Celts

Date: 1000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.

Locale: Europe and central Asia Minor

Celts

In the third century b.c.e., at the height of their influence, the peoples identified by language and some aspects of their culture as Celtae or Galli (in Latin; Keltoi or Galatae in Greek) controlled territories that stretched from Ireland to central Asia Minor and from southern Iberia to the Ukraine. Never in any sense united, Celtic peoples developed a distinctive if diverse culture but ultimately fell prey to the inexorable imperialism of Rome and the encroachment of aggressive “barbarians.” By the end of the ancient era, Celts dominated only the western fringes of Europe, from Ireland through western and northern Britain to Brittany, all areas still associated with Celtic heritage. Knowledge of Celtic culture and society is limited to evidence from archaeology, classical writers and sculptors, and linguistics (including personal and place names).

History

Although their ancestors were to be found among the peoples of the Urnfield culture, Celts first emerged as a distinctive culture in the C and D periods of the Hallstatt culture, from about 800 b.c.e. These early Iron Age societies practiced inhumation with rich grave goods and occupied hill forts from which an aristocracy dominated the countryside. The Celtic “heartland,” from which later migrations trekked south and eastward, was a broad area surrounding the upper Rhine and Danube Rivers. At the same time, the presence of Celtic peoples in Iberia and the British Isles is clear, though their relation to the heartland is not. Celtic language, customs, and religion may have flowed south and west with trade, for there are no signs of either mass migration or conquest.

As the La Tène culture developed in the fifth century b.c.e., hill forts were abandoned (or destroyed), sumptuous burials became less common, and there emerged a warrior-aristocracy, whose leaders were buried with their weapons. These changes are apparent across an arc from the Rhone to Transylvania. La Tène cultures are also evident in Bohemia and along the lower Moselle and Marne Rivers. Contact with the Mediterranean world continued along the Rhone corridor (to Greek Massalia) and increased across Alpine passes with the Etruscans and Italian Greeks. The fourth and third centuries b.c.e. saw large-scale migrations of Celts from the upper Rhine-Danube region, especially south and eastward. By at least 400 b.c.e., Celtic tribes had crossed into the Po Valley and, after defeating Etruscan natives, established strong settlements in Milan and probably Brescia, Vicenza, Trent, Bergamo, and Como. Population pressures as well as the attraction of Italian wealth account for the migration and attendant raids, including that on Rome in 390 b.c.e.

A little later, large groups migrated eastward into the Balkans (by 335 b.c.e.) and as far as the northern Black Sea region (after 320 b.c.e.). The collapse of Alexander the Great’s empire drew Celts farther south: They raided Delphi in 279 b.c.e. and established a small state in central Asia Minor (Galatia) shortly thereafter.

Rome’s expansion in the wake of its victories in the Second Punic War (218-201 b.c.e.) rolled back Celtic power in Iberia (197-133 b.c.e.), northern Italy (from the Celtic defeat at Telamon in 225 to about 190 b.c.e.), and Asia Minor (after the Battle of Magnesia ad Sipylum in 190 b.c.e. to Pompey the Great’s seizure of Galatia in 67 b.c.e.). Rome annexed southern Gaul for land access to Iberia, and Julius Caesar carried out a systematic invasion of Gaul from 58 b.c.e. until his defeat of Vercingetorix at the Battle of Alesia in 52 b.c.e. All told, an estimated million Gallic Celts perished, and another million were enslaved. The need for slaves, raw materials, and new markets for Roman goods drove these campaigns and Rome’s subsequent invasion of Britain under Emperor Claudius in the 40’s c.e. Eastern Celtic peoples were swamped by the aggressive growth of the Dacian state (c. 60 b.c.e.) and expansion of Sarmatian dominance farther east. Remaining Celts in central Europe fell prey to increasingly mobile Germanic tribes, especially the Teutones and Cimbri.

In the wake of Roman disintegration from the fourth century c.e., Celts along the Atlantic fringe grew in boldness. The Irish (Scotti), having never been dominated by Rome, raided Britain and established colonies in Scotland. Welsh Celts settled Brittany. Celts in Roman Gaul and Britain were converted to Christianity in the course of the religion’s spread, and the Irish only in the early fifth century c.e. Dynamic representatives of Irish (Celtic) Christianity spread across Britain and Europe from the sixth century c.e., preaching and establishing monasteries.

Society

Wherever found, Celtic societies were stratified and aristocratic. Organization was along tribal or clan lines, with chiefs or kings eventually giving way in Gaul to a broader power structure in which elected councils made most decisions. Julius Caesar noted that the warriors and Druids were the only important people, but to these must be added specialized craftspeople and the bards. Slaves existed, but little is known about them. Likewise, little is known of Celtic law, but Irish Brehon laws were recorded at a late date and may reflect traditional norms. Both late tales and classical authors describe Celtic practices of fosterage and hostage taking. Social status seems to have shifted from a base in material wealth (late Hallstatt) to warrior prowess and success in raiding (as in the Irish Táin). Later, aristocratic potlatch and ritual destruction of valuables developed on the continent and gave way under Roman influence to civic patronage.

Women

Brehon laws suggest that simple monogamy was not the Celtic norm, but women’s rights to property were far greater than elsewhere. Widows, for example, received the full estate. As with the Romans, men had power of life and death in families, and marriage itself was a means of social or political bonding. Broader roles for women are inferred from remarks by classical authors. Their participation in warfare can be deduced from Boudicca’s leadership of the Iceni and allies and in rulership from Cartimandua’s rule over the Brigantes.

Settlements and trade

Small agrarian communities probably exemplify Celtic life, but the nonagrarian classes had other options. Hallstatt hill forts gave way to more open and later enclosed settlements whose surrounding ditches and ramparts are still evident in aerial photographs. Some remain largely intact, as at Dun Aengus in Ireland and Maiden Castle, England. Contact with and influence by classical cultures sometimes refined settlements into true urban spaces, as in Noricum. Trade always played an important part in Celtic life, and settlements often protected sources of raw materials or trade routes. Metals, slaves, furs, amber, and other northern goods were exchanged in Mediterranean entrepôts such as Massalia (Marseilles) for wine, oil, and other luxury goods demanded by the ruling class.

War and weapons

Classical authors agree on the fierce nature of the Celtic warrior. Some tribes fought naked and some displayed body art. Helmets and ring-mail armor were worn by Celts who fought with sword and spear behind a shield, sometimes using a sling or bow. Classical statues depict Celtic warriors and confirm much of what contemporary authors recorded, including use of the distinctive torc or neck ring. Warfare among tribes was often ritualized, with taunting and boasting followed by single combat alone. Like raiding, violence was deeply embedded in Celtic culture. Celts also fought in screaming swarms roused by battle trumpets, relying on an initial charge to carry their victory, and having no tactics in reserve for a sustained fight.

Religion, death, and burial

The fullest information comes from Book 6 of Caesar’s Comentarii de bello Gallico (51-52 b.c.e. translated together with Comentarii de bello civili, 45 b.c.e., as Commentaries, 1609) and burial sites. Until Christianization, Celts were polytheistic with an apparent ruling dyad of an earth/fertility/locale goddess and a sky/war/tribe god. Other divinities may be manifestations of these two or a further elaboration of nature cults. The number three was sacred to Celts and is often apparent in statuary and other ritual elements. As cremation gave way to inhumation in the Hallstatt era, the assumption can be made that a concept of the afterlife either changed or was more clearly articulated. Burial with grave goods certainly implies a material sense of the other world. Excarnation rather than inhumation is evident in Britain. Human sacrifice (drowning, hanging, burning, impaling) is attested to, as is ritual deposition or destruction of valuables. Rituals were overseen by augurs, and by powerful “Druidic” priests, who embodied the cults and proffered the sacrifices. Celtic religion was strongly tied to sacred spaces in nature (nemeton): groves, springs, caves, and certain waters such as Lake Neuchâtel and the Thames. Some were built up into formal sanctuaries and many overbuilt by Romans and later Christians.

Druids also oversaw the annual calendar of 354 days with an intercalary month. The first century b.c.e. Coligny bronze calendar lists the “dark” and “light” halves of each month of twenty-nine or thirty days and marks two of the four main feast days: Samhain (November 1), Imbolc (February 1), Beltane (May 1), and Lugnasad (August 1).

Art

Work in all precious metals for decorative, martial, and practical purposes shows a well-developed concept of aesthetic beauty and high level of craftsmanship that would go on to influence medieval art heavily. Totemic animals, vegetal patterns, and geometric—especially curvilinear—forms dominate, with little influence from the classical Mediterranean. Surviving pottery shows clearly derivative patterning and was probably meant for use by the lower classes. Although high-quality metalwork was almost certainly for the warrior or aristocratic classes, specifically religious art seems to be limited to stone sculpture. Coins were struck by Celts from the early third century c.e., and although many were derived from Greco-Roman models, others are clearly Celtic in form. Coins served a very limited function in the barter-based Celtic economy.

Language, writing, and literature

Celtic languages are Indo-European with resemblances to Italic. Linguists recognize five major branches: Hispano-Celtic (Iberia), Gallic, Lepontic (Eastern), Goidelic (Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man), and Brythonic (Wales, Cornwall, Brittany). Celtic writing is limited to rare inscriptions, of which two bronze tablets in Iberian Celtic—from Botoritta in Spain—and numerous examples in Irish Ogham characters remain. No ancient Celtic literature appears to have been recorded until well into the Middle Ages, though classical authors such as Posidonius remark on the important role of storytellers, poets, and even satirists at warrior feasts. Stories written in Old Irish appear to predate Christian influence (that is, pre-fifth century c.e.); however, the earliest surviving copies date from half a millennium later.

Current views

Virtually every aspect of Celtic life and culture is open to new information and interpretation. Archaeology continues to shed new light as does deeper understanding of classical and Irish texts.

Bibliography

Cunliffe, Barry. The Ancient Celts. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Ellis, Peter Beresford. The Celtic Empire. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 1990.

Ellis, Peter Beresford. Celtic Women. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995.

Green, Miranda. The Celtic World. New York: Routledge, 1995.

James, Simon. The World of the Celts. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1993.

Moscati, Sabatino. The Celts. New York: Rizzoli, 1991.

Rankin, H. D. Celts and the Classical World. London: Routledge, 1995.