Information AboutCelt |
|
Although more recently restricted to the Atlantic coast of Western Europe (known as the "Celtic fringe"), Celtic languages were once predominant over much of Europe. Archaeological and historical sources show that at their maximum extent in the third century BC, Celtic peoples were also present in areas of Eastern Europe and Asia Minor . {Link without Title} Britannica; (Turkey) People and Culture OVERVIEW The Celts had a Polytheistic Religion and distinctive material and social culture. In the Iron Age they were spread from the Iberian Peninsula to Turkey and ancient Iberia at Caucasus, but their Urheimat is a matter of controversy. Traditionally, scholars have placed the Celtic homeland in what is now southern Germany and Austria, associating the earliest Celtic peoples with the Hallstatt Culture . However, modern linguistic studies seem to point to a north Balkan origin. The expansion of the Roman Empire from the south and the Germanic Tribes from the north and east spelt the end of Celtic culture on the European mainland where Brittany alone maintained its Celtic language and identity. The known names of Celtic peoples are given in the list of Celtic Tribes . The development of Christianity in Ireland and Britain brought an early Medieval renaissance of Celtic Art between 400 and 1200 , only ended by the Norman Conquest of Ireland in the late 12th Century . 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 in areas where the use of Celtic languages had continued. The term "Celt"has been adopted as a label of self-identity for a variety of peoples and often refers to groups who speak a Celtic language. However, it does not seem to have been used to refer to Celtic language speakers as a whole before the 18th century. Prior to that, the term , "Celt" was primarily used by Greeks and Romans as a label for groups of people who were distinguished from others by their ''cultural'' characteristics. 'Celticity' refers to the cultural commonalities of these peoples, based on similarities in language, material artifacts, social organisation and mythological factors. 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 Languages . '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. ''See Celtic (disambiguation) for other applications of the term'' Today, the term 'Celtic' is generally used to describe the languages and respective cultures of , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton plus two recent revivals, Cornish (one of the Brythonic Language s) and Manx (one of the Goidelic Languages ). 'Celtic' is also used to describe regions of Continental Europe that have Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic Language has survived; these areas include the northern Iberian Peninsula (northern Portugal , and the Spanish Historical Regions of Galicia , Asturias and Cantabria ), and to a lesser degree, France . ''(see Modern Celts )'' 'Continental Celts' refers to the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe. 'Insular Celts' refers to the people of Britain and Ireland. 'Atlantic Celt' was introduced to refer to people in Iberia, France, Ireland and Britain with a Celtic heritage. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TERM "CELT" Ancient uses The first literary reference to the Celtic people, as Κελτοί (''Κeltoi'') is by the Greek Historian Hecataeus Of Miletus in 517 BC ; he locates the ''Keltoi'' tribe in Rhenania (West/Southwest Germany). The next Greek reference to the ''Keltoi'' is by Herodotus in the mid 5th century. He says that "the river Ister {Link without Title} begins from the ''Keltoi'' and the city of Pyrene and so runs that it divides Europe in the midst (now the ''Keltoi'' are outside the Pillars of Heracles and border upon the Kynesians, who dwell furthest towards the sunset of all those who have their dwelling in Europe)". This confused passage was generally later interpreted as implying that the homeland of the Celts was at the source of the Danube not in Spain/France. However, this was mainly because of the association of the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures with the Celts. According to ancestor of Celts."Celtine, daughter of Bretannus, fell in love with Heracles 1 and hid away his kine (the cattle of Geryon) refusing to give them back to him unless he would first content her. From Celtus 1 the Celtic race derived their name." 1 In Latin ''Celta'' came in turn from Herodotus ' word for the Gauls , ''Keltoi''. The Romans used ''Celtae'' to refer to continental Gauls, but apparently not to Insular Celts . The latter were long divided linguistically into Goidhels and Brythons (see Insular Celtic Languages ), although other research provides a more complex picture (see below under "Classification"). The term in English The English word 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.(Lhuyd, p. 290) Lhuyd, E. ''"Archaeologia Britannica; An account of the languages, histories, and customs of the original inhabitants of Great Britain."'' (reprint ed.) Irish University Press, 1971. ISBN 0-7165-0031-0
Nowadays "Celt" and "Celtic" are usually pronounced and , derived from a Greek root ''keltoi'', when referring to the Ethnic Group and its languages. The pronunciation , derived from the French ''celtique'', is mainly used for the names of sports teams (for example the NBA team, Boston Celtics and the SPL side, Celtic F.C. in Glasgow ."Although many dictionaries, including the OED, prefer the soft ''c'' pronunciation, most students of Celtic culture prefer the hard ''c''." MacKillop, J. ''"Dictionary of Celtic Mythology."'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-869157-2 Modern uses In a historical context, the terms "Celt" and "Celtic" are used in several senses: to denote peoples speaking Celtic languages; the peoples of Prehistoric and early historic Europe who shared common cultural traits which are thought to have originated in the Hallstatt and La Tène Culture s; or the peoples known to the Greeks as Keltoi, to the Romans as Celtae and to either by cognate terms such as Gallae or Galatae. The extent to which each of these meanings refers to the same group of people is a matter of debate. In a modern context, the term "Celt" or "Celtic" is used to denote areas where Celtic languages are spoken—this is the criterion employed by the of Celtic languages and in none of them is it the language of the majority. However, all six have significant traces of a Celtic language in personal and place names, and in culture and traditions. Some people in Galicia , Asturias and Cantabria , in north-western Spain , and Minho , Trás-os-Montes E Alto Douro in Northern Portugal wish to be considered Celtic because of the strong Celtic Cultural Identity and acknowledgement of their Celtic past. The Celtic element is seen as the key differentiator of the Galician-Portuguese identity from the Mediterranean Iberian , Roman or Moorish influences of southern and eastern Spain, and southern Portugal. Regions of England such as Cumbria and Devon likewise retain some Celtic influences, yet haven't retained a Celtic language (even Cornwall became fully English-speaking during the 18th century) and are therefore not categorised as Celtic regions or nations. Cornish aside, the last attested Celtic language native to England was Cumbric , spoken in Cumbria and southern Scotland and which may have survived until the 13th Century , but was most likely dead by the Eleventh . As in the case of Cornish , there have been recent attempts to recreate it, based on medieval Miracle Plays and other surviving sources. Another area of Europe associated with the Celts is France , which traces its roots to the Gauls. In Scotland, the Gaelic language traces at least some of its roots to Migration and settlement by the Irish Dál Riata / Scotti . The settlement of Germanic immigrants in the lowlands—among other things—reduced the spread of the Gaelic language which was supplanting Brythonic in Scotland; this has meant that Scots-Gaelic-speaking communities survive chiefly in the country's northern and western fringes. Use of the term for pre-Roman peoples of Britain and Ireland The first person to use the term "Celt" in relation to Britain and Ireland was George Buchanan in 1582. After its employment by Edward Lhuyd in 1707,(Lhuyd, p. 290) Lhuyd, E. ''"Archaeologia Britannica; An account of the languages, histories, and customs of the original inhabitants of Great Britain."'' (reprint ed.) Irish University Press, 1971. ISBN 0-7165-0031-0 the use of the word "Celtic" as an Umbrella Term for the pre-Roman peoples of Britain gained considerable popularity in the nineteenth century, and remains in common usage. However its historical basis is now seen as dubious by many historians and archaeologists, and this usage has been called into question. never used the term "Celtic" (or, rather, a cognate in Latin ) in reference to the peoples of Britain and Ireland, and points out that the modern term "Celt" was coined as a useful umbrella term in the early 18th century to distinguish the non-English inhabitants of the Archipelago when England united with Scotland in 1707 to create the Kingdom Of Great Britain and the later union of Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom in 1800 . Nationalists in Scotland, Ireland and Wales looked for a way to differentiate themselves from England and assert their right to independence. James then argues that, despite the obvious linguistic connections, Archeology does not suggest a united Celtic culture and that the term is misleading, no more (or less) meaningful than "Western". Miranda Green , author of ''Celtic Goddesses'', describes archaeologists as finding "a certain homogeneity" in the traditions in the area of Celtic habitation including Britain and Ireland — she sees the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland as having become thoroughly Celticised by the time of the Roman arrival, mainly through spread of culture rather than a movement of people. In his book ''Iron Age Britain'', Barry Cunliffe concludes that "...there is no evidence in the British Isles to suggest that a population group of any size migrated from the continent in the first millennium BC...". Modern archaeological thought tends to disparage the idea of large population movements without facts to back them up, a caution which appears to be vindicated by some genetic studies. In other words, Celtic culture in the Atlantic Archipelago and continental Europe could have emerged through the peaceful convergence of local tribal cultures bound together by networks of Trade and Kinship — not by war and conquest. This type of peaceful Convergence and Cooperation is actually relatively common among tribal peoples; other well known examples of the phenomenon include the Six Nations of the Iroquois League and the Nuer of East Africa . He argues that the ancient Celts are thus best depicted as a loose and highly diverse collection of indigenous tribal societies bound together by trade, a common Druidic religion, related languages, and similar political institutions — but each having its own local traditions. Michael Morse in the conclusion of his book ''How the Celts came to Britain'' concedes that the concepts of a broad Celtic linguistic area and recognizably Celtic art have their uses, but argues that the term implies a greater unity than existed. Despite such problems he suggests that the term Celt is probably too deep-rooted to be replaced and — what is more important — it has the definition that we choose to give it. The problem is that the wider public reads into the term quite Anachronistic concepts of Ethnic Unity that no one on either side in the academic debate holds. ORIGINS AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION . The yellow area shows the region of birth of the Linguistic evidence There are few written records of the ancient Celtic languages produced by the Celts themselves. Generally these are names on coins and stone inscriptions. Mostly the evidence is of personal names and place names in works by Greek and Roman authors. The date at which the proto-Celtic language split from Indo-European is disputed but may be as early as 6000 BC, with it reaching Britain and Ireland by 3200 BC, according to Forster and Toth. However, generally a later date is considered more likely by most scholars. Gray and Atkinson put the splitting off of Celtic languages at around 5000 BC. In both cases there is a large estimating uncertainty. Several studies have been carried out of the Celtic place names of Europe. A recent one is that by Sims-Williams. The map of this data in Oppenheimer shows that the remaining placenames are mainly in Britain and northern France but extend from Iberia to the Danube. A direct clue that the different names used by the Greek (who normally called any Celts ''Κελται'' or ''Γαλαται'') and the Latin authors (preferring ''Galli'') actually referred to speakers of the same or similar languages is given by Hieronymos (AD 342-419). In his commentary on St Paul's Epistle To The Galatians , he notes that the language of the Anatolian Galatia ns in his day was still very similar to the language of the Treveri .''Galatas excepto sermone Graeco, quo omnis oriens loquitur, propriam linguam eamdem pene habere quam Treviros'' ("That the Galatians, apart from the Greek language, which they speak just like the rest of the Orient, have their own language, which is almost the same as the Treverans'.") S. Eusebii Hieronymi commentariorum in epistolam ad Galatas libri tres, in ''Migne, Patrologia Latina'' 26, 382. St Jerome probably had first-hand knowledge of these Celtic languages, as he had both visited Augusta Treverorum and Galatia .Birkan, Kelten, p. 301. Archaeological evidence The only direct archaeological evidence for Celtic speaking peoples comes from coins and inscriptions. However it has been assumed that the Hallstatt (c. 1200-475 BC) and La Tene (c. 500-50 BC) cultures are associated with the Celts. Only in the final phase of La Tene are coins found. It has been suggested that the Hallstatt culture may have been adopted by speakers of different languages whereas the La Tene culture is more definitely associated with the Celts. 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 second 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 later, writing in the early first century AD, deals with Britain and Gaul as well as Spain, 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 first century History. Homeland The question of the original homeland of the Celts has caused much controversy, with many competing theories. 1) The Celtic Language Family is a branch of the larger Indo-European family, which leads some scholars to a hypothesis that the original speakers of the Celtic Proto-language may have arisen in the Pontic - Caspian Steppes (see Kurgan ). It is not generally accepted, however, that Celtic became differentiated from other branches of Indo-European at such an early stage. By the time speakers of Celtic languages enter history around 600 BC , they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of Central Europe, the Iberian Peninsula , Ireland and Britain. 2) Some scholars think that the Urnfield Culture of northern Germany and the Netherlands represents an origin for the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European family. 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 fourth century BC, believed that the Celts came from the islands off the mouth of the Rhine who 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 (c. 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 First Millennium BC . The spread of the Celtic languages to Iberia, Ireland and Britain would have occurred during the first half of the 1st Millennium , the earliest Chariot Burial s in Britain dating to ca. 500 BC. Over the centuries they developed into the separate Celtiberian , Goidelic and Brythonic Languages . Whether Goidelic and Brythonic are descended from a common Insular-Celtic language, or reflect two separate waves of migration, is disputed. 3) The prehistoric Beaker Culture (2800 – 1900 BC) has often been pointed at as ancestral to the Celtic people. This people derive from the western extremity of Corded Ware in the Netherlands, where otherwise marginal groups took advantage of their contacts by sea and rivers and started a diaspora of North West European culture from Ireland to the Carpatian Basin and south along the Atlantic coast and following the Rhone valley until Portugal, North Africa and Sicily, even penetrating northern and central Italy. The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe - Barry Cunliffe, Oxford University Press, p250-254, 1994 The new international trade routes opened by the Beaker people where there to remain and the culture was succeeded by a number of Bronze Age cultures, among them the Unetice Culture (Central Europe), ca. 2300 BC , and by the Nordic Bronze Age , a culture of Scandinavia and northernmost Germany-Poland, ca. 1800 BC . Almost all of this areas emerge to history as Celtic. Bodmer(1992)Bodmer, W. F. (1992) Proc. Br. Acad. 82, 37-57; 2 suggested that the Celtic populations of Britain trace their origins to an early settlement of the British Isles by Paleolithic Europeans, rather than by a later migration from central Europe in the first millennium B.C., also associated with the spread of the Celtic culture. 4) The Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the La Tène culture of central Europe, and during the final stages of the Iron Age gradually transformed into the explicitly Celtic culture of early historical times. 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. Others however believe that the fact that the La Tène culture is too late to explain the original Celtic homeland; rather its extent demonstrates the subsequent spread of a pre-existing Celtic culture throughout Switzerland , Austria , southern and central Germany , northern regions of Italy , eastern France, Bohemia , Moravia , Portugal, Slovakia and parts of Hungary and Ukraine . The technologies, decorative practices and Metal-working styles of the La Tène were certainly influential on the continental Celts, but they were highly derivative from the Greek, Etruscan and Scythian decorative styles with whom the La Tène settlers frequently traded. 5) Today's Celtic nations are clustered along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Genetic studies now suggest (see '' mentions that mythologists like Robert Graves reached a similar conclusion through Comparative Mythology and the study of Celtic customs. Celtic scholars however believe that such similarities reflect an earlier common heritage of the indigenous populations of the Atlantic fringe, long before the arrival of the Celts. 6) 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 Encyclopedia Britannica for 1813. 7) At odds with all the above theories is the assertion of Pliny The Elder that Celtica (the country of origin of the Celts) was in the delta of the river Guadalquivir in the south of Portugal and Spain:
CELTS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND A large portion of the indigenous populations of Britain and Ireland today may be partially descended from the ancient peoples that have long inhabited these lands, before the coming of Celtic and later Germanic peoples, language and culture. Little is known of their original culture and language, but remnants may remain in the names of some geographical features, such as the rivers Clyde , Tamar and Thames , whose etymology is unclear but almost certainly derive from a pre-Celtic Substrate . By the Roman period, however, most of the inhabitants of the isles of Ireland and Britain were speaking Goidelic or Brythonic languages, close counterparts to Gallic languages spoken on the European mainland. Historians explained this as the result of successive Invasion s from the European continent by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over the course of several centuries. The Book Of Leinster , written in the twelfth century, but drawing on a much earlier Irish oral tradition, states that the first Celts to arrive in Ireland were from Spain. In 1946 the Celtic scholar T. F. O'Rahilly published his extremely influential model of the Early History Of Ireland which postulated four separate waves of Celtic invaders. It is still not known what languages were spoken by the peoples of Ireland and Britain before the arrival of the Celts. Later research indicated that the culture may have developed gradually and continuously between the Celts and the indigenous "Basque" people of Britain. In Ireland little archaeological evidence was found for large intrusive groups of Celtic immigrants, suggesting to historians such as Colin Renfrew that the native late Bronze Age inhabitants gradually absorbed European Celtic influences and language. Although archaeological evidence has often been proved unreliable in the past. It should also be noted that genetic evidence proves that most Celtic people of coastal and northern Ireland have little traces of R1b genes, therefore indicating that when the Celts came to Ireland, the absorption of the indigenous inhabitants was regional (mainly central). "study shows R1b is regional (panel C) in the Isles, and that parts of Ireland (coastal and northern) have some of the lowest R1b genes in the region. Also this study used many more subject samples than other studies in Ireland" {Link without Title} Julius Caesar wrote of people in Britain who came from Belgium (the Belgae ), but archaeological evidence which was interpreted in the 1930s as confirming this was contradicted by later interpretations. The archaeological evidence is of substantial cultural continuity through the first millennium BCE, although with a significant overlay of selectively-adopted elements of La Tène culture. There is numismatic and other evidence of continental-style states appearing in southern England close to the end of the period, possibly reflecting in part immigration by élites from various Gallic states such as those of the Belgae. However, this immigration would be far too late to account for the origins of Insular Celtic languages. In the 1970s the continuity model was taken to an extreme, popularized by Colin Burgess in his book '' The Age Of Stonehenge '' which theorised that Celtic culture in Great Britain "emerged" rather than resulted from invasion and that the Celts were not invading aliens, but the descendants of the people of Stonehenge. The existence of Celtic language elsewhere in Europe, however, and the dating of the Proto-Celtic culture and language to the Bronze Age, makes the most extreme claims of continuity impossible. More recently a number of Genetic studies have also supported this model of culture and language being absorbed by native populations. A study by Christian Capelli, David Goldstein and others at University College , London showed that genes associated with Gaelic names in Ireland and Scotland are also common in certain parts of Wales (in most cases) are similar to the genes of the Basque people, who speak a non-Indo-European language. This similarity supported earlier findings in suggesting a large pre-Celtic genetic ancestry, possibly going back to the Paleolithic . They suggest that 'Celtic' culture and the Celtic language may have been imported to Britain by cultural contact, not mass invasions around 600 BC. A different possibility is that the Celtic language should differentiated from the Celtic culture. Some recent studies have suggested that, contrary to long-standing beliefs, the Germanic tribes ( Angles , Saxons ) did not wipe out the Romano-British of England but rather, over the course of six centuries, conquered the native Brythonic people of what is now England and South-east Scotland and imposed their culture and language upon them (this may also be the case with the Celts and basques of Ireland), much as the Gaels may have spread over Northern Britain . Still others maintain that the picture is mixed and that in some places the indigenous population was indeed wiped out while in others it was assimilated. According to this school of thought the populations of Yorkshire, East Anglia , Northumberland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands are those populations with the fewest traces of ancient (Celtic) British continuation."By analyzing 1772 Y chromosomes from 25 predominantly small urban locations, we found that different parts of the British Isles have sharply different paternal histories; the degree of population replacement and genetic continuity shows systematic variation across the sampled areas." CELTS IN GAUL ]] See Also: Gaul At the dawn of history in Europe, the Celts in present-day France were known as Gauls to the Romans. Gaul probably included Belgium and Switzerland. Their descendants were described by Julius Caesar in his '' Gallic Wars ''. Eastern Gaul was the centre of the western La Tene culture. In later Iron Age Gaul, the social organisation was similar to that of the Romans, with large towns. From the third century, BC the Gauls adopted coinage, and texts with Greek characters are known in southern Gaul from the second century. Greek traders founded Massalia in about 600BC, with exchange up the Rhone valley, but trade was disrupted soon after 500BC and re-oriented over the Alps to the Po valley in Italy. The Romans arrived in the Rhone valley in the second century BC and found that a large part of Gaul was Celtic speaking. Rome needed land communications with its Spanish provinces and fought a major battle with the Saluvii at Entremont in 124-123 BC. Gradually Roman control extended, the Roman Province of Gallia Transalpina being 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, Celticia formed the main part of Roman Gaul. Place name analysis shows that Celtic was used east of the Garonne river and south of the Seine-Marne. However, the Celtic language did not survive, having been replaced by a Romance language, French. CELTS IN IBERIA areas in Iberia , showing Celtic and Proto-Celtic languages in green, and Iberian Language s in purple, circa 250 BC .]] . showing Celtic and Proto-Celtic languages in green.]] See Also: Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula Prehistoric Iberia Hispania Lusitania Gallaecia Traditional 18th / 19th centuries scholarship surrounding the Celts virtually ignored the Iberian Peninsula , since Material Culture relatable to the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures that have defined Iron Age Celts was rare in Iberia, and did not provide a cultural scenario that could easily be linked to that of Central Europe. Modern scholarship, however, has proven that Celtic presence and influences were very substantial in Iberia. The Celts in Iberia were divided in two main archaeological and cultural groups, even if the divide is not very clear:
The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to unlocking the Celticization process in the rest of the Peninsula. The process of celticization of the southwest by the Keltoi and of the northwest is however not a simple celtiberian question. Recent investigation about the Callaici Bracari in northwest Portugal is bringing new approaches to understand Celtic culture evidences (language, art and religion) in western Iberia. Archeological site of Tavira , official website CELTS IN ITALY There was an early Celtic presence in northern Italy since inscriptions dated to the sixth century BC have been found there. In 391BC Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps streamed through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the Appeninne 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 . Later the Roman army was routed at the battle of Allia and Rome was sacked in 390BC. At the battle of Telemon 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. The Celts settled much further south of the Po River than many maps show. Remnants in the town of Doccia, in the province of Emilia-Romagna , showcase Celtic houses in very good condition dating from about the 4th century BC. CELTS IN OTHER REGIONS The Celts also expanded down the Danube river and its tributaries. On of the most influential tribes, the Scordisci , had established their capital at Singidunum in 3rd century BC, which is present-day Belgrade . The concentration of hill-forts and cemeteries shows a density of population in the Tisza valley of modern-day Vojvodina , 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 Galatia ns. Despite their geographical isolation from the rest of the Celtic world, the Galatians maintained their Celtic language for at least seven hundred years. St Jerome , who visited Ancyra (modern-day Ankara in 373AD, likened their language to that of the Treveri of northern Gaul. The Boii tribe gave their name to Bohemia ( Czech Republic ) and Celtic artifacts and cemeteries have been discovered further east in both Poland and Slovakia . A celtic coin ( Biatec ) from Bratislava 's mint is displayed on today's 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. However, the Celtic invasions of Italy, Greece, and western Anatolia are well documented in Greek and Latin history. Examine the Map of Celtic Lands for more information.3 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 Ptolomy II. 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. Latin was the Official Language of these regions after the conquests. The native peoples under Roman rule became Romanized 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 (see Roman Gaul , Roman Britain ). In the case of Gaul, this eventually resulted in a Language Shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin (see also Gallo-Roman Culture ). However, the Celts were master horsemen, which so impressed the Romans that they adopted Epona , the Celtic horse goddess, into their pantheon. During and after the fall of the Roman Empire many parts of France threw out their Roman administrators. .]] CELTIC SOCIAL SYSTEM AND ARTS To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian Celtic Social Structure based formally on class and kinship. Patron-client relationships similar to those of Roman society are also described by Caesar and others in the Gaul of the First Century BC . In the main, the evidence is of tribes being led by kings, although some argue that there is evidence of oligarchical republican , which eventually came into conflict with the feudal principle of Primogeniture where the succession goes to the first born son. Archaeological discoveries at the Vix Burial indicate that women could achieve high status and power within at least one Celtic society. As Celtic history was only carried forward by Oral Tradition , it has been advanced that the traditions finally recorded in the Seventh Century can be projected back through Celtic history.4 If this is so then, according to the Cáin Lánamna , a woman had the right to demand divorce, take back whatever property she brought into the marriage and be free to remarry. If later Celtic tradition can be projected back, and from Ireland to Britain and the continent, then Celtic law demanded that children, the elderly, and the Mentally Handicapped be looked after. Little is known of family structure among the Celts. Athenaeus in his ''Deipnosophists,'' 13.603, claims that "the Celts, in spite of the fact that their women are the most beautiful of all the barbarian tribes, prefer boys as sexual partners. There are some of them who will regularly go to bed – on those animal skins of theirs – with a pair of lovers", implying a woman and a boy. Such reports reflect an outsiders observation of Celtic culture. Athenaeus ''The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus'', Book XIII, pp. 961. The Literature Collection, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections, . It is unknown whether Athenaeus, born in Egypt of Greek origin ever visited any Celts since little is known about him beyond his surviving writings. Patterns of settlement varied from decentralised to the urban. The popular stereotype of non-urbanised societies settled in Hillfort s and Dun s, drawn from Britain and Ireland 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 . There is archaeological evidence to suggest that the pre-Roman Celtic societies were linked to the network of overland . Local trade was largely in the form of barter, but as with most tribal societies they probably had a reciprocal economy in which goods and other services are not exchanged, but are given on the basis of mutual relationships and the obligations of kinship. Low value coinages of potin, silver and bronze, suitable for use in trade, were minted in most Celtic areas of the continent, and in South-East Britain prior to the Roman conquest of these areas. 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 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 and is a transcription of a much older Epic Poem , leading some scholars to claim that the Celts invented Rhyme . They were highly skilled in visual arts and Celtic art 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 Chariot s in combat long after they had been reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans, though when faced with the Romans in Britain, their Chariot Tactics defeated the invasion attempted by Julius Caesar. THE CELTIC 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 .Lambert, Pierre-Yves (2003). ''La langue gauloise''. Paris, Editions Errance. 2nd edition. ISBN 2-87772-224-4. Chapter 9 is titled "Un calandrier gaulois" It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals, and is in the Gaulish Language . The restored tablet contains sixteen vertical columns, with sixty-two months distributed over five years. The French archaeologist J. Monard speculated that it was recorded by Druid s 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 Lehoux, D. R. ''Parapegmata: or Astrology, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World'', pp63-5. PhD Dissertation, University of Toronto, 2000 . There were four major festivals in the Celtic Calendar: "Imbolc" on the 1st of February, possibly linked to the lactation of the ewes and sacred to the Irish Goddess Brigid. "Beltain" on the 1st of May, connected to fertility and warmth, possibly linked to the Sun God Belenos. "Lughnasa" on the 1st of August, connected with the harvest and associated with the God Lugh. And finally "Samhain" on the 1st of November, possibly the start of the year.James, Simon (1993). "Exploring the World of the Celts" Reprint, 2002. pp-155. Two of these festivals, Beltain and Lugnasa are shown on the Coligny Calendar by sigils, and it is not too much of a stretch of the imagination to match the first month on the Calendar (Samonios) to Samhain. Lughnasa does not seem to be shown at all however.The Coligny Calendar, Roman Britain, 2/10/01: {Link without Title} The Celtic Calendar seems to be based on astronomyCeltic Astrology {Link without Title} but how any astrology system would have worked is harder to tell. We have to base our knowledge on Old Irish manuscripts, none of which have been published or fully translated. It seems to have been based on an indigenous Irish symbol system, and not that of any of the more commonly-known astrological systems such as Western , Chinese or Vedic astrology.6 CELTIC WOMEN Sexual norms There are instances recorded where women participated both in warfare and in kingship, although they were in the minority in these areas. Plutarch reports Celtic women acting as ambassadors to avoid a war amongst Celts chiefdoms on the Po valley during the fourth century BC. |
|
|