Cult of the Wqrror Heo
Warfare in various forms was central to Celtic society, and classical historians have labeled the Celts a warlike people. In the first century AD the Roman chronicler Strabo described the Gauls as warlike the whole nation is war mad, both high-spirited and ready for battle. Within Celtic culture the warrior was revered, and together with druids and bards he held a unique place in Celtic myth. Previous page A Celtic fortified center Oppidum under attack from another Celtic tribe. It was...
The CeLtic Identify
Homer. Hesiod. and Herodotus were among the first writers to give the Celtic peoples an identity. Who were the Celts From the first reeorded links between the Mediterranean world and Celtic civilization the Celts have exuded an element of mystery. The term Celtic itself has obscure origins, and several theories have been proposed about where it came from. Apart from the archaeological evidence, everything we know about the Celts camc from the Creeks and Romans. Known as the Keltoi or Calatai by...
HaLLstaft Culturze
During the 19th century archaeologists uncovered a host of early Celtic graves in a remote valley in Austria. These discoveries were given the name of the modern village where the cemetery is located. The Hallstatt people came to represent the earliest identifiable Celtic society in Europe. Although they were the descendants of the Urnfield culture, these people had progressed to become an Iron Age society. allstatt is a small, isolated community _ situated in a mountain valley in the...
A MuLtiFaceted ReLigion
We have already seen that while some Celtic deities were worshiped throughout the Celtic world, others only appealed to certain regions. The Celts worshiped places as well as gods, seeing supernatural elements in everything around them animals and trees, hills and rivers. While the main group of Celtic deities could be identified as having Roman counterparts, other aspects were unique, and ultimately influenced that nascent monotheistic religion, Christianity. Below Stone sculpture of a...
Conesion
The initial conversion of the Irish Celts to Christianity required the dominance of missionaries over druids. The victors may write history, and this struggle is recorded only in Christian annals, which provide a fascinating, if one-sided, insight into a tumultuous event in Celtie civilization. The importance of missionary work and conversion to the Celtic Church is demonstrated hy the sanctification of many of these early Celtic missionaries. Olhe Christian missionary Patrick converted _ the...
Boudiccas Reuolt
A heavy-handed Roman policy toward the British tribes led to a revolt that brought Roman Britain to its knees. The Celts were led by the warrior queen Boudicca, and before the revolt was crushed, her followers had sacked some of the leading Romano-British cities in the island and defeated the Romans in battle. To this day, Boudicca is remembered as one of the great historical figures of Celtic Britain. T j he Iceni were a Belgic tribe who occupied _ parts of east Britain now forming the...
Ar of the EorL La Tene
T 1 lie geographical roots of the early style __have been traced to the middle Rhine region of Germany. It is characterized by abstract curving and repetitive patterns, usually of natural floral designs. Formal Greek and Etruscan examples were modified into a more distinctive flowing design. The influence of the Hallstatt period on this Early style was in the use of geometric ornaments and animal motifs, which were adapted into these repetitive patterns. While some of these geometric patterns...
Royal patronage
While the earliest Irish poems were concerned with mythology and the gods, later works reflected the natural world, and the Irish kings whose patronage the bards enjoyed. Works included the commemoration of a succession of the kings of Munster and Dal Riada, providing a vital source of information on early Irish kingship. Nature and being wedded to nature was a common theme in early Irish poetry, as noted by the literary historian Kuno Meyer In nature poetry the Gaelic muse must vie with that...
The Roman
the River Rhine. As the Dacians overran the last Celtic outposts along the Danube and in Bohemia, the Romans consolidated their control over the southern Gauls. The alliances forged between Rome and these southern tribes, and the problems caused by the migrating Germans proffered the excuse Julius Caesar needed to launch a campaign of conquest in Gaul. The tool at his disposal was ideally suited to the task. Following the military reforms of Gaius Marius, the Roman legionary was the best...
The CeLtfc Wqrrior
cd by an elite warrior aristocracy, warfare played a central part in a Celtic society that was organized around tribal groupings. As chapter six shows, this warrior society and its loosely grouped, semi-anarchical group of tribes lacked the political unity that would allow them to oppose the Romans. This tailing was reflected in Celtic military operations continuously individual tribes occasionally a tribal confederation went to war without the support of other neigboring tribes, and usually...
CeLfic Consciousness
What is it to be a Celt Has the term any relevance today, or does it refer to a European civilization that has been lost with the passage of time In the past decade, an upsurge in regional national identity' within the British Isles has been mirrored by a similar increase in Celtic identity-. Have Celtic consciousness and regional awareness anv relevance in the 21 st century Below Celtic religious traditions like the rag trees still seen today as far apart as Cyprus and Ireland, are echoed in...
PosfCeLtic Arct
m independent Celtic culture effectively came to an end at the start of the 12th century. The last truly Celtic king of Scotland was Macbeth, and after his death in the mid-11th century, Scotland gradually became a state ruled by a Scottish Norman aristocracy. In Ireland, Norse occupation ended in the mid-11 th century, but a wave of English and even Scottish Norman settlers continued to undermine the vestiges of Celtic identity. By the 13th century, the island could no longer lie regarded as...
Monasticism
The monastic movement gained strength in the Celtic world during the sixth century. Initiated by Celtic missionaries many of whom were made saints , the movement began in Ireland, then spread to Britain. By the end of the century monasteries dominated the Celtic church, and this helped drive another wedge between it and the developing Church in Rome. The monastery of Iona was founded by St. Columba about ad 563,and subsequently became a thriving base for Celtic missionary expeditions into...
Celtic myth
In Echtrae Conli, Conn Cetchathach, the Irish high king, stands on the ramparts of Tara, surrounded by his Druids and sons. A thick mist descends, through which a horseman appears who invites the king and his retinue to follow him. They travel to a house on a plain. Inside is a girl, seated on a throne, who represents the sovereignty of Ireland. She is accompanied by the god Lugh, who is seated on another throne. The visitors are served food and drink, then the girl asks Conn the name of...
CeLts an AngloSaxons
Below Pevensey Castle was originally a Late Roman fortification one of the forts of the Saxon Shore. Home never completely conquered the British Isles, a failure that in later years came to haunt the governors of the province. Scotland, Ireland, and, to a lesser extent, Wales lay outside Roman control, and by the late fourth century their barbarian inhabitants were successfully raiding Britannia. Coin hoards in Wales testify' to the plunder the raiding parties looted. The defense of the prov...
The PrcotoCeLts
During the first millennium BC the Urnfield culture emerged us the dominant society of central Europe. These people were seen as the predecessors of the Celts, and their society- has therefore heen described as proto-Celtic. The only difference between these people and the Celts of the Hallstatt era is that the latter developed the ability to produce iron. This technological achievement ushered in hoth the Iron Age and the dawn of the Celtic world. reconstructed interior of a Celtic dwelling,...
Battle for Saxon minds
The Celtic Church had already made inroads in the lands surrounding the Celtic kingdoms in Wales and in Northumbria, where monks from Iona had converted the king and his nobles. While expanding its influence, the Celtic church was also moribund, and lacked the dynamism associated with St. Augustine and his modern Roman notions of devotion. The lack of doctrinal unity within the Celtic church also made it harder to present a unified structure for the Anglo-Saxon converts to follow. Augustine...
ILLuminate Manuscmpts
The first instances of illuminated manuscripts arc during the late sixth century and reflect the establishment of monastic workshops of illumination and metalwork in Ireland, Dal Kiada, and possibly also in Celtic Britain. While regarded as masterpieces, they also possess a hidden message the Celtic church was not as isolated as its adversaries in the Church of Rome believed. H K ne of the earliest known examples is the Cathach of St. Columba, a work that was allegedly written in the saint's...
The tolan CeLts
The Celtic migrations of the late llallstatt period saw a southerly movement through the Alpine passes as well as a concurrent expansion across the River Rhine and down the Danube. This brought the Celts into the rich, fertile valley of the River l'o, in northern Italy. For the next three centuries the Celts would influence the political development of Italy, and they would prove the fiercest and most persistent opponents of the Roman State. Right Paleovenetian votive plaque depicting a...
The Galatians
During the Lu Tone period not all of the Celtic migrations took place in a westerly direction. There was another trend of eastward expansion along the valley of the Danube River toward the Black Sea. By the fifth century B lt Celtic settlements were established along the eastern Black Sea coast from the Crimean peninsula to Greece, and archaeologists have found some evidence of Celtic settlement in the I kraine, Poland, and Russia. For the next two centuries, the Celts of Galatia would play a...
Saintly orders
One of the leading monasteries in Ireland was at Kildare, founded by St. Brigid, while other Celtic saints were linked to the foundation of other orders St. Brendad at Clonfert, St. Comgall at Bangor County Down , St. Carthach at Lismore, and St. Ciaran at Clonmacnoise. St. Columba founded no less than three monasteries, at Derry, Durrow, and the great monastic center on Iona in Dal Riada. By the mid-sixth century, many monasteries provided havens for Celtic bishops, who became increasingly...
Myth and fact entwined
Successive invaders have been identified with Celtic migrations by the Belgae, the Gauls, and the Dumnonii peoples. These early settlers were followed by the semi-legendary Tuatha De Danann, the tribes of the goddess Danu. The Tuatha conquered the Fir Bolg, then the Fomori with the help of the god Lugh, and established themselves as the dominant people of Ireland. Later Christian writers have added the Milesians as a sort of intrusion, to give the Irish Celts some classical respectability. In a...
Sacce WaeRS
The presence of sacred lakes are mentioned by tbe Roman historian Strabo, and archaeological evidence suggests that religious ceremonies took place by lakes and ponds during the La T ne Period. Prehistoric Furopeans deposited votive offerings in lakes, and many of these locations remained in religious use until the late Iron Age. Water had a particularly strong symbolic influence on Celtic belief, and certain bodies of water seem to have held a particular religious significance. Facing Doon...
The GcinbestRup Cauldnon
In 1891 a large deeorated Celtic cauldron was discovered in the Raevemosen Bog at Gundestrup in Jutland, a province in northern Denmark. It was clearly a ceremonial vessel, and it had been dismantled into its component parts before being deposited in the bog. It is almost certain that it was placed there as a religious votive offering. Beyond that, historians have debated the significance and origin of the cauldron ever since. Gundestrup cauldron was deliberately dismantled, then placed in a...
Death and the AjrierzLife
Alt hough much of Celtic belief is difficult to substantiate due to the lack of written records, archaeology provides us with a wealth of information regarding the Celtic attitude toward death, hurial, and the afterlife. Caesar wrote on the subject of the Gallic perception of life after death, and this unique Celtic perception of the afterlife was still being described by Irish chroniclers six centuries later, at the very end of the Celtic era. Reconstruction of a La T6ne period chariot burial...
Celtic Mythology
he Irish chroniclers of the early medieval period provide us with lists of kings, dates, and battles. What these lack is any account of how the people lived, what they believed in, and how society operated. That information comes from the great medieval works of Irish literature, written from the eleventh century onward and closely based on earlier oral histories that were passed down from one generation to the next by the late Celtic bards. Although most of these chronicles deal with Ireland...
A haven for Celtic culture
This post-Celtic influence also penetrated into contemporary medieval art in lowland Scotland, and is reflected in several medieval Scottish brooches, ivory caskets, and weapons. In the Scottish Highlands, the Celtic tradition continued to influence the design of weapons until the destruction of the Highland Clan system following the Battle of Culloden 1746 . Until then, Celtic interlace was found on Highland targes shields , dirks daggers and broadswords basket-hilted swords . Following...
The GauLs
From the start of the La Tene period, the Celts of Iron Age Europe migrated westward into what is now France. This became Gaul, the heart of Celtic Europe. Strong cultural and economic bonds united the Callic tribes for over five centuries, although they were never a single political entity. However, though capable of resisting the westward incursions of Germanic tribes, the Gauls were unable to repel the power of Rome. Right The Kilburn Sword, 300-200 bc, found in a burial site in Kilburn,...
La Tene Cultune
During the fifth century BC, the Celts underwent a period of social, cultural, and political change. This era has been identified as the start of the La Tene period, named after the Swiss site that provided archaeologists with their first insight into the cultural wealth of the Celtic world in its heyday. An era of expansion during which Celtic civilization spread across much of Europe, it was also a period of artistic excellence. The La Tene culture marked the highpoint of Celtic civilization,...
The Cimbm Migration
During the last decades of the second century BC a seemingly aimless Germanic migration led to conflict between Germans, Gauls, and Romans. The German Cimbri and their Celtic allies defeated a series of Roman armies, before being forced down into Italy by the northern Gauls. The Roman legions of Gaius larius defeated the migrating tribes and, in saving Rome, laid foundations for Roman intervention in Celtic affairs. In 113 BC reports reached Republican j Rome of the fullscale migration of a...
The CeLtic ReoioaL
Two succeeding esthetic movements revived interest in the Celts. In the 18th century, antiquarians and historians portrayed their Celtic forebears as noble savages, and the study of the Celtic past became socially acceptable. Queen Victoria's love affair with all things Scottish led to a Celtic artistic revival, and paved the way for a reassessment of Celtic cultural identity. I lthough a handful of 17th-century antiquarians described aspects of the surviving evidence of Celtic culture, the...
The HaLLstatt Pernod
The Hallstatt culture was named after the western Austrian town where 19th-century archaeologists discovered an extensive burial site. The period marks the start of Iron Age culture in Europe and the official beginning of the Celtic civilization. The Ilallstatt period is deemed to have lasted from approximately 700 until 500 BC, and ended with the period of extensive westward migration brought about by pressure from waves of Germanic settlers. The period set the scene for the artistic explosion...
The AchaeoLogicaL Eience
ince the discovery of the I lallstatt x'riod Celtic cemetery in 1824, burial sites have provided a wealth of knowledge. Sensational new finds are still being made throughout Europe, and fresh investigations are frequently undertaken to discover new information from previously explored sites. In Orkney, off the north of Scotland, archaeologists are currently excavating a Hctish settlement. In southern Germany, the recent excavation of an early Iron Age Hallstatt period burial chamber at Hochdorf...
The CeLts of the Bmtish IsLes
By the time of the Roman invasion of Britain. Celtic society had enjoyed hundreds of years of sophisticated tool-making. Intricate implements were cast from iron using stone molds like this one. any of the cultural and technological movements that spread through the Celtic world of the Iron Age were slow to reach the British Isles, isolated from the rest of Europe by the Channel. So too were the Romans, who brought Celtic civilization to its knees. Following the Roman invasion of Britain in the...
The Bretons
all the other Gallic provinces of the Roman Empire. The five Celtic tribal areas were divided into civitates, local administrative regions, and their capitals became Roman provincial centers Vorigum Carhaix for the Osismii Fanum Martis Corseulles for the Curiosolitae Condate Rennes for the Redones Namnetes Nantes for the Namnetes and Darioritum Vannes for the Venetii. These settlements became bastions of Roman power, where Gallo-Romano chieftains helped Rome administer the region. In AI 410,...
SaceLandscape
Roman chroniclers report that Celtic worship often took place in the open air, in places regarded as having a sacred nature. These included oak groves, springs, lakes, islands, ponds, or rivers. Archaeological evidence for their existence is scant, save a handful of votive offerings or other religious items. The Celts also made use of religious structures such as shrines or temples, and the remains of many of these can be identified today. I he Roman chronicler Lucan reported the finding of a...
The CeLffc Fmrage
The Celtic Fringe has been identified as the six Celtic nations of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man. These regions were the last bastions of Celtic civilization, and consequently led the way in the Celtic cultural revival of the 19th century. Inspired by this shared identity, the inhabitants of the Celtic Fringe have also been feeling their way toward a collective Celtic identity-, both as individual nations or regions, and as members of a wider culture. he...
Unstoppable settlers
During the sixth century, fresh waves of settlers encouraged further expansion inland, bringing the Angles into Essex and East Anglia to the north of the Thames, and it inevitably led to the expansion of VVessex at the expense of the Celtic kingdom of Dumnonia. In 501 the Saxon leader Port landed at Partes mutha Portsmouth , w hile other conquests linked the coastal settlements of Wessex with those of Sussex. A victory over the Celts by Cerdic of Wessex in 508 established Saxon control over the...
Founding of Iona
By contrast, St. Brigid represents a union of both religions. In the seventh-century Vita Brigitae the historian Cogitosus records how Brigid had a druid as a foster father and he supported her despite her Christian missionary work. He was eventually humbled by her spiritual abilities, and duly converted to the new religion. After St. Patrick, the best-known Celtic saint is St. Columba Colmcille , who founded the great monastic settlement on Iona, and brought Christianity to the Scots and Rets....
The Onigins of CeLtic At
Patterns evident in late Bronze ge metalwork of the Urnfield period were repeated during the llallstatt Celtic period of the early Iron Age, and their origins can he traced back even to Neolithic times. Typical forms of proto-Celtic decoration include geometric patterns and animal motifs, and these remained in constant use throughout the Iron Age that followed. Kxamplcs can be found on bronze swords, horse furnishings, and on votive offerings. Below The Trundholm Sun Car was deposited in a...
CeLtic WaRface of La Tene
Classical writers attested to the intimidating appearance of a Celtic army in battle, describing powerful men, constant noise, warlike gestures, and a barbaric fury. But faced with disciplined Roman forces, intimidation was not enough. Accounts of Roman engagements with the Celts of Italy, Gaul, and Britain provide an impression of how the Celts fought the Romans and invariably lost. he Roman historian Polybius describes the sight of a Celtic army in battle, when one fought the Romans at...