The Celts: The Mysterious Dark Age Masters Of Europe | Lost Treasures | Chronicle

Years ago abroad, at the turbulent dawn of recorded history, a new power and a new civilization arose. Those who first mastered iron became the first true

masters

of Europe. Celts. The Celts were a remarkable people. They eventually came to dominate northwestern Europe and their influence, particularly in the arts, continues to this day, but at no time during their period of ascendancy did they develop a sense of national identity; in fact, they tended to regard each other as belligerently as they did. Outsiders, like many of the people on the edge of humanity. History Much of its history is shrouded in mystery, myths disguised as history.

Legend rubs shoulders with fact, and often the best stories turn out to be the least reliable. The Celts did not have a great civilization that was discovered by archaeologists, unlike those of ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean peoples. Those who left behind majestic monuments and great cities lived a relatively simple semi-nomadic lifestyle, building simple farms that succumbed early to the ravages of time. The Celts were also illiterate in their own languages, although educated and cultured in other ways, but unlike others ancient civilizations, the Celts have survived to modern times, their archaic languages ​​did not disappear like others, but survived as living languages ​​in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Brittany.

Some vestiges of their ancient way of life have also survived, for example, among the artisan populations of the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland. It is thanks to this remarkable survival of aspects of Celtic society that it is possible to reconstruct daily existence and style. of life of the Celts of the ancient world thanks to linguists, the Celts were people who spoke and still speak languages ​​of great antiquity. Indo-European origin that emerged from a common Celtic language. Over time two different Celtic language groups developed. One called Q Celtic or Goedelic was the language spoken in Ireland and the Isle of Man and later imported to Scotland by Irish settlers in the colony of Dalryda.

It is from this branch of Celtic, but Irish and Scottish Gaelic derived the second branch of the Celtic language, it is called P Celtic or Brotonic, it was widely spoken on the continent and became known as Gaulish or Gallopratonic, introduced to Britain by the Iron Age settlers, it was the language of Britain, at the time of the Roman invasion, it later split into the various Cornish, Breton and Welsh languages ​​and continues as a living language in Britain and Wales. Well, the Vanity were famous for their nautical skills, they were a tribe that was concentrated in Britain and they had a long tradition of carrying traffic across the sea to Britain.

We know a little about the end result of their Iron Age trade because there is a site at Hingisbury Head in Dorset that has been extensively excavated and has produced a large quantity. of fines dating back to the 2nd century BC. C. and which include things like the Roman weinam 3 which were presumably traded second-hand through vanity rather than directly from the Roman world; They also had at that site many continental coins and many pieces of pottery and so on that had arrived from America. Archaeologists have identified two main phases of ancient Celtic society called Halstadt and Latin.

In the areas where Celtic objects were found, the Halstadt culture flourished around the year 700 BC. C. almost 2,700 years ago in this period there was a major change in technology in Europe, the use of iron instead of bronze for weapons and sharp tools. These irons used Halstadt innovators. They mark the beginning of Celtic culture and are identified as the first of the Celtic peoples who began near Salzburg and were located in Austria. At this site an impressive mountainous area, an old salt mine and a huge prehistoric cemetery were found. Salt was obviously important to these people and sustained their wealth.

It also preserved artifacts from its culture that have allowed archaeologists to reconstruct some of its daily life. There is some mystery. about the origins of the fields, but scholars today tend to think that they originated somewhere in the region of the Indian subcontinent and that through a series of migrations they moved across Europe via Spain to northern Europe and also by a more northern route through Switzerland and towards the north. Europe thus the Celts are often portrayed as savage barbarians, the antithesis of civilized peoples. The problem we have here is that one of our main sources for studying the Celts is from the point of view of the Greek and Roman world, looking outwards. called barbarians, this is a particular problem with one of our main sources which is, of course, Julius Caesar's own narrative of the Gallic Wars.

It is the Greeks and Romans who give us words like barbarian and civilized and they are arranged according to their cultural concerns and preconceptions. We have a correction for this which consists of looking at the evidence left by the Celts themselves in the excavations of their settlements, their houses, their burials and in the objects they contain, and from this it is quite clear that the Celts in the time of Caesar were a sophisticated society organized with a very considerable technological capacity and capable of producing what to our eyes appear extremely beautiful objects around the year 500 BC.

A more dynamic phase of development called the Latin period began after the discovery of an important Celtic site there. The Latin is a shallow area. At the northern end of Lake Neuenberg in Switzerland, large quantities of metal and other objects were found that had been dumped to the waters of the lake as religious offerings. These displayed characteristics indicating a mature and distinctively Celtic culture and highlighted important trade links with the Mediterranean. village periods or renewed expansion when the Celts began a series of conquests that consolidated their dominance in Europe. Celtic tribes from Switzerland and southern Germany invaded Italy, penetrated as far south as Milan and attacked Rome, others entered Macedonia and Greece, attacked Delphi and eventually settled in parts of the Balkans and Asia Minor in Britain they moved. north and west from their initial settlements in Yorkshire and parts of Scotland from Britain some moved to Northern Ireland probably via Scotland the Celts were probably the most successful peoples of later prehistoric Europe and had a culture that was very different from that of the Greeks and Romans but which was nevertheless in many ways much more sophisticated than many people tend to suspect that they did not have an organization that was based on the state they did not have a concept of the State I had no idea the kind of political system based on cities and so on that you find in the classical world, but not even though they had a society that was very dynamic, materially very well developed, the Celtic social organization was based on the tribe.

Each of which had its own distinctive name the tribal identity had geographical and territorial meanings and the Celtic tribes were jealous of their borders which defined a mosaic of small kingdoms this persisted in many Celtic areas until relatively modern times the clan system in Scotland It is certainly a vestige of Celtic tribal organization within Celtic tribal society was a rigidly hierarchical caste system among the free Celts, they were essentially triple kings, nobles and free commoners, but like many ancient peoples, the Celts also had a class slaves and the poor at the top were kings, although druids were generally given higher status.

Each king was chosen by the tribal aristocracy from among the relatives of his predecessor, although he was not necessarily one of his sons. The king's family was always from the noble cast. Later, among Romanized tribes, the institution of kingship was replaced by that of chief magistrate. such magistrates called Virgo bratos ruled alongside the nobles the nobility was haughty and aristocratic was intended to be somewhat distant from the common people they were divided into two distinct classes Warriors and priests the historical hit is an award-winning streaming platform created by fans of the History for History Fans enjoy our rich library of documentaries covering key events and locations from the medieval period.

The story reaches into medieval times and offers features from notable historians such as Dan Jones, Elena Yanega, and Katjarman. Not only that, but also a rich library of audio documentaries covering every period in history across our network. of podcasts sign up now for a free trial and Chronicle fans get 50 off your first three months, just be sure to use the code Chronicle at checkout The Celtic Society was privileged and pampered, their sole purpose was to fight everyone the Celts, social organization was oriented to support this objective. They formed an essential part of Celtic daily life and warriors were their embodiment.

The Celts were truly famous for their spectacular courage and bravery. They mounted successful campaigns. They sacked Rome. They even raided Delphi. But they never established an empire in the classical sense because they were more interested in the pursuit of war rather than the pursuit of empire, this lack of organization was reflected in the way they actually waged the war; The war against the Celts was a kind of cult and that cult was one of the individuals. Julius Caesar, among others, mentions the Celts as being particularly fierce in battle, but also notes that they lack planning and organization, therefore, to defeat the Celts, all another army needs to do is outwit them and make them angry. because then they will charge straight at you and eventually if they have enough loot in a campaign they will go home.

This has certain parallels throughout all of Celtic history, particularly the campaigns mounted with the Highlanders by Montrose during the English Civil War and also for the Scottish armies during the Jacobite rebellions in Pagan. Celtic society and even in comparatively modern times, war was considered not only normal but also highly desirable. Fighting and success in single combat was considered correct and appropriate for young heroes. The Celtic conception of fighting was based on individual skill and courage rather than coordinated actions. of massive foreign armies Ty who was essentially heroic, was extravagant, had not organized war the way the Romans had, they looked for things like champions who represented them and performed feats and part of that was a spectacle that you did not waste Mano of Obra, you put your Champion on the field to show what he could do and, in fact, you discover when Caesar writes in his commentary on his invasion of Britain that he was very bewildered and surprised by the fact that the charioteers came out rather , the warrior in The Chariot got out of The Chariot and ran along the Chariot's pool and climbed onto the horses' backs when the Chariot was in full skin and thought this was a very reckless thing to do. but what he did not realize was that this was one of the types of feats they did, it was to impress the enemy with their skills.

For the Celts, it was not important who fought against whom, why they fought where or when, as long as some pretext for a fight could be discovered. foreign confrontation, typically a British or Celtic army would be a large multitude of warriors competing with each other for prestige, glory and honour, this meant that Celtic armies could be incredibly brave and were often quite prepared to die to the last man. . They were also not very cohesive and at times, in many battles that we have accounts of, panic could quickly set in because soldiers who did not really trust each other were competing.

The Roman army was very different. The Roman army was trained to fight in teams. They were used to obeying Battlefield orders, even when they perhaps seemed to put soldiers at risk. They had a very iron discipline. I think the key difference between the two armies was especially their degree of training, their response to orders and also the range of their weaponry. that Roman soldiers had no better weapons than the Celts, many individual Celtic weapons were at least as well made as anything the Romans had, but it is simply the fact that every Roman legionary was equipped like a Celtic chieftain, for the most part The Celtic army was made up of unarmored spearmen. and therefore were physically much more vulnerable and less disciplined.

The battle could consist of a massive skirmish with an extravagant and aggressive gathering of the hosts or a single combat between two warriors, a characteristically heroic feat that the Celts especially enjoyed this warlike posture. of the Celts is well recorded and when not involved in actual conflict, the warriors at least seem to have had an inordinate love of games and combat.by more peaceful means. The Celts were striking in appearance, tall and blonde with striking blue eyes who strove to enhance the effects endowed by Nature, both men and women wore their hair long and particularly in the case of women the quality and length of their braids were made a main criterion of beauty the role of women in Celtic society was very different from that of women in the Classical world.

Noble women in the classical world actually had very restricted lives and, relatively speaking, very few rights. Women in the Celtic world, however, we know from archaeological and documentary records that they had very considerable rights and, indeed, power. We have several tombs of very rich people. Celtic women very, very splendid objects throughout the Iron Age, both in continental Europe and in Great Britain, which archaeologically prove in a very direct way the great power that many of them had. We know nothing directly about Bodicea's personality, but we can infer enough from her position in her life as a Celtic Queen that we can be fairly sure that she would not have been a shy, withdrawn wallflower; would have been someone with immense personal pride and dignity accustomed to giving orders to people and therefore would have slipped quite easily into the role of leader in war, it is quite possible that he would also have been a religious leader among his people .Men, although most were shaped, the most important thing was the mustache and the Nobles in particular shaved their cheeks while allowing the mustache to flow freely and completely over their mouths.

The natural blonde of her hair was enhanced by lime washes, but it not only bleached her hair further, it thickened it considerably. Celtic warriors' accounts of their enemies describe how some brushed their hair back with a wide Cox comb. Men and women were excessively fond of the races and both frequently combed their hair. The very conscious corpulence of the figure was considered a disgrace and any man whose girth exceeded the standard length of a girdle was fined. The clothing worn by the Celts was quite distinctive and striking Celtic men tended to wear trousers, except in Ireland, and this greatly impressed observers in the United Kingdom.

In the classical world, the Romans were so impressed that they borrowed the fashion for their own cavalry over trousers. The men appear to have worn a knee-length tunic, often elaborately embroidered and fringed, held at the waist by a sash. The sashes were also often richly decorated with gold. and bronze ornaments, the Celts loved ornamentation and both men and women often dressed in elaborate bracelets and jeweled brooches above all. A woolen cape was worn, these were important not only for practical purposes but also as a mark of status for both men and women. and the fullness of the cloak denoted a rank so highly valued in these garments that the Romans imposed heavy taxes on them and considered them highly prized.

The capes were invariably fastened with a brooch. Many of them find examples of Celtic metalworking skills and some assumed the status of Celtic icons. The culture itself the priests were always recruited from noble families like the warriors, they were privileged members of society, but they had a right that was not granted to any other, the priests were the only ones free to travel within and between the different tribal areas and kingdoms, a prerogative that even kings had. I did not enjoy, there were three classes of priests, the best known are the

mysterious

and shadowy druids, but alongside these were the bards and vatis, despite their renown, very little is definitely known about the druids and their practices, certainly worship The name Druid has its roots in the verb meaning to know that they had the right to decide in public and private disputes, as well as in past judgments and decide. about rewards and sanctions in criminal and murder cases, no one, not even the king could speak before the druid had spoken.

Drones, of course, were enormously important to the couch and their fame has passed down through history. It is surprising, therefore, that we do not know much about them. What we do know about the Druids is that they were the repositories of law for the Celtic peoples in both centers of that word, law as in the legal system and law as in the essential culture of the Celts. Julius Caesar, commenting on Celtic Society, observed that the harshest punishment was imposed on individuals. and even entire tribes disobeying druidic pronouncements was a form of excommunication, ritual banishment and sacrifice, this effectively made those people outcasts of Celtic society.

The Romans considered the Britons to be quite fearsome barbarians and one of the things they were particularly feared for. even their druids were their Celtic priests, uh, who were famous for practicing human sacrifice and there is no historical reason to doubt that this was actually the case. They actually sacrificed people to their gods, so the Romans had a rather jaundiced view of the ancient Britons and their cousins ​​across the water from the Celtic goals but of course this was to some extent hypocritical because the Romans are very happy to slaughter people in the arena for fun, while one could argue that human sacrifice is actually a pious action, even if we didn't particularly do it.

I want to get involved in this today, thank you. Vates had similar functions to druids, although druids had a higher status. Both were considered learned philosophers, but while the druids, who apparently presided over sacrifices, were judges in public and private disputes, the vatis was Sears, who predicted the future by omens and the sacrifice of victims. name batis has roots and words connected with prophetic inspiration and poetry the third Priestly class were the bards their name means singer of praise and this seems to have been their main function they accompanied their songs with an instrument something like a liar praising some and vilifying others the Celts as a people, especially the warriors, they greatly feared the sarcasm of the bards and the public humiliation it caused below the aristocrats were the three commoners these were farmers or artisans when the Romans came to Britain, the landscape here had It had been under the plow for about three and a half thousand years, so there was a lot of development, clearing of the land, and the population had grown to a very considerable level.

Societies in Britain consisted of a large number of small sized Celtic tribal states, some of which were ruled by chiefs somewhere who were under monarchs and the overall level of technological development was actually very considerable. Iron working and especially iron weapons had long been established. They were very advanced weapons that were of central importance to the Celts, especially to their nobility, it seems that they were probably the insignia of free manhood, so it is not surprising that in the circumstances of the Roman invasion, when Roman officials came and They took away the weapons of the people who were in Theory of the allies of the Romans that the ancient Britons were very upset and were prepared to organize a rebellion.

Well, the immediate effect of the Buddhist rebellion was to stop the Roman advance in Britain for about 20 years, the Romans didn't really start it. The advance northward again until practically the 80s AED also precipitated changes in Roman administrative practice. It was always somewhat corrupt, but it was usually under much more control than was the case with the events leading up to the Buddakan Rebellion, I believe. The main event or long-term result of the outbreak of the rebellion itself may well have been that it prevented the Romans from finally conquering the entirety of the British Isles, which they were ultimately only able to reach as far as central and northern Scotland, where they were unable to conquer completely. put down the highlands Because when they got there, battles and wars on other fronts began to mean with the withdrawal of troops from Britain, they never had enough soldiers thereafter to complete the conquest of Britain, so they may well The Boudicca Rebellion may have helped the survival of Celtic culture in the British Isles under the control of Rome.

Artisans were highly valued, especially blacksmiths who were given high status. The blacksmith's craft itself was thought to be semi-supernatural in origin, a characteristic reflected in the magical qualities frequently attributed to Smith. In Celtic folklore and myth below the free commoners were the poor, the disenfranchised and the slaves, in practice the destitute, whatever their origins, were considered little better than the formerly enslaved, they had no status and few possessions, their homes were little more than huts without foundations, each one free. member of Celtic Society of any grade had what has been called a price of honor an evaluation of worth and dignity within the community this was directly related to wealth a prosperous member of society could considerably increase in rank by accumulating wealth This generated reparation and compensation for errors.

Particularly important lands were not owned by individuals, not even by kings, they were always the collective property of relatives or family members; However, wealth could be determined by the amount of land over which a person had influence or stewardship. Celtic houses were circular or rectangular built with boards and wicker. Topped with a thick thatched roof despite the obvious richness of much of Celtic life, the interior of these houses was very rough. The Celts paid much more attention to personal appearance than to how they lived. The interior consisted of a large open space with cubicles around the periphery.

The cubicles, often resembling a wheel with spokes, were delimited by wooden or wicker partitions and could be closed off from the rest of the house with heavy curtains or screens covered with cloth or leather. If necessary, the fire was centrally located beneath a hole in the ceiling through which smoke could escape, a large metal cauldron was suspended from a cross beam above the fire and large quantities of consumed meat were boiled in it. when it was not roasted on a spit. Their diet appears to have consisted almost exclusively of meat or fish supplemented by small loaves of bread.

One aspect of Celtic culture that still exerts an undeniable influence is its art and crafts. These stand out like shining beacons and many are among the world's greatest masterpieces. Celtic metalwork is finely wrought into its distinctive and elaborate forms. The Celts made a real and lasting contribution to foreign European culture. Much of the content of Celtic art is clearly derived from other sources. The dragon motif, for example, which features heavily in his work, was borrowed from the Vikings; However, in the hands of Celtic craftsmen, these forms often take on a richness and liveliness that is purely Celtic and inspiration the forms created by Celtic metalworkers were transferred to the medium of writing once that art form came to fruition. the Celts practically illiterate in pagan times the arrival of Christianity to the Celts brought writing at least For the monks who practically deposed the druids as the source of Celtic spiritual life and once writing was established in Celtic areas, Native scribes developed their own highly distinctive forms.

The beauty of Celtic manuscript art is indescribable. Dense swirls of tracery intertwine with stylized animals and humans. It forms delicate endless looping swirls in imitation of the eternity of the universe, giving compelling visual testimony to the richness of Celtic spiritual life and the letterforms themselves are elegant, simple and convincingly beautiful. The Celts had sacred places where they invoked their deities, including perhaps the famous Oak Tree. The Druid rhythms had sacred days and festivals, some of which have survived. Beltane was celebrated on May 1. Samhain on October 31, also known as Halloween and lugnassad, also called Lamas, which was celebrated on August 1 halfway between Beltane and Samhain.

The maypole, a distinctive feature of May Day celebrations, is believed to have originated from the Beltane Festival. There were many Celtic gods, each with multiple names. Male deities tended in the hall to associate with the tribe or household. Female deities were associated with land or territory. Because the Celtic religion was inextricably linked to magic, the purpose of their religion was to ask favors from their gods or appease them to avoid divine wrath, one of the things about the Celts that has intrigued many people, starting with the classical writers. and the religion has continued to this dayCeltic and, um, classical writers, particularly Julius Caesar, spoke at length about the druids, who were their priestly cast, and in fact, some writers wrote about things like human sacrifice, um, classical writers attempted to identify the Celtic gods . and equate them with Greek and Roman gods so that readers understand roughly what kind of deities they were, but it is quite clear that Celtic religion was much vaguer than this and there were a large number of deities that were local tribal deities or localized deities. deities of Springs, deities of forests, etc., the most common method of sacrifice was by using a weapon with the blood of the victim, which was then sprinkled on sacred objects.

Some victims were drowned, some strangled, and others notoriously burned to death in a hollow tree that the victims were tending to. to be criminals of some kind, captives taken in battle were not used, the Celts were also fervent head worshipers, believing that the head was the seat of the soul, their art is full of images of the severed head and they also practiced head hunting , many of their sanctuaries contained human skulls attest to this practice. We know that the Druids carried out religious ceremonies and, from what we can gather, these seemed to take place in the famous Oak Groves.

We know that the druids or part of the druid religion focused on trees and we still have vestiges of the druidic tree alphabet which to some extent is still associated with garlic and the Gaulish alphabet the ancient Celts were a remarkable people in some ways, they were barbarians in others primitive but they were also cultured and have left the world a lasting legacy and their influences are significant far beyond the borders of the countries they inhabited, one of the things about the Kelps that I think is particularly interesting and probably quite important to Understanding the counts, their literature and especially their religion is the way they thought now, there is a difference between the way the Celts thought and the way most other European peoples, particularly the Anglo-Saxons, thought now. where are the anglo-saxons? and um, by default, we ourselves think in pairs, we think in pairs of black and white above and By dividing good and evil and sort of binary opposites, the Celts tended to think in trinities, which gives it a completely flavor different from the world, so that while we would have black and white, the Celts would almost naturally have black, white and grey, while we have good and grey. evil or good and evil would have good evil and some kind of neutrality, so this tended to give the Celts a slightly different and I think perhaps more balanced view of the world and the role they played together in the world through the tenuous Mists of History their Echoes can be heard clearly the world would have been a much poorer place if they had never existed, thank you.