This would mean that Tartessian is the
earliest attested trace of Celtic by margin of more than a century.[56]
Alps and Po Valley
It had been known for some time that there was an early, although apparently
somewhat limited, Celtic (Lepontic,
sometimes called Cisalpine Celtic) presence in
Northern Italy since inscriptions dated to the
6th century BC have been found there.
The site of
Golasecca, where the
Ticino exits from
Lake Maggiore, was particularly suitable for
long-distance exchanges, in which Golaseccans acted as intermediaries between
Etruscans and the
Halstatt culture of Austria, supported on the
all-important trade in
salt.
In 391 BC Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps streamed through the
passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the
Appennine mountains and the Alps" according to
Diodorus Siculus. The
Po Valley and the rest of northern Italy (known
to the Romans as
Cisalpine Gaul) was inhabited by
Celtic-speakers who founded cities such as
Milan.[57]
Later the Roman army was routed at the
battle of Allia and Rome was sacked in 390 BC
by the
Senones.
At the
battle of Telamon in 225 BC a large Celtic army
was trapped between two Roman forces and crushed.
The defeat of the combined
Samnite, Celtic and Etruscan alliance by the
Romans in the
Third Samnite War sounded the beginning of the
end of the Celtic domination in mainland Europe, but it was not until 192 BC
that the Roman armies conquered the last remaining independent Celtic kingdoms
in Italy.
Eastward expansion
The Celts also expanded down the
Danube river and its tributaries. One of the
most influential tribes, the
Scordisci, had established their capital at
Singidunum in 3rd century BC, which is
present-day
Belgrade,
Serbia. The concentration of hill-forts and
cemeteries shows a
density of population in the
Tisza valley of modern-day
Vojvodina,
Serbia, Hungary and into
Ukraine. Expansion into
Romania was however blocked by the
Dacians.
Further south, Celts settled in
Thrace (Bulgaria),
which they ruled for over a century, and
Anatolia, where they settled as the
Galatians (see also:
Gallic Invasion of Greece). Despite their
geographical isolation from the rest of the
Celtic world, the Galatians maintained their Celtic language for at least 700
years.
St Jerome, who visited Ancyra (modern-day
Ankara) in 373 AD, likened their language to
that of the
Treveri of northern Gaul.
For Venceslas Kruta, Galatia in central Turkey was an area of dense celtic
settlement.
The
Boii tribe gave their name to
Bohemia,
Bologna and possibly
Bavaria, and Celtic artefacts and cemeteries
have been discovered further east in what is now Poland and
Slovakia. A celtic coin (Biatec)
from
Bratislava's mint was displayed on the old
Slovak 5-crown coin.
As there is no archaeological evidence for large-scale invasions in some of
the other areas, one current school of thought holds that Celtic language and
culture spread to those areas by contact rather than invasion.[58]
However, the Celtic invasions of Italy and the
expedition in Greece and western Anatolia, are
well documented in Greek and Latin history.
There are records of Celtic mercenaries in
Egypt serving the
Ptolemies. Thousands were employed in 283-246
BC and they were also in service around 186 BC. They attempted to overthrow
Ptolemy II.
Insular Celts
Main article:
Insular CeltsAll Celtic languages extant today belong to the
Insular Celtic languages, derived from the
Celtic languages spoken in
Iron Age Britain. They were separated into a
Goidelic and a
Brythonic branch from an early period.
Linguists have been arguing for many years whether a Celtic language came to
Britain and Ireland and then split or whether there were two separate
"invasions". The older view of prehistorians was that the Celtic influence in
the British Isles was the result of successive invasions from the European
continent by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over the course of several
centuries, accounting for the
P-Celtic vs.
Q-Celtic isogloss. This view is now generally
discredited in favour of a phylogenetic
Insular Celtic dialect group.
Celtic arrival in Britain is usually taken to correspond to
Hallstatt influence and the appearance of
chariot burials in what is now England from
about the 6th century BC. Some Iron Age migration does seem to have occurred but
the nature of the interactions with the indigenous populations of the isles is
unknown. In the late
Iron Age Pryor estimates that the population of
Britain and Ireland was between 1 and 1.5 million, upon which a smaller number
of Celtic-speaking immigrant populations would have installed themselves as a
superstrate.
By about the 6th century (Sub-Roman
Britain), most of the inhabitants of the Isles were speaking Celtic
languages of either the
Goidelic or the
Brythonic branch.
After Caesar's conquest of
Gaul in the 50s BC, some
Belgic people seem to have come to central
southern Britain.[59]
Though there was a tribe called
Parisi in eastern Yorkshire, these were
probably a British people with cultural links to the continent. It has been
claimed that there were a tribe of
Iverni in Ireland who spoke a Brythonic
language.
In Ireland as in Great Britain, beginning Celtic influence is taken to
correspond to the beginning
Iron Age. The adoption of Celtic culture and
language was likely a gradual transformation, brought on by cultural exchange
with Celtic groups in the mainland or otherwise southwest continental Europe.
Romanisation
Under Caesar the Romans conquered Celtic Gaul, and from
Claudius onward the Roman empire absorbed parts
of Britain. Roman local government of these regions closely mirrored pre-Roman
tribal boundaries, and archaeological finds suggest native involvement in local
government.
The native peoples under Roman rule became Romanised and keen to adopt Roman
ways. Celtic art had already incorporated classical influences, and surviving
Gallo-Roman pieces interpret classical subjects or keep faith with old
traditions despite a Roman overlay.
The Roman occupation of
Gaul, and to a lesser extent of
Britain, led to Roman-Celtic
syncretism. In the case of the continental
Celts, this eventually resulted in a
language shift to
Vulgar Latin, while the Insular Celts retained
their language.
There was also considerable cultural influence exerted by Gaul on Rome,
particularly in military matters and horsemanship, as the Gauls often served in
the
Roman cavalry. The Romans adopted the Celtic
cavalry sword, the
spatha, and
Epona, the Celtic horse goddess.[60]
Society
Stone head from Mšecké Žehrovice, Czech Republic, wearing a
torc, late La Tène culture.
To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian Celtic
social structure based formally on class and
kingship. Patron-client relationships similar to those of Roman society are also
described by Caesar and others in the Gaul of the 1st century BC.
In the main, the evidence is of tribes being led by kings, although some
argue that there is also evidence of
oligarchical
republican
forms of government eventually emerging in
areas which had close contact with Rome. Most descriptions of Celtic societies
portray them as being divided into three groups: a warrior aristocracy; an
intellectual class including professions such as
druid, poet, and jurist; and everyone else. In
historical times, the offices of high and low kings in Ireland and Scotland were
filled by
election under the system of
tanistry, which eventually came into conflict
with the feudal principle of
primogeniture in which succession goes to the
first born son.
Little is known of family structure among the Celts. Patterns of settlement
varied from decentralised to urban. The popular stereotype of non-urbanised
societies settled in
hillforts and
duns,[62]
drawn from Britain and Ireland (there are about 3,000
hill forts known in Britain)[63]
contrasts with the urban settlements present in the core Hallstatt and La Tene
areas, with the many significant
oppida of Gaul late in the first millennium
BC, and with the towns of
Gallia Cisalpina.
Slavery, as practised by the Celts, was very
likely similar to the better documented
practice in ancient Greece and Rome.[64]
Slaves were acquired from war, raids, and penal and debt servitude.[64]
Slavery was hereditary[citation
needed], though
manumission was possible. The
Old Irish word for slave, cacht, and the
Welsh term caeth are likely derived from the Latin captus,
captive, suggesting that
slave trade was an early venue of contact
between Latin and Celtic societies.[64]
In the Middle Ages, slavery was especially prevalent in the
Celtic countries.[65]
Manumissions were discouraged by law and the word for "female slave", cumal,
was used as a general unit of value in Ireland.[66]
Archaeological evidence suggests that the pre-Roman Celtic societies were
linked to the network of overland
trade routes that spanned Eurasia.
Archaeologists have discovered large prehistoric trackways crossing bogs in
Ireland and Germany. Due to their substantial nature, these are believed to have
been created for wheeled transport as part of an extensive roadway system that
facilitated trade.[67]
The territory held by the Celts contained
tin,
lead,
iron,
silver and
gold.[68]
Celtic smiths and metalworkers created weapons and
jewellery for
international trade, particularly with the
Romans.
The myth that the Celtic
monetary system consisted of wholly barter is a
common one, but is in part false. The monetary system was complex and is still
not understood (much like the late Roman coinages), and due to the absence of
large numbers of coin items, it is assumed that "proto-money" was used. This is
the collective term used to describe bronze items made from the early La Tene
period onwards, which were often in the shape of
axeheads,
rings, or
bells. Due to the large number of these present
in some burials, it is thought they had a relatively high
monetary value, and could be used for "day to
day" purchases. Low-value coinages of
potin, a bronze alloy with high tin content,
were minted in most Celtic areas of the continent and in South-East Britain
prior to the Roman conquest of these lands. Higher-value coinages, suitable for
use in trade, were minted in gold, silver, and high-quality bronze.
Gold coinage was much more common than
silver coinage, despite being worth
substantially more, as while there were around 100 mines in Southern Britain and
Central France, silver was more rarely mined. This was due partly to the
relative sparcity of mines and the amount of effort needed for extraction
compared to the profit gained. As the Roman civilisation grew in importance and
expanded its trade with the Celtic world, silver and bronze coinage became more
common. This coincided with a major increase in gold production in Celtic areas
to meet the Roman demand, due to the high value Romans put on the metal. The
large number of gold mines in France is thought to be a major reason why Caesar
invaded.
There are only very limited records from pre-Christian times written in
Celtic languages. These are mostly inscriptions in the Roman and sometimes Greek
alphabets. The
Ogham script, an
Early Medieval
alphabet, was mostly used in early Christian
times in Ireland and Scotland (but also in Wales and England), and was only used
for ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions on gravestones. The available
evidence is of a strong oral tradition, such as that preserved by bards in
Ireland, and eventually recorded by
monasteries. The oldest recorded rhyming poetry
in the world is of Irish origin[69]
and is a transcription of a much older
epic poem, leading some scholars to claim that
the Celts invented
rhyme. Celtic art also produced a great deal of
intricate and beautiful metalwork, examples of which have been preserved by
their distinctive burial rites.
In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative: for example, they still
used
chariots in combat long after they had been
reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans. However, despite being
outdated, Celtic
chariot tactics were able to repel the invasion
of Britain attempted by Julius Caesar.
According to Diodorus Siculus:
The Gauls are tall of body with rippling muscles and white of skin and
their hair is blond, and not only naturally so for they also make it
their practice by artificial means to increase the distinguishing colour
which nature has given it. For they are always washing their hair in
limewater and they pull it back from the forehead to the nape of the
neck, with the result that their appearance is like that of Satyrs and
Pans since the treatment of their hair makes it so heavy and coarse that
it differs in no respect from the mane of horses. Some of them shave the
beard but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks
but they let the moustache grow until it covers the mouth.
Clothing
During the later Iron Age the Gauls generally wore long-sleeved shirts or
tunics and long trousers (called
braccae by the Romans).[70]
Clothes were made of
wool or
linen, with some
silk being used by the rich.
Cloaks were worn in the winter.
Brooches and
armlets were used, but the most famous item of
jewellery was the
torc, a neck collar of metal, sometimes gold.
The horned
Waterloo Helmet in the
British Museum, which long set the standard for
modern images of Celtic warriors, is in fact a unique survival, and may have
been a piece for ceremonial rather than military wear.
Gender and sexual
norms
According to
Aristotle, most "belligerent nations" were
strongly influenced by their women, but the Celts were unusual because their men
openly preferred male lovers (Politics
II 1269b).[71]
H. D. Rankin in Celts and the Classical World notes that "Athenaeus
echoes this comment (603a) and so does
Ammianus (30.9). It seems to be the general
opinion of antiquity."[72]
In book XIII of his
Deipnosophists, the Roman Greek rhetorician
and grammarian
Athenaeus, repeating assertions made by
Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC (Bibliotheca
historica 5:32), wrote that Celtic women were beautiful but that the
men preferred to sleep together. Diodorus went further, stating that "the young
men will offer themselves to strangers and are insulted if the offer is
refused". Rankin argues that the ultimate source of these assertions is likely
to be
Poseidonius and speculates that these authors
may be recording male "bonding rituals".[73]
The
sexual freedom of women in Britain was noted by
Cassius Dio:[74]
...a very witty remark is reported to have been made by the wife of
Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to
Julia Augusta. When the empress was
jesting with her, after the treaty, about the free intercourse of her
sex with men in Britain, she replied: "We fulfill the demands of nature
in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with
the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the
vilest." Such was the retort of the British woman.
There are instances recorded where women participated both in warfare and in
kingship, although they were in the minority in these areas.
Plutarch reports that Celtic women acted as
ambassadors to avoid a war among Celts chiefdoms in the Po valley during the 4th
century BC.[75]
Very few reliable sources exist regarding Celtic views towards gender
divisions and societal statues, though some archaeological evidence does suggest
that their views towards
gender roles may differ from contemporary and
less
egalitarian classical counterparts of the roman
era.[76][77]
There are some general indications from Iron Age burial sites in the
Champagne and Bourgogne regions of Northeastern France which suggest that women
may have had roles in combat during the earlier portions of the La Tène period.
However, the evidence is far from conclusive.[78]
Examples of individuals buried with both female jewellery and weaponry have been
identified, such as the
Vix Grave, and there are questions about the
sexing of some skeletons that were buried with warrior assemblages. However, it
has been suggested that "the weapons may indicate rank instead of masculinity".[79]
Among the insular Celts, there is a greater amount of historic documentation
to suggest warrior roles for women. In addition to commentary by
Tacitus about
Boudica, there are indications from later
period histories that also suggest a more substantial role for "women as
warriors" in symbolic if not actual roles.
Posidonius and
Strabo described an island of women where men
could not venture for fear of death, and where the women ripped each other
apart.[80]
Other writers, such as
Ammianus Marcellinus and
Tacitus, mentioned Celtic women inciting,
participating in, and leading battles.[81]
Poseidonius' anthropological comments on the Celts had common themes, primarily
primitivism, extreme ferocity, cruel
sacrificial practices, and the strength and courage of their women.[82]
Under
Brehon Law, which was written down in
early Medieval Ireland after
conversion to Christianity, a woman had the
right to divorce her husband and gain his property if he was unable to perform
his marital duties due to impotence, obesity, homosexual inclination or
preference for other women.[83]
Celtic art
Celtic art is generally used by art historians to refer to art of the La Tène
period across Europe, while the
Early Medieval art of Britain and Ireland, that
is what "Celtic art" evokes for much of the general public, is called
Insular art in art history. Both styles
absorbed considerable influences from non-Celtic sources, but retained a
preference for geometrical decoration over figurative subjects, which are often
extremely stylised when they do appear; narrative scenes only appear under
outside influence. Energetic circular forms,
triskeles and spirals are characteristic. Much
of the surviving material is in precious metal, which no doubt gives a very
unrepresentative picture, but apart from
Pictish stones and the Insular
high crosses, large
monumental sculpture, even with decorative
carving, is very rare; possibly it was originally common in wood.
The
interlace patterns that are often regarded as
typical of "Celtic art" were in fact introduced to Insular art from the
animal Style II of Germanic
Migration Period art, though taken up with
great skill and enthusiasm by Celtic artists in metalwork and
illuminated manuscripts. Equally, the forms
used for the finest Insular art were all adopted from the Roman world:
Gospel books like the
Book of Kells and
Book of Lindisfarne, chalices like the
Ardagh Chalice and
Derrynaflan Chalice, and
penannular brooches like the
Tara Brooch. These works are from the period of
peak achievement of Insular art, which lasted from the 7th to the 9th centuries,
before the
Viking attacks sharply set back cultural life.
In contrast the less well known but often spectacular art of the richest
earlier Continental Celts, before they were conquered by the Romans, often
adopted elements of Roman, Greek and other "foreign" styles (and possibly used
imported craftsmen) to decorate objects that were distinctively Celtic. After
the Roman conquests, some Celtic elements remained in popular art, especially
Ancient Roman pottery, of which Gaul was
actually the largest producer, mostly in Italian styles, but also producing work
in local taste, including
figurines of deities and wares painted with
animals and other subjects in highly formalised styles.
Roman Britain also took more interest in
enamel than most of the Empire, and its
development of
champlevé technique was probably important to
the later
Medieval art of the whole of Europe, of which
the energy and freedom of Insular decoration was an important element.
Warfare and weapons
Parade Helmet, Agris, France. 350 BC, with stylistic borrowings from
around the Mediterranean.
Principal sites in Roman Britain, with indication of the Celtic tribes.
Tribal warfare appears to have been a regular
feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a
sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest,
the historical record is more of tribes using warfare to exert political control
and harass rivals, for
economic advantage, and in some instances to
conquer territory.[citation
needed]
The Celts were described by classical writers such as
Strabo,
Livy,
Pausanias, and
Florus as fighting like "wild beasts", and as
hordes.
Dionysius said that their "manner of fighting,
being in large measure that of wild beasts and frenzied, was an erratic
procedure, quite lacking in
military science. Thus, at one moment they
would raise their swords aloft and smite after the manner of
wild boars, throwing the whole weight of their
bodies into the blow like hewers of wood or men digging with mattocks, and again
they would deliver crosswise blows aimed at no target, as if they intended to
cut to pieces the entire bodies of their adversaries, protective armour and
all".[84]
Such descriptions have been challenged by contemporary historians.[85]
Polybius (2.33) indicates that the principal
Celtic weapon was a
long bladed sword which was used for hacking
edgewise rather than stabbing.
Celtic warriors are described by Polybius and
Plutarch as frequently having to cease fighting in order to straighten their
sword blades. This claim has been questioned by some archaeologists, who note
that
Noric steel, steel produced in Celtic
Noricum, was famous in the
Roman Empire period and was used to equip the
Roman military.[86][87]
However, Radomir Pleiner, in The Celtic Sword (1993) argues that "the
metallographic evidence shows that Polybius was right up to a point", as around
one third of surviving swords from the period might well have behaved as he
describes.[88]
Polybius also asserts that certain of the Celts fought naked, "The appearance
of these naked warriors was a terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of
splendid physique and in the prime of life."[89]
According to Livy this was also true of the Celts of Asia Minor.[90]
Head hunting
A Gallic statue of a Celtic warrior, in the Museum of Brittany
Celts had a reputation as
head hunters. According to
Paul Jacobsthal, "Amongst the Celts the
human head was venerated above all else, since
the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life
itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world."[91]
Arguments for a Celtic cult of the severed head include the many sculptured
representations of severed heads in La Tène carvings, and the surviving Celtic
mythology, which is full of stories of the severed heads of heroes and the
saints who
carry their decapitated heads, right down to
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where the
Green Knight picks up his own severed head
after Gawain has struck it off, just as
St. Denis carried his head to the top of
Montmartre.
A further example of this regeneration after beheading lies in the tales of
Connemara's
St. Feichin, who after being beheaded by Viking
pirates carried his head to the Holy Well on
Omey Island and on dipping the head into the
well placed it back upon his neck and was restored to full health.
Diodorus Siculus, in his 1st century History
had this to say about Celtic head-hunting:
They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the
necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their
attendants and striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and
they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who
lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in
cedar oil the heads of the most
distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and
display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of
their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of
a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused
the weight of the head in gold
In
Gods and Fighting Men,
Lady Gregory's
Celtic Revival translation of
Irish mythology, heads of men killed in battle
are described in the beginning of the story The Fight With The Fir Bolgs
as pleasing to
Macha, one aspect of the war goddess
Morrigu.
Religion
Polytheism
Like other European Iron Age tribal societies, the Celts practised a
polytheistic religion.[92]
Many
Celtic gods are known from texts and
inscriptions from the Roman period. Rites and sacrifices were carried out by
priests known as
druids. The Celts did not see their gods as
having human shapes until late in the Iron Age. Celtic
shrines were situated in remote areas such as
hilltops, groves, and lakes.
Celtic religious patterns were regionally variable; however, some patterns of
deity forms, and ways of worshipping these deities, appeared over a wide
geographical and temporal range. The Celts worshipped both gods and goddesses.
In general, Celtic gods were deities of particular skills, such as the
many-skilled
Lugh and
Dagda, while goddesses were associated with
natural features, particularly rivers (such as
Boann, goddess of the
River Boyne). This was not universal, however,
as goddesses such as
Brighid and
The Morrígan were associated with both natural
features (holy
wells and the River Unius) and skills such as blacksmithing and
healing.[93]
Triplicity is a common theme in Celtic cosmology, and a number of deities
were seen as threefold.[94]
This trait is exhibited by The Three Mothers, a group of goddesses worshipped by
many Celtic tribes (with regional variations).[95]
The Celts had literally hundreds of deities, some of which were unknown
outside a single family or tribe, while others were popular enough to have a
following that crossed lingual and cultural barriers. For instance, the Irish
god Lugh, associated with
storms,
lightning, and culture, is seen in similar
forms as
Lugos in Gaul and
Lleu in Wales. Similar patterns are also seen
with the continental Celtic horse goddess
Epona and what may well be her Irish and Welsh
counterparts,
Macha and
Rhiannon, respectively.[96]
Roman reports of the druids mention ceremonies being held in
sacred groves. La Tène Celts built temples of
varying size and shape, though they also maintained shrines at
sacred trees and
votive pools.[92]
Druids fulfilled a variety of roles in Celtic religion, serving as priests
and religious officiants, but also as judges, sacrificers, teachers, and
lore-keepers. Druids organised and ran religious ceremonies, and they memorised
and taught the
calendar. Other classes of druids performed
ceremonial sacrifices of crops and
animals for the perceived benefit of the
community.[97]
Gallic Calendar
The
Coligny calendar, which was found in 1897 in
Coligny,
Ain,
was engraved on a
bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments, that
originally was 1.48 m wide and 0.9 m high (Lambert p. 111). Based on the style
of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the
2nd century.[98]
It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals, and is in the
Gallic language. The restored tablet contains
16 vertical columns, with 62 months distributed over 5 years.
The French archaeologist J. Monard speculated that it was recorded by
druids wishing to preserve their tradition of
timekeeping in a time when the
Julian calendar was imposed throughout the
Roman Empire. However, the general form of the
calendar suggests the public peg calendars (or parapegmata) found
throughout the Greek and Roman world.[99]
Roman Influence
The Roman invasion of Gaul brought a great deal of Celtic peoples into the
Roman Empire. Roman culture had a profound effect on the Celtic tribes which
came under the empire's control. Roman influence led to many changes in Celtic
religion, the most noticeable of which was the weakening of the druid class,
especially religiously; the druids were to eventually disappear altogether.
Romano-Celtic deities also began to appear: these deities often had both Roman
and Celtic attributes and combined the names of Roman and Celtic deities. Other
changes included the adaptation of the
Jupiter Pole, a sacred pole which was used
throughout Celtic regions of the empire, primarily in the north. Another major
change in religious practice was the use of stone monuments to represent gods
and goddesses. The Celts had only created wooden idols (including monuments
carved into trees, which were known as sacred poles) previously to Roman
conquest.[95]
Celtic Christianity
While the regions under Roman rule adopted Christianity along with the rest
of the Roman empire, unconquered areas of Ireland and Scotland moved from
Celtic polytheism to Christianity in the 5th
century. Ireland was converted under missionaries from Britain, such as
Patrick. Later missionaries from Ireland were a
major source of
missionary work in Scotland, Saxon parts of
Britain, and central Europe (see
Hiberno-Scottish mission). The term
Celtic Christianity has been applied to the
forms of Christianity that took hold in Britain and Ireland at this time, with
especial reference to its traditions that were distinct from the rest of Western
Christianity. The development of Christianity in Ireland and Britain brought an
early
medieval renaissance of
Celtic art between 390 and 1200 AD.[100][101]
Many of the styles now thought of as typically "Celtic" developed in this
period, and are found throughout much of Ireland and Britain, including the
northeast and far north of Scotland,
Orkney and
Shetland. Notable works produced during this
period include the
Book of Kells and the
Ardagh Chalice.
Antiquarian interest from the 17th century led
to the term Celt being extended, and rising
nationalism brought
Celtic revivals from the 19th century.
ó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of
Cooley), survive in 12th-century recensions.
By mid 1st millennium AD, following the expansion of the
Roman Empire and the
Great Migrations (Migration
Period) of
Germanic peoples, Celtic culture and
Insular Celtic had become restricted to
Ireland, to the western and northern parts of
Great Britain (Wales,
Scotland,
Cornwall and the
Isle of Man), and to northern
France (Brittany).
Between the fifth and eighth centuries the Celtic-speaking communities of the
Atlantic regions had emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. In
language, religion, and art they shared a common heritage that distinguished
them from the culture of surrounding polities.[7]
The
Continental Celtic languages ceased to be
widely used by the 6th century.
Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the
Gaels (Irish,
Scottish and
Manx) and the
Brythonic Celts (Welsh,
Cornish, and
Bretons) of the medieval and modern periods. A
modern "Celtic
identity" was constructed in the context of the Romanticist
Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, and
other European territories, such as
Galicia.[8]
Today
Irish,
Scottish Gaelic,
Welsh, and
Breton remain spoken in parts of their
historical territories, and both
Cornish and
Manx are currently undergoing revival.
Names and terminology
The first recorded use of the word Celts (Κελτοί)
to refer to an ethnic group was by
Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in
517 BC,[9]
when writing about a people living near "Massilia" (Marseille).[10]
According to the testimony of
Julius Caesar and
Strabo, the Latin name "Celtus" (pl. "Celti" or
"Celtae") and the Greek (Κέλτης pl.
Κέλται or
Κελτός pl. Κελτοί) were borrowed
from a native Celtic tribal name.[11][12]
Pliny the Elder referred it as being used in
Lusitania as a tribal surname[13]
which epigraphic findings confirm.[14][15]
Latin "Gallus" might originally be from a Celtic ethnic or
tribal name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during
the Celtic expansions into Italy of the early 5th century BC. Its root may be
the
Common Celtic "*galno", meaning power or
strength. Galli,
Gallaeci and Galatae most probably
go with Old Irish gal 'boldness, ferocity' and Welsh gallu 'to be
able, power'.[16]
The Greek "Galatai" seems to be based on the same root, borrowed directly from
the same hypothetical Celtic source which gave us "Galli" (the suffix "-atai" is
an Ancient Greek inflection).[17]
(see
Galatia in Anatolia)
The English word "Celt" is modern, attested from 1707 in the writings of
Edward Lhuyd whose work, along with that of
other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages
and history of these early inhabitants of Great Britain.[18]
The English form "Gaul" (first recorded in the 17th century) and "Gaulish" come
from the French "Gaule" and "Gaulois", which translate Latin "Gallia" and
"Gallus, -icus" respectively. In Old French, the words "gualeis", "galois", "walois"
(Northern French phonetics keeping /w/) had different meanings: Welsh or the
Langue d'oïl, etc. On the other hand, the
word "Waulle" (Northern French phonetics keeping /w/) is recorded for the first
time in the 13th century to translate the Latin word Gallia, while "gaulois"
is recorded for the first time in the 15th century, and the scholars use it to
translate the Latin words Gallus / Gallicus. The word comes from
Proto-Germanic *Walha- (see
Gaul: Name). The English word "Welsh"
originates from the word wælisċ, the
Anglo-Saxon form of *walhiska-,
the reconstructed Proto-Germanic word for "foreign"[19]
or "Celt" (South German
Welsch(e) "Celtic speaker", "French speaker",
"Italian speaker"; Old Norse "valskr", pl. "valir" "Gaulish", "French"), that is
supposed to be derived of the name of the "Volcae",[20]
a Celtic tribe who lived first in the South of Germany and emigrated then to
Gaul.[21]
The notion of an identifiable Celtic
cultural identity or "Celticity", though
problematic, generally centres on language, art and classical texts,[22]
though can also include, material artifacts,
social organisation,
homeland and
mythology.[23]
Earlier theories were that this indicated a common racial origin but more recent
theories are reflective of culture and language rather than race. Celtic
cultures seem to have had numerous diverse characteristics but the commonality
between these diverse peoples was the use of a Celtic language.[citation
needed].
"Celtic" is a descriptor of a
family of languages and, more generally, means
"of the Celts", or "in the style of the Celts". It has also been used to refer
to several archaeological cultures defined by unique sets of artifacts. The link
between language and artifact is aided by the presence of inscriptions.[24]
(see
Celtic (disambiguation) for other applications
of the term)
Today, the term Celtic is generally used to describe the languages and
respective cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales,
Cornwall, the
Isle of Man and
Brittany, also known as the
Six Celtic Nations. These are the regions where
four Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent as mother tongues:
Irish Gaelic,
Scottish Gaelic,
Welsh, and
Breton, plus two recent revivals,
Cornish (one of the
Brythonic languages) and
Manx (one of the
Goidelic languages). There are also attempts to
reconstruct the
Cumbric language (a Brythonic language from
Northwest England and Southwest Scotland).
'Celtic' is also sometimes used to describe regions of
Continental Europe that claim a Celtic
heritage, but where no Celtic language has survived; these areas include the
western
Iberian Peninsula, i.e. Portugal, and
north-central Spain (Galicia,
Asturias,
Cantabria,
Castile and León,
Extremadura).[25]
(see
Modern Celts)
"Continental Celts" refers to the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe.
"Insular Celts" refers to the different Celtic-speaking peoples of the British
and Irish islands and to their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their
language from migrating insular Celts mainly from Wales and
Cornwall and so are grouped accordingly.[26]
Origins
The
Celtic languages form a branch of the larger
Indo-European family. By the time speakers of
Celtic languages enter history around 400 BC, they were already split into
several language groups, and spread over much of Western continental Europe, the
Iberian Peninsula, Ireland and Britain.
Some scholars think that the
Urnfield culture of Western
Middle Europe represents an origin for the
Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European family.[2]
This culture was preeminent in central Europe during the late
Bronze Age, from
ca. 1200 BC until 700 BC, itself following the
Unetice and
Tumulus cultures. The Urnfield period saw a
dramatic increase in population in the region, probably due to innovations in
technology and
agricultural practices. The Greek historian
Ephoros of Cyme in
Asia Minor, writing in the 4th century BC,
believed that the Celts came from the islands off the mouth of the
Rhine and were "driven from their homes by the
frequency of wars and the violent rising of the sea".
The spread of
iron-working led to the development of the
Hallstatt culture directly from the Urnfield (ca.
700 to 500 BC).
Proto-Celtic, the latest
common ancestor of all known Celtic languages,
is considered by this school of thought to have been spoken at the time of the
late Urnfield or early Hallstatt cultures, in the early 1st millennium BC. The
spread of the Celtic languages to Iberia, Ireland and Britain would have
occurred during the first half of the 1st millennium BC, the earliest
chariot burials in Britain dating to c. 500 BC.
Other scholars see Celtic languages as covering Britain and Ireland, and parts
of the Continent, long before any evidence of "Celtic" culture is found in
archaeology. Over the centuries the language(s) developed into the separate
Celtiberian, Goidelic and
Brythonic languages.
The Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the
La Tène culture of central Europe, which was
overrun by the Roman Empire, though traces of La Tène style are still to be seen
in
Gallo-Roman artefacts. In Britain and Ireland
La Tène style in art survived precariously to re-emerge in
Insular art. Early
Irish literature casts light on the flavour and
tradition of the heroic warrior elites who dominated Celtic societies. Celtic
river-names are found in great numbers around the upper reaches of
the Danube and Rhine, which led many Celtic
scholars to place the
ethnogenesis of the Celts in this area.
Diodorus Siculus and
Strabo both suggest that the Celtic heartland
was in
southern France. The former says that the Gauls
were to the north of the Celts but that the Romans referred to both as Gauls.
Before the discoveries at Hallstatt and La Tene, it was generally considered
that the Celtic heartland was southern France, see
Encyclopædia Britannica for 1813.
Linguistic evidence
The
Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the
Late Bronze Age.[2]
The earliest records of a Celtic language are the
Lepontic inscriptions of
Cisalpine Gaul, the oldest of which still
predate the
La Tène period. Other early inscriptions are
Gaulish, appearing from the early La Tène
period in inscriptions in the area of
Massilia, in the
Greek alphabet.
Celtiberian inscriptions appear comparatively
late, after about 200 BC. Evidence of
Insular Celtic is available only from about 400
AD, in the form of
Primitive Irish
Ogham inscriptions. Besides epigraphical
evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is
toponymy.[27]
Archaeological
evidence
Before the 19th century, scholars[who?]
assumed that the original land of the Celts was west of the Rhine, more
precisely in Gaul, because it was where Greek and Roman ancient sources, namely
Cesar, located the Celts. This view was challenged by Jubainville[citation
needed] who placed the land of origin of the Celts
east of the Rhine. Jubainville based his arguments on a phrase of Herodotus´
that placed the Celts at the source of the Danube, and argued that Herodotus had
meant to place the Celtic homeland in southern Germany. The finding of the
prehistoric cemetery of Hallstat in 1846 by Johan Ramsauer and almost ten years
later the finding of the archaeological site of La Tène by Hansli Kopp in 1857
draw attention to this area. The concept that the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures
could be seen not just as chronological periods but as “Culture Groups”,
entities composed of people of the same ethnicity and language, started to grow
by the end of the 19th century. In the beginning of the 20th century the belief
that those “Culture Groups” could be thought in racial or ethnic terms was
strongly held by
Gordon Childe whose theory was influenced by
the writings of
Gustaf Kossinna.[28]
Along the 20th century the racial ethnic interpretation of La Tene culture
rooted much stronger, and any findings of “La Tene culture” and “flat inhumation
cemeteries” were directly associated with the celts and the celtic language.[29]
The Iron Age
Hallstatt (c. 800-475 BC) and
La Tène (c. 500-50 BC) cultures are typically
associated with Proto-Celtic and Celtic culture.[30]
In various[clarification
needed]
academic disciplines the Celts were considered
a Central European Iron Age phenomenon, through the cultures of Hallstatt and La
Tène. However, archaeological finds from the Halstatt and La Tène culture were
rare in the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern France, northern and western
Britain, southern Ireland and Galatia[31][32]
and did not provide enough evidence for a cultural scenario comparable to that
of Central Europe. It is considered equally difficult to maintain that the
origin of the Peninsular Celts can be linked to the preceding Urnfield culture,
leading to a more recent approach that introduces a 'proto-Celtic' substratum
and a process of Celticisation having its initial roots in the Bronze Age
Bell Beaker culture.[33]
The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from
450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC) in eastern France,
Switzerland, Austria, southwest Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and
Hungary. It developed out of the Hallstatt culture without any definite cultural
break, under the impetus of considerable Mediterranean influence from
Greek, and later
Etruscan civilisations. A shift of settlement
centres took place in the 4th century.
The western La Tène culture corresponds to historical
Celtic Gaul. Whether this means that the whole of La Tène culture can
be attributed to a unified Celtic people is difficult to assess; archaeologists
have repeatedly concluded that language, material culture, and
political affiliation do not necessarily run
parallel. Frey notes that in the 5th century, "burial customs in the Celtic
world were not uniform; rather, localised groups had their own beliefs, which,
in consequence, also gave rise to distinct artistic expressions".[34]
Thus, while the La Tène culture is certainly associated with the
Gauls, the presence of La Tène artefacts may be
due to cultural contact and does not imply the permanent presence of Celtic
speakers.
Historical evidence
Polybius published a
history of Rome about 150 BC in which he
describes the Gauls of Italy and their conflict with Rome.
Pausanias in the 2nd century BC says that the
Gauls "originally called Celts", "live on the remotest region of Europe on the
coast of an enormous tidal sea".
Posidonius described the southern Gauls about
100 BC. Though his original work is lost it was used by later writers such as
Strabo. The latter, writing in the early 1st
century AD, deals with Britain and Gaul as well as Hispania, Italy and Galatia.
Caesar wrote extensively about his
Gallic Wars in 58-51 BC.
Diodorus Siculus wrote about the Celts of Gaul
and Britain in his 1st-century history.
Minority views
Martín Almagro Gorbea[35]
proposed the origins of the Celts could be traced back to the 3rd millennium BC,
seeking the initial roots in the
Bell Beaker culture, thus offering the wide
dispersion of the Celts throughout
western Europe, as well as the variability of
the different Celtic peoples, and the existence of ancestral traditions an
ancient perspective. More recently, John Koch[36]
and
Barry Cunliffe[37]
have suggested that Celtic origins lie with the
Atlantic Bronze Age, roughly contemporaneous
with the Hallstatt culture but positioned considerably to the West, extending
along the Atlantic coast of Europe.
Stephen Oppenheimer[38]
points out that Herodotus seemed to believe the Danube rose near the
Pyrenees.
Distribution
Continental Celts
Gaul
At the dawn of history in Europe, the Celts then living in what is now France
were known as Gauls to the Romans. The territory of these peoples probably
included
the low countries, the Alps and what is now
northern Italy. Their descendants were described by Julius Caesar in his
Gallic Wars. Eastern Gaul was the centre of
the western La Tène culture. In later Iron Age Gaul, the social organisation was
similar to that of the Romans, with large towns. From the 3rd century BC the
Gauls adopted coinage, and texts with Greek characters are known in southern
Gaul from the 2nd century.
Greek traders founded Massalia in about 600 BC, with exchange up the
Rhone valley, but trade was disrupted soon
after 500 BC and re-oriented over the Alps to the Po valley in Italy.
The Romans arrived in the Rhone valley in the
2nd century BC and encountered a Gaul that was mostly Celtic-speaking. Rome
needed land communications with its Iberian provinces and fought a major battle
with the Saluvii at Entremont in 124-123 BC. Gradually Roman control extended,
and the
Roman Province of
Gallia Transalpina was formed along the
Mediterranean coast. The remainder was known as Gallia Comata - "Hairy Gaul".
In 58 BC, the Helvetii planned to migrate westward but were forced back by
Julius Caesar. He then became involved in fighting the various tribes in Gaul,
and by 55 BC, most of Gaul had been overrun. In 52 BC,
Vercingetorix led a revolt against the Roman
occupation but was defeated at the siege of Alesia and surrendered.
Following the Gallic Wars of 58-51 BC, Caesar's Celtica formed the
main part of Roman Gaul. This territory of the Celtic tribes was bounded on the
south by the Garonne and on the north by the Seine and the Marne.[39]
Place and personal name analysis and inscriptions suggest that the Gaulish
Celtic language was spoken over most of what is now France.[40]
Iberia
Triskelion and spirals on a Galician torc terminal (Museu do castro
de Santa Tegra).
Until the end of the 19th century, traditional scholarship dealing with the
Celts did acknowledge their presence in the Iberian Peninsula[41][42]
as a
material culture relatable to the
Hallstatt and
La Tène cultures. However, since according to
the definition of the
Iron Age in the 19th century Celtic populations
were supposedly rare in Iberia and did not provide a cultural scenario that
could easily be linked to that of Central Europe, the presence of celtic culture
in that region was generally not fully recognised. Three divisions of the Celts
of the Iberian Peninsula were assumed to have existed: the
Celtiberians in the mountains near the centre
of the peninsula, the
Celtici in the southwest, and the celts in the
northwest (in
Gallaecia and
Asturias).[43]
Modern scholarship, however, has clearly proven that Celtic presence and
influences were most substantial in what is today Spain and Portugal (with
perhaps the highest settlement saturation in Western Europe), particularly in
the central, western and northern regions.[44][45]
The Celts in Iberia were divided into two main archaeological and cultural
groups,[46]
even though that division is not very clear:
The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to understanding the
Celticisation process in the rest of the Peninsula. The process of Celticisation
of the southwestern area of the peninsula by the Keltoi and of the northwestern
area is, however, not a simple Celtiberian question. Recent investigations about
the
Callaici[53]
and
Bracari[54]
in northwestern Portugal are providing new approaches to understanding Celtic
culture (language, art and religion) in western Iberia.[55]
John T. Koch of the University of Wales-Aberystwyth suggested that
Tartessian inscriptions of the 8th century BC
might already be classified as Celtic. This would mean that Tartessian is the
earliest attested trace of Celtic by margin of more than a century.[56]
Alps and Po Valley
It had been known for some time that there was an early, although apparently
somewhat limited, Celtic (Lepontic,
sometimes called Cisalpine Celtic) presence in
Northern Italy since inscriptions dated to the
6th century BC have been found there.
The site of
Golasecca, where the
Ticino exits from
Lake Maggiore, was particularly suitable for
long-distance exchanges, in which Golaseccans acted as intermediaries between
Etruscans and the
Halstatt culture of Austria, supported on the
all-important trade in
salt.
In 391 BC Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps streamed through the
passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the
Appennine mountains and the Alps" according to
Diodorus Siculus. The
Po Valley and the rest of northern Italy (known
to the Romans as
Cisalpine Gaul) was inhabited by
Celtic-speakers who founded cities such as
Milan.[57]
Later the Roman army was routed at the
battle of Allia and Rome was sacked in 390 BC
by the
Senones.
At the
battle of Telamon in 225 BC a large Celtic army
was trapped between two Roman forces and crushed.
The defeat of the combined
Samnite, Celtic and Etruscan alliance by the
Romans in the
Third Samnite War sounded the beginning of the
end of the Celtic domination in mainland Europe, but it was not until 192 BC
that the Roman armies conquered the last remaining independent Celtic kingdoms
in Italy.
Eastward expansion
The Celts also expanded down the
Danube river and its tributaries. One of the
most influential tribes, the
Scordisci, had established their capital at
Singidunum in 3rd century BC, which is
present-day
Belgrade,
Serbia. The concentration of hill-forts and
cemeteries shows a
density of population in the
Tisza valley of modern-day
Vojvodina,
Serbia, Hungary and into
Ukraine. Expansion into
Romania was however blocked by the
Dacians.
Further south, Celts settled in
Thrace (Bulgaria),
which they ruled for over a century, and
Anatolia, where they settled as the
Galatians (see also:
Gallic Invasion of Greece). Despite their
geographical isolation from the rest of the
Celtic world, the Galatians maintained their Celtic language for at least 700
years.
St Jerome, who visited Ancyra (modern-day
Ankara) in 373 AD, likened their language to
that of the
Treveri of northern Gaul.
For Venceslas Kruta, Galatia in central Turkey was an area of dense celtic
settlement.
The
Boii tribe gave their name to
Bohemia,
Bologna and possibly
Bavaria, and Celtic artefacts and cemeteries
have been discovered further east in what is now Poland and
Slovakia. A celtic coin (Biatec)
from
Bratislava's mint was displayed on the old
Slovak 5-crown coin.
As there is no archaeological evidence for large-scale invasions in some of
the other areas, one current school of thought holds that Celtic language and
culture spread to those areas by contact rather than invasion.[58]
However, the Celtic invasions of Italy and the
expedition in Greece and western Anatolia, are
well documented in Greek and Latin history.
There are records of Celtic mercenaries in
Egypt serving the
Ptolemies. Thousands were employed in 283-246
BC and they were also in service around 186 BC. They attempted to overthrow
Ptolemy II.
Insular Celts
Main article:
Insular CeltsAll Celtic languages extant today belong to the
Insular Celtic languages, derived from the
Celtic languages spoken in
Iron Age Britain. They were separated into a
Goidelic and a
Brythonic branch from an early period.
Linguists have been arguing for many years whether a Celtic language came to
Britain and Ireland and then split or whether there were two separate
"invasions". The older view of prehistorians was that the Celtic influence in
the British Isles was the result of successive invasions from the European
continent by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over the course of several
centuries, accounting for the
P-Celtic vs.
Q-Celtic isogloss. This view is now generally
discredited in favour of a phylogenetic
Insular Celtic dialect group.
Celtic arrival in Britain is usually taken to correspond to
Hallstatt influence and the appearance of
chariot burials in what is now England from
about the 6th century BC. Some Iron Age migration does seem to have occurred but
the nature of the interactions with the indigenous populations of the isles is
unknown. In the late
Iron Age Pryor estimates that the population of
Britain and Ireland was between 1 and 1.5 million, upon which a smaller number
of Celtic-speaking immigrant populations would have installed themselves as a
superstrate.
By about the 6th century (Sub-Roman
Britain), most of the inhabitants of the Isles were speaking Celtic
languages of either the
Goidelic or the
Brythonic branch.
After Caesar's conquest of
Gaul in the 50s BC, some
Belgic people seem to have come to central
southern Britain.[59]
Though there was a tribe called
Parisi in eastern Yorkshire, these were
probably a British people with cultural links to the continent. It has been
claimed that there were a tribe of
Iverni in Ireland who spoke a Brythonic
language.
In Ireland as in Great Britain, beginning Celtic influence is taken to
correspond to the beginning
Iron Age. The adoption of Celtic culture and
language was likely a gradual transformation, brought on by cultural exchange
with Celtic groups in the mainland or otherwise southwest continental Europe.
Romanisation
Under Caesar the Romans conquered Celtic Gaul, and from
Claudius onward the Roman empire absorbed parts
of Britain. Roman local government of these regions closely mirrored pre-Roman
tribal boundaries, and archaeological finds suggest native involvement in local
government.
The native peoples under Roman rule became Romanised and keen to adopt Roman
ways. Celtic art had already incorporated classical influences, and surviving
Gallo-Roman pieces interpret classical subjects or keep faith with old
traditions despite a Roman overlay.
The Roman occupation of
Gaul, and to a lesser extent of
Britain, led to Roman-Celtic
syncretism. In the case of the continental
Celts, this eventually resulted in a
language shift to
Vulgar Latin, while the Insular Celts retained
their language.
There was also considerable cultural influence exerted by Gaul on Rome,
particularly in military matters and horsemanship, as the Gauls often served in
the
Roman cavalry. The Romans adopted the Celtic
cavalry sword, the
spatha, and
Epona, the Celtic horse goddess.[60]
Society
Stone head from Mšecké Žehrovice, Czech Republic, wearing a
torc, late La Tène culture.
To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian Celtic
social structure based formally on class and
kingship. Patron-client relationships similar to those of Roman society are also
described by Caesar and others in the Gaul of the 1st century BC.
In the main, the evidence is of tribes being led by kings, although some
argue that there is also evidence of
oligarchical
republican
forms of government eventually emerging in
areas which had close contact with Rome. Most descriptions of Celtic societies
portray them as being divided into three groups: a warrior aristocracy; an
intellectual class including professions such as
druid, poet, and jurist; and everyone else. In
historical times, the offices of high and low kings in Ireland and Scotland were
filled by
election under the system of
tanistry, which eventually came into conflict
with the feudal principle of
primogeniture in which succession goes to the
first born son.
Little is known of family structure among the Celts. Patterns of settlement
varied from decentralised to urban. The popular stereotype of non-urbanised
societies settled in
hillforts and
duns,[62]
drawn from Britain and Ireland (there are about 3,000
hill forts known in Britain)[63]
contrasts with the urban settlements present in the core Hallstatt and La Tene
areas, with the many significant
oppida of Gaul late in the first millennium
BC, and with the towns of
Gallia Cisalpina.
Slavery, as practised by the Celts, was very
likely similar to the better documented
practice in ancient Greece and Rome.[64]
Slaves were acquired from war, raids, and penal and debt servitude.[64]
Slavery was hereditary[citation
needed], though
manumission was possible. The
Old Irish word for slave, cacht, and the
Welsh term caeth are likely derived from the Latin captus,
captive, suggesting that
slave trade was an early venue of contact
between Latin and Celtic societies.[64]
In the Middle Ages, slavery was especially prevalent in the
Celtic countries.[65]
Manumissions were discouraged by law and the word for "female slave", cumal,
was used as a general unit of value in Ireland.[66]
Archaeological evidence suggests that the pre-Roman Celtic societies were
linked to the network of overland
trade routes that spanned Eurasia.
Archaeologists have discovered large prehistoric trackways crossing bogs in
Ireland and Germany. Due to their substantial nature, these are believed to have
been created for wheeled transport as part of an extensive roadway system that
facilitated trade.[67]
The territory held by the Celts contained
tin,
lead,
iron,
silver and
gold.[68]
Celtic smiths and metalworkers created weapons and
jewellery for
international trade, particularly with the
Romans.
The myth that the Celtic
monetary system consisted of wholly barter is a
common one, but is in part false. The monetary system was complex and is still
not understood (much like the late Roman coinages), and due to the absence of
large numbers of coin items, it is assumed that "proto-money" was used. This is
the collective term used to describe bronze items made from the early La Tene
period onwards, which were often in the shape of
axeheads,
rings, or
bells. Due to the large number of these present
in some burials, it is thought they had a relatively high
monetary value, and could be used for "day to
day" purchases. Low-value coinages of
potin, a bronze alloy with high tin content,
were minted in most Celtic areas of the continent and in South-East Britain
prior to the Roman conquest of these lands. Higher-value coinages, suitable for
use in trade, were minted in gold, silver, and high-quality bronze.
Gold coinage was much more common than
silver coinage, despite being worth
substantially more, as while there were around 100 mines in Southern Britain and
Central France, silver was more rarely mined. This was due partly to the
relative sparcity of mines and the amount of effort needed for extraction
compared to the profit gained. As the Roman civilisation grew in importance and
expanded its trade with the Celtic world, silver and bronze coinage became more
common. This coincided with a major increase in gold production in Celtic areas
to meet the Roman demand, due to the high value Romans put on the metal. The
large number of gold mines in France is thought to be a major reason why Caesar
invaded.
There are only very limited records from pre-Christian times written in
Celtic languages. These are mostly inscriptions in the Roman and sometimes Greek
alphabets. The
Ogham script, an
Early Medieval
alphabet, was mostly used in early Christian
times in Ireland and Scotland (but also in Wales and England), and was only used
for ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions on gravestones. The available
evidence is of a strong oral tradition, such as that preserved by bards in
Ireland, and eventually recorded by
monasteries. The oldest recorded rhyming poetry
in the world is of Irish origin[69]
and is a transcription of a much older
epic poem, leading some scholars to claim that
the Celts invented
rhyme. Celtic art also produced a great deal of
intricate and beautiful metalwork, examples of which have been preserved by
their distinctive burial rites.
In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative: for example, they still
used
chariots in combat long after they had been
reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans. However, despite being
outdated, Celtic
chariot tactics were able to repel the invasion
of Britain attempted by Julius Caesar.
According to Diodorus Siculus:
The Gauls are tall of body with rippling muscles and white of skin and
their hair is blond, and not only naturally so for they also make it
their practice by artificial means to increase the distinguishing colour
which nature has given it. For they are always washing their hair in
limewater and they pull it back from the forehead to the nape of the
neck, with the result that their appearance is like that of Satyrs and
Pans since the treatment of their hair makes it so heavy and coarse that
it differs in no respect from the mane of horses. Some of them shave the
beard but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks
but they let the moustache grow until it covers the mouth.
Clothing
During the later Iron Age the Gauls generally wore long-sleeved shirts or
tunics and long trousers (called
braccae by the Romans).[70]
Clothes were made of
wool or
linen, with some
silk being used by the rich.
Cloaks were worn in the winter.
Brooches and
armlets were used, but the most famous item of
jewellery was the
torc, a neck collar of metal, sometimes gold.
The horned
Waterloo Helmet in the
British Museum, which long set the standard for
modern images of Celtic warriors, is in fact a unique survival, and may have
been a piece for ceremonial rather than military wear.
Gender and sexual
norms
According to
Aristotle, most "belligerent nations" were
strongly influenced by their women, but the Celts were unusual because their men
openly preferred male lovers (Politics
II 1269b).[71]
H. D. Rankin in Celts and the Classical World notes that "Athenaeus
echoes this comment (603a) and so does
Ammianus (30.9). It seems to be the general
opinion of antiquity."[72]
In book XIII of his
Deipnosophists, the Roman Greek rhetorician
and grammarian
Athenaeus, repeating assertions made by
Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC (Bibliotheca
historica 5:32), wrote that Celtic women were beautiful but that the
men preferred to sleep together. Diodorus went further, stating that "the young
men will offer themselves to strangers and are insulted if the offer is
refused". Rankin argues that the ultimate source of these assertions is likely
to be
Poseidonius and speculates that these authors
may be recording male "bonding rituals".[73]
The
sexual freedom of women in Britain was noted by
Cassius Dio:[74]
...a very witty remark is reported to have been made by the wife of
Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to
Julia Augusta. When the empress was
jesting with her, after the treaty, about the free intercourse of her
sex with men in Britain, she replied: "We fulfill the demands of nature
in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with
the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the
vilest." Such was the retort of the British woman.
There are instances recorded where women participated both in warfare and in
kingship, although they were in the minority in these areas.
Plutarch reports that Celtic women acted as
ambassadors to avoid a war among Celts chiefdoms in the Po valley during the 4th
century BC.[75]
Very few reliable sources exist regarding Celtic views towards gender
divisions and societal statues, though some archaeological evidence does suggest
that their views towards
gender roles may differ from contemporary and
less
egalitarian classical counterparts of the roman
era.[76][77]
There are some general indications from Iron Age burial sites in the
Champagne and Bourgogne regions of Northeastern France which suggest that women
may have had roles in combat during the earlier portions of the La Tène period.
However, the evidence is far from conclusive.[78]
Examples of individuals buried with both female jewellery and weaponry have been
identified, such as the
Vix Grave, and there are questions about the
sexing of some skeletons that were buried with warrior assemblages. However, it
has been suggested that "the weapons may indicate rank instead of masculinity".[79]
Among the insular Celts, there is a greater amount of historic documentation
to suggest warrior roles for women. In addition to commentary by
Tacitus about
Boudica, there are indications from later
period histories that also suggest a more substantial role for "women as
warriors" in symbolic if not actual roles.
Posidonius and
Strabo described an island of women where men
could not venture for fear of death, and where the women ripped each other
apart.[80]
Other writers, such as
Ammianus Marcellinus and
Tacitus, mentioned Celtic women inciting,
participating in, and leading battles.[81]
Poseidonius' anthropological comments on the Celts had common themes, primarily
primitivism, extreme ferocity, cruel
sacrificial practices, and the strength and courage of their women.[82]
Under
Brehon Law, which was written down in
early Medieval Ireland after
conversion to Christianity, a woman had the
right to divorce her husband and gain his property if he was unable to perform
his marital duties due to impotence, obesity, homosexual inclination or
preference for other women.[83]
Celtic art
Celtic art is generally used by art historians to refer to art of the La Tène
period across Europe, while the
Early Medieval art of Britain and Ireland, that
is what "Celtic art" evokes for much of the general public, is called
Insular art in art history. Both styles
absorbed considerable influences from non-Celtic sources, but retained a
preference for geometrical decoration over figurative subjects, which are often
extremely stylised when they do appear; narrative scenes only appear under
outside influence. Energetic circular forms,
triskeles and spirals are characteristic. Much
of the surviving material is in precious metal, which no doubt gives a very
unrepresentative picture, but apart from
Pictish stones and the Insular
high crosses, large
monumental sculpture, even with decorative
carving, is very rare; possibly it was originally common in wood.
The
interlace patterns that are often regarded as
typical of "Celtic art" were in fact introduced to Insular art from the
animal Style II of Germanic
Migration Period art, though taken up with
great skill and enthusiasm by Celtic artists in metalwork and
illuminated manuscripts. Equally, the forms
used for the finest Insular art were all adopted from the Roman world:
Gospel books like the
Book of Kells and
Book of Lindisfarne, chalices like the
Ardagh Chalice and
Derrynaflan Chalice, and
penannular brooches like the
Tara Brooch. These works are from the period of
peak achievement of Insular art, which lasted from the 7th to the 9th centuries,
before the
Viking attacks sharply set back cultural life.
In contrast the less well known but often spectacular art of the richest
earlier Continental Celts, before they were conquered by the Romans, often
adopted elements of Roman, Greek and other "foreign" styles (and possibly used
imported craftsmen) to decorate objects that were distinctively Celtic. After
the Roman conquests, some Celtic elements remained in popular art, especially
Ancient Roman pottery, of which Gaul was
actually the largest producer, mostly in Italian styles, but also producing work
in local taste, including
figurines of deities and wares painted with
animals and other subjects in highly formalised styles.
Roman Britain also took more interest in
enamel than most of the Empire, and its
development of
champlevé technique was probably important to
the later
Medieval art of the whole of Europe, of which
the energy and freedom of Insular decoration was an important element.
Warfare and weapons
Parade Helmet, Agris, France. 350 BC, with stylistic borrowings from
around the Mediterranean.
Principal sites in Roman Britain, with indication of the Celtic tribes.
Tribal warfare appears to have been a regular
feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a
sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest,
the historical record is more of tribes using warfare to exert political control
and harass rivals, for
economic advantage, and in some instances to
conquer territory.[citation
needed]
The Celts were described by classical writers such as
Strabo,
Livy,
Pausanias, and
Florus as fighting like "wild beasts", and as
hordes.
Dionysius said that their "manner of fighting,
being in large measure that of wild beasts and frenzied, was an erratic
procedure, quite lacking in
military science. Thus, at one moment they
would raise their swords aloft and smite after the manner of
wild boars, throwing the whole weight of their
bodies into the blow like hewers of wood or men digging with mattocks, and again
they would deliver crosswise blows aimed at no target, as if they intended to
cut to pieces the entire bodies of their adversaries, protective armour and
all".[84]
Such descriptions have been challenged by contemporary historians.[85]
Polybius (2.33) indicates that the principal
Celtic weapon was a
long bladed sword which was used for hacking
edgewise rather than stabbing.
Celtic warriors are described by Polybius and
Plutarch as frequently having to cease fighting in order to straighten their
sword blades. This claim has been questioned by some archaeologists, who note
that
Noric steel, steel produced in Celtic
Noricum, was famous in the
Roman Empire period and was used to equip the
Roman military.[86][87]
However, Radomir Pleiner, in The Celtic Sword (1993) argues that "the
metallographic evidence shows that Polybius was right up to a point", as around
one third of surviving swords from the period might well have behaved as he
describes.[88]
Polybius also asserts that certain of the Celts fought naked, "The appearance
of these naked warriors was a terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of
splendid physique and in the prime of life."[89]
According to Livy this was also true of the Celts of Asia Minor.[90]
Head hunting
A Gallic statue of a Celtic warrior, in the Museum of Brittany
Celts had a reputation as
head hunters. According to
Paul Jacobsthal, "Amongst the Celts the
human head was venerated above all else, since
the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life
itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world."[91]
Arguments for a Celtic cult of the severed head include the many sculptured
representations of severed heads in La Tène carvings, and the surviving Celtic
mythology, which is full of stories of the severed heads of heroes and the
saints who
carry their decapitated heads, right down to
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where the
Green Knight picks up his own severed head
after Gawain has struck it off, just as
St. Denis carried his head to the top of
Montmartre.
A further example of this regeneration after beheading lies in the tales of
Connemara's
St. Feichin, who after being beheaded by Viking
pirates carried his head to the Holy Well on
Omey Island and on dipping the head into the
well placed it back upon his neck and was restored to full health.
Diodorus Siculus, in his 1st century History
had this to say about Celtic head-hunting:
They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the
necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their
attendants and striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and
they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who
lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in
cedar oil the heads of the most
distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and
display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of
their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of
a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused
the weight of the head in gold
In
Gods and Fighting Men,
Lady Gregory's
Celtic Revival translation of
Irish mythology, heads of men killed in battle
are described in the beginning of the story The Fight With The Fir Bolgs
as pleasing to
Macha, one aspect of the war goddess
Morrigu.
Religion
Polytheism
Like other European Iron Age tribal societies, the Celts practised a
polytheistic religion.[92]
Many
Celtic gods are known from texts and
inscriptions from the Roman period. Rites and sacrifices were carried out by
priests known as
druids. The Celts did not see their gods as
having human shapes until late in the Iron Age. Celtic
shrines were situated in remote areas such as
hilltops, groves, and lakes.
Celtic religious patterns were regionally variable; however, some patterns of
deity forms, and ways of worshipping these deities, appeared over a wide
geographical and temporal range. The Celts worshipped both gods and goddesses.
In general, Celtic gods were deities of particular skills, such as the
many-skilled
Lugh and
Dagda, while goddesses were associated with
natural features, particularly rivers (such as
Boann, goddess of the
River Boyne). This was not universal, however,
as goddesses such as
Brighid and
The Morrígan were associated with both natural
features (holy
wells and the River Unius) and skills such as blacksmithing and
healing.[93]
Triplicity is a common theme in Celtic cosmology, and a number of deities
were seen as threefold.[94]
This trait is exhibited by The Three Mothers, a group of goddesses worshipped by
many Celtic tribes (with regional variations).[95]
The Celts had literally hundreds of deities, some of which were unknown
outside a single family or tribe, while others were popular enough to have a
following that crossed lingual and cultural barriers. For instance, the Irish
god Lugh, associated with
storms,
lightning, and culture, is seen in similar
forms as
Lugos in Gaul and
Lleu in Wales. Similar patterns are also seen
with the continental Celtic horse goddess
Epona and what may well be her Irish and Welsh
counterparts,
Macha and
Rhiannon, respectively.[96]
Roman reports of the druids mention ceremonies being held in
sacred groves. La Tène Celts built temples of
varying size and shape, though they also maintained shrines at
sacred trees and
votive pools.[92]
Druids fulfilled a variety of roles in Celtic religion, serving as priests
and religious officiants, but also as judges, sacrificers, teachers, and
lore-keepers. Druids organised and ran religious ceremonies, and they memorised
and taught the
calendar. Other classes of druids performed
ceremonial sacrifices of crops and
animals for the perceived benefit of the
community.[97]
Gallic Calendar
The
Coligny calendar, which was found in 1897 in
Coligny,
Ain,
was engraved on a
bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments, that
originally was 1.48 m wide and 0.9 m high (Lambert p. 111). Based on the style
of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the
2nd century.[98]
It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals, and is in the
Gallic language. The restored tablet contains
16 vertical columns, with 62 months distributed over 5 years.
The French archaeologist J. Monard speculated that it was recorded by
druids wishing to preserve their tradition of
timekeeping in a time when the
Julian calendar was imposed throughout the
Roman Empire. However, the general form of the
calendar suggests the public peg calendars (or parapegmata) found
throughout the Greek and Roman world.[99]
Roman Influence
The Roman invasion of Gaul brought a great deal of Celtic peoples into the
Roman Empire. Roman culture had a profound effect on the Celtic tribes which
came under the empire's control. Roman influence led to many changes in Celtic
religion, the most noticeable of which was the weakening of the druid class,
especially religiously; the druids were to eventually disappear altogether.
Romano-Celtic deities also began to appear: these deities often had both Roman
and Celtic attributes and combined the names of Roman and Celtic deities. Other
changes included the adaptation of the
Jupiter Pole, a sacred pole which was used
throughout Celtic regions of the empire, primarily in the north. Another major
change in religious practice was the use of stone monuments to represent gods
and goddesses. The Celts had only created wooden idols (including monuments
carved into trees, which were known as sacred poles) previously to Roman
conquest.[95]
Celtic Christianity
While the regions under Roman rule adopted Christianity along with the rest
of the Roman empire, unconquered areas of Ireland and Scotland moved from
Celtic polytheism to Christianity in the 5th
century. Ireland was converted under missionaries from Britain, such as
Patrick. Later missionaries from Ireland were a
major source of
missionary work in Scotland, Saxon parts of
Britain, and central Europe (see
Hiberno-Scottish mission). The term
Celtic Christianity has been applied to the
forms of Christianity that took hold in Britain and Ireland at this time, with
especial reference to its traditions that were distinct from the rest of Western
Christianity. The development of Christianity in Ireland and Britain brought an
early
medieval renaissance of
Celtic art between 390 and 1200 AD.[100][101]
Many of the styles now thought of as typically "Celtic" developed in this
period, and are found throughout much of Ireland and Britain, including the
northeast and far north of Scotland,
Orkney and
Shetland. Notable works produced during this
period include the
Book of Kells and the
Ardagh Chalice.
Antiquarian interest from the 17th century led
to the term Celt being extended, and rising
nationalism brought
Celtic revivals from the 19th century.
|
)
and your full purchase price is covered | See termsfor PayPal coverage - opens in a new window or tab