Celts

Diachronic distribution of Celtic peoples:
     core Hallstatt territory, by the sixth century BC      maximal Celtic expansion, by the third century BC      Lusitanian area of Iberia where Celtic presence is uncertain      the "six Celtic nations" which retained significant numbers of Celtic speakers into the Early Modern period      areas where Celtic languages remain widely spoken today

Celts (pronounced /ˈkelts/ or /ˈselts/, see names of the Celts; the most common academic usage is with a velar "c", pronounced as "k") is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic language.^[1] The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the modern descendants of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture.

The historical Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age Europe. Proto-Celtic culture formed in the Early Iron Age (1200 BC-400 AD) in Central Europe (Hallstatt period, named for the site in present-day Austria). By the later Iron Age (La Tène period), Celts had expanded over a wide range of lands: as far west as Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula, as far east as Galatia (central Anatolia), and as far north as Scotland.^[2]

The earliest direct attestation of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions, beginning from the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested only in inscriptions and place-names. Insular Celtic is attested from about the fourth century AD in ogham inscriptions. Literary tradition begins with Old Irish from about the eighth century. Coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), survive in 12th century recensions.

By the early first millennium AD, following the expansion of the Roman Empire and the Great Migrations (Migration Period) of Germanic peoples, Celtic culture had become restricted to the British Isles (Insular Celtic), and the Continental Celtic languages ceased to be widely used by the sixth century. "Celtic Europe" today refers to the lands surrounding the Irish Sea, as well as Cornwall and Brittany on either side of the English Channel. Galicia (NW Spain), Northern and Central Portugal (together with Galicia, part of ancient Gallacea) and Asturias (Northern Spain) are also clearly seen as Celtic lands, but without a surviving Celtic language.

Names and terminology

The origin of the various names used since classical times for the people known today as the Celts is obscure and has been controversial. The Latin name Celtus (pl. Celti or Celtae) seems to have been borrowed from Greek (; Greek Κέλτης pl. Κέλται or Κελτός pl. Κελτοί, Keltai or Keltoi), itself taken from a native Celtic tribal name (cf. Celtici).^[3] In Greek, the first literary reference to the Celtic people, as Κελτοί (Κeltoi), is by the Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus in 517 BC; he says that the town of Massilia (Marseille) is near the Celts and also mentions a Celtic town of Nyrex (possibly Noreia in Austria). Herodotus seems to locate the Keltoi at the source of the Danube and/or in Iberia, but the passage is unclear.

The English word Celt is modern, attested from 1707 in the writings of Edward Lhuyd whose work, along with that of other late 17th century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages and history of these early inhabitants of Great Britain.^[4]

Latin Gallus might originally be from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during the early 400s BC Celtic expansions into Italy. Its root may be the Common Celtic *galno, meaning 'power' or 'strength'. The Greek Galatai seems to be based on the same root, borrowed directly from the same hypothetical Celtic source which gave us Galli (the suffix -atai is simply an ethnic name indicator). (see Galatia in Anatolia)

The English form Gaul comes from the French Gaule and Gaulois, which is the traditional rendering of Latin Gallia and Gallus, -icus respectively. However, the diphthong au points to a different origin, namely a Romance adaptation of the Germanic *Walha-. (see Gaul: Name) The English word 'Welsh' originates from the word wælisc, the Anglo-Saxon form of walhiska-, the Germanic word for "foreign".^[5]

'Celticity' generally 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 language.

'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 Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany, also known as the Six Celtic Nations. These are the regions where four Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent as mother tongues: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton plus two recent revivals, Cornish (one of the Brythonic languages) and Manx (one of the Goidelic languages). There are also attempts to revive the Cumbric language (a Brythonic language from Northwest England and Southwest Scotland). 'Celtic' is also sometimes used to describe regions of Continental Europe that have Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language has survived; these areas include the western Iberian Peninsula, i.e. Portugal, and north-central Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castile and León, Extremadura), 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 Celtic-speaking people of the British Isles and their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their language from migrating insular Celts from west Britain and so are grouped accordingly.

Origins

Overview of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures.      The core Hallstatt territory (HaC, 800 BC) is shown in solid yellow,      the eventual area of Hallstatt influence (by 500 BC, HaD) in light yellow.      The core territory of the La Tène culture (450 BC) is shown in solid green,      the eventual area of La Tène influence (by 50 BC) in light green. The territories of some major Celtic tribes of the late La Tène period are labeled.

The Celtic languages form a branch of the larger Indo-European family. By the time speakers of Celtic languages enter history around 400 BC (Brennus's attack on Rome in 387 BC), they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of Central Europe, the Iberian peninsula, Ireland and Britain.

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 BC, the earliest chariot burials in Britain dating to ca. 500 BC. Over the centuries they developed into the separate Celtiberian, Goidelic and Brythonic languages.

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.

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.

Martín Almagro Gorbea^[6] proposed the origins of the Celts could be traced back to the third millennium BC, seeking the initial roots in the Bell Beaker culture, thus offering the wide dispersion of the Celts throughout western Europe, as well as the variability of the different Celtic peoples, and the existence of ancestral traditions an ancient perspective.

Meanwhile, genetics, history, and archaeological researcher and writer Stephen Oppenheimer suggests the Celts were a Mediterranean people first established in what is now southern France by the end of the last glacial maxum, around 11,000BC. From there through further integration with what might have been proto-Basque populations, these people spread outward into Italy, Spain, the British Isles and Germany. Indeed, Celtic origin legends recorded in Medieval Scotland and Ireland suggest a possible beginning in Anatolia and then to Iberia via Egypt. But, in his 2006 book The Origins of the British, revised in 2007, he argued that neither Anglo-Saxons nor Celts had much impact on the genetics of the inhabitants of the British Isles, and that British ancestry mainly traces back to the Palaeolithic Iberian people, now represented by Basques, instead. More recently, it has been noted ^[7] that the distribution of the gene for lactase persistence apparently originating near the Baltic Sea between 4,800 and 6,000 B.P. indicates a spread from there to both the British Isles and to Iberia later than the original paleolithic population spread.

Linguistic evidence

The Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the early European Iron Age. The earliest records of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul, the oldest of which still predate the La Tène period. Other early inscriptions are Gaulish, appearing from the early La Tène period in inscriptions in the area of Massilia, in the Greek alphabet. Celtiberian inscriptions appear comparatively late, after about 200 BC. Evidence of Insular Celtic is available only from about AD 400, in the form of Primitive Irish Ogham inscriptions. Besides epigraphical evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is toponymy.^[8]

Archaeological evidence

Map of the Hallstatt Culture

In various academic disciplines the Celts were considered a Central European Iron Age phenomenon, through the cultures of Hallstatt and La Tène. However, archaeological finds from the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures were rare in the Iberian Peninsula, and did not provide enough evidence for a cultural scenario comparable to that of Central Europe. It is considered equally difficult to maintain that the origin of the Peninsular Celts can be linked to the preceding Urnfield culture, leading to a more recent approach that introduces a 'proto-Celtic' substratum and a process of Celticization having its initial roots in the Bronze Age Bell Beaker culture.^[9]

The Iron Age Hallstatt (c. 800-475 BC) and La Tène (c. 500-50 BC) cultures are typically associated with Proto-Celtic and Celtic culture.^[10]

The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from 450 BCE to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BCE) in eastern France, Switzerland, Austria, southwest Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. It developed out of the Hallstatt culture without any definite cultural break, under the impetus of considerable Mediterranean influence from Greek, and later Etruscan civilizations. A shift of settlement centres took place in the 4th century.

The western La Tène culture corresponds to historical Celtic Gaul. Whether this means that the whole of La Tène culture can be attributed to a unified Celtic people is difficult to assess; archaeologists have repeatedly concluded that language, material culture, and political affiliation do not necessarily run parallel. Frey notes that in the 5th century, "burial customs in the Celtic world were not uniform; rather, localised groups had their own beliefs, which, in consequence, also gave rise to distinct artistic expressions".^[11] Thus, while the La Tène culture is certainly associated with the Gauls, the presence of La Tène artefacts may be due to cultural contact and does not imply the permanent presence of Celtic speakers.

Hallstatt & La Tene cultures

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 latter, writing in the early first century AD, deals with Britain and Gaul as well as Hispania, Italy and Galatia. Caesar wrote extensively about his Gallic Wars in 58-51 BC. Diodorus Siculus wrote about the Celts of Gaul and Britain in his first century History.

Distribution

Continental Celts

Gaul

Repartition of Gaul ca. 54 BC

At the dawn of history in Europe, the Celts then living in what is now France were known as Gauls to the Romans. The territory of these peoples probably included the low countries, the Alps and what is now northern Italy. Their descendants were described by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars. Eastern Gaul was the centre of the western La Tène culture. In later Iron Age Gaul, the social organization 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 600 BC, with exchange up the Rhone valley, but trade was disrupted soon after 500 BC and re-oriented over the Alps to the Po valley in Italy. The Romans arrived in the Rhone valley in the second century BC and encountered a Gaul that was mostly Celtic-speaking. Rome needed land communications with its Iberian provinces and fought a major battle with the Saluvii at Entremont in 124-123 BC. Gradually Roman control extended, and the Roman Province of Gallia Transalpina was formed along the Mediterranean coast. The remainder was known as Gallia Comata - "Hairy Gaul".

In 58 BC, the Helvetii planned to migrate westward but were forced back by Julius Caesar. He then became involved in fighting the various tribes in Gaul, and by 55 BC, most of Gaul had been overrun. In 52 BC, Vercingetorix led a revolt against the Roman occupation but was defeated at the siege of Alesia and surrendered.

Following the Gallic Wars of 58-51 BC, 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 and Marne^{[citation needed]}.

Iberia

Main language areas in Iberia, showing Celtic languages in blue, circa 200 BC.

Until the end of the 19th century, traditional scholarship dealing with the Celts acknowledged the celts of the Iberian Peninsula ^[12][13] as a material culture relatable to the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. Since according to the definition of the Iron Age in the 19th century Celtic populations were rare in Iberia and did not provide a cultural scenario that could easily be linked to that of Central Europe. Three divisions of the Celts of the Iberian Peninsula were assumed to have existed: the Celtiberians in the mountains near the center of the peninsula, the Celtici in the southwest, and the celts in the northwest.^[14]

Modern scholarship, however, has clearly proven that Celtic presence and influences were most substantial in Iberia (with perhaps the highest settlement saturation in Western Europe), particularly in the western and northern regions. The Celts in Iberia were divided into two main archaeological and cultural groups,^[15] even though that division is not very clear:

• One group was spread out along Galicia^[16] and the Iberian Atlantic shores. They were made up of the Lusitanians (in Portugal)^[17] and the Celtic region that Strabo called Celtica in the southwestern Iberian peninsula,^[18] including the Algarve, which was inhabited by the Celtici, the Vettones and Vacceani peoples^[19] (of central-western Spain and Portugal), and the Gallaecian, Astures and Cantabrian peoples of the Castro culture of northern and northwestern Spain and Portugal.^[20]
• The Celtiberian group of central Spain and the upper Ebro valley.^[21] This group originated when Celts (mainly Gauls and some Celtic-Germanic groups) migrated from what is now France and integrated with the local Iberian people.

The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to understanding the Celticization process in the rest of the Peninsula. The process of celticization of the southwestern area of the peninsula by the Keltoi and of the northwestern area is, however, not a simple celtiberian question. Recent investigations about the Callaici^[22] and Bracari^[23] in northwestern Portugal are providing new approaches to understanding Celtic culture (language, art and religion) in western Iberia.^[24]

Alps and Po Valley

It had been known for some time that there was an early, although apparently somewhat limited, Celtic (Lepontic, sometimes called Cisalpine Celtic) presence in Northern Italy since inscriptions dated to the sixth century BC have been found there.

The site of Golasecca, where the Ticino exits from Lake Maggiore, was particularly suitable for long-distance exchanges, in which Golaseccans acted as intermediaries between Etruscans and the Halstatt culture of Austria, supported on the all-important trade in salt.

Situation of the Golasecca culture to the south of the Hallstatt culture.

In 391 BC Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps streamed through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the Appennine mountains and the Alps" according to Diodorus Siculus. The Po Valley and the rest of northern Italy (known to the Romans as Cisalpine Gaul) was inhabited by Celtic-speakers who founded cities such as Milan. Later the Roman army was routed at the battle of Allia and Rome was sacked in 390 BC by the Senones.

At the battle of Telamon in 225 BC a large Celtic army was trapped between two Roman forces and crushed.

The defeat of the combined Samnite, Celtic and Etruscan alliance by the Romans in the Third Samnite War sounded the beginning of the end of the Celtic domination in mainland Europe, but it was not until 192 BC that the Roman armies conquered the last remaining independent Celtic kingdoms in Italy.

The Celts had some scattered settlement further south of the Po River than some 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.^{[citation needed]}

Eastward expansion

Celtic tribes in S.E.E c. 1st century BC (in blue)

The Celts also expanded down the Danube river and its tributaries. One of the most influential tribes, the Scordisci, had established their capital at Singidunum in 3rd century BC, which is present-day Belgrade, Serbia. The concentration of hill-forts and cemeteries shows a density of population in the Tisza valley of modern-day Vojvodina, Serbia, Hungary and into Ukraine. Expansion into Romania was however blocked by the Dacians.

Further south, Celts settled in Thrace (Bulgaria), which they ruled for over a century, and Anatolia, where they settled as the Galatians (see also: Gallic Invasion of Greece). Despite their geographical isolation from the rest of the Celtic world, the Galatians maintained their Celtic language for at least seven hundred years. St Jerome, who visited Ancyra (modern-day Ankara) in 373 AD, likened their language to that of the Treveri of northern Gaul.

The Boii tribe gave their name to Bohemia, Bologna and possibly Bavaria, and Celtic artefacts and cemeteries have been discovered further east in what is now Poland and Slovakia. A celtic coin (Biatec) from Bratislava's mint 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^{[citation needed]}. However, the Celtic invasions of Italy and the expedition in Greece and western Anatolia, are well documented in Greek and Latin history.

There are records of Celtic mercenaries in Egypt serving the Ptolemies. Thousands were employed in 283-246 BC and they were also in service around 186 BC. They attempted to overthrow Ptolemy II.c nvas

Insular Celts

Principal sites in Roman Britain, with indication of the Celtic tribes.

Tribes of Wales at the time of the Roman invasion. Exact boundaries are conjectural.

Celtic dagger found in Britain.

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 of the latter may remain in the names of some geographical features, such as the rivers Clyde, Tamar and Thames, whose etymology is unclear but possibly derive from a pre-Celtic substrate (Gelling). 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 the Celtic languages spoken on the European mainland.

Historians explained this as the result of successive invasions from the European continent by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over the course of several centuries, though this is now generally seen as only the elite^{[clarification needed]}. 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 Iberia. 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 people of Britain or Spain. Similarly in Ireland little archaeological evidence was found for large intrusive groups of Celtic immigrants, suggesting to archaeologists such as Colin Renfrew that the native late Bronze Age inhabitants gradually absorbed European Celtic influences and language.

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.^{[citation needed]} The archaeological evidence is of substantial cultural continuity through the first millennium BC, although with a significant overlay of selectively-adopted elements of La Tène culture. There are claims 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.^{[citation needed]} However, this immigration would be far too late to account for the origins of Insular Celtic languages. In the 1970s the continuity model was 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.

Genetic studies have supported the prevalence of native populations, ruling out any model of post-Bronze Age cultural and language intrusion that ignore a very high degree of genetic absorpsion. A study by Christian Capelli, David Goldstein and others at University College, London showed that genetic markers associated with Gaelic names in Ireland and Scotland are also common in certain parts of Wales and England (in most cases, The Southeast of England with the lowest counts of these markers) are similar to the genetic markers of the Basque people, who speak a non-Indo-European language. This similarity supported earlier findings in suggesting a large pre-Celtic genetic ancestry, likely 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.

Some recent studies have suggested that, contrary to long-standing beliefs,^{[dubious – discuss]} 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, much as the Gaels may have spread over Northern Britain. This view is supported by the Celtic, or at least non-Germanic, names of some prominent early members of a number of "Anglo-Saxon" dynasties, such as Cerdic of Wessex and Penda of Mercia.^[25][26] The Pennines remained a stronghold for Brythonic culture in England, the Cumbric language survived until the 12th Century, whereas in isolated areas of East Anglia, a Brythonic language was only recorded as late as the Saxon period. Parts of the Brythonic culture still survives in the form of the Northumbrian smallpipes and Wrestling (Lancashire and Cumbrian wrestling). 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, probably because these are eastern areas which were exposed to invasion from the East by Angles, Saxons and Vikings.^[27]

The Celtic invasion of the British Isles is difficult to document genetically. Two published books - The Blood of the Isles by Bryan Sykes and The Origins of the British: a Genetic Detective Story by Stephen Oppenheimer - are based upon recent genetic studies, and show that the vast majority of Britons have ancestors from the Iberian Peninsula, as a result of a series of migrations that took place during the Mesolithic and, to a lesser extent, the Neolithic eras.^[28][29]

Sykes sees little genetic evidence relating to people from the heartland of the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures. On the paternal side he finds that the "Oisin" (R1b) clan is in the majority which has strong affinities to Iberia, with no evidence of a large scale arrival from Central Europe. He considers that the genetic structure of Britain and Ireland is "Celtic, if by that we mean descent from people who were here before the Romans and who spoke a Celtic language." But this language was the result of diffusion rather than migration, and the vast majority of the inhabitants of the British Isles, whether they consider themselves to be "Anglo Saxon", "Celt" or otherwise, are descended from the original Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who migrated north from Iberia approximately 13,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article titled Celtic toponymy. (Discuss)

Evidence for Celts in England can be found in place names, such as those including the Old English element, 'wealh', meaning 'foreigner' or 'stranger'. A smattering of villages around the Fenland town of Wisbech hint at this. West Walton, Walsoken, and the Walpoles indicate the continued presence of an indigenous population, and Wisbech, King's Lynn and Chatteris retain proto-Celtic topographical elements. Villages which exhibit Tydd in their name, eg Tydd St. Giles may obtain that element from the Brythonic word for "small holding". Compare the Welsh "tyddyn". Saxon Etheldreda's 'Liber Eliensis' documents the Fenland tribe of the Girvii (Gywre), who are cited elsewhere as being an independent people with dark hair and their own (Brythonic?) language. It is entirely possible that the Girvii were formed in part by migrating Britons, displaced by Saxon settlers after the legions left the Isles.

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 the continental Celts, this eventually resulted in a language shift to Vulgar Latin (see also Gallo-Roman culture), while the Insular Celts retained their language. However, the Celts were master horsemen,^{[citation needed]} which so impressed the Romans^{[citation needed]} 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^{[citation needed]}.

Gallic Calendar

The Coligny Calendar, which was found in 1897 in Coligny, Ain, was engraved on a bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments, that originally was 1.48 m wide and 0.9 m high (Lambert p. 111). Based on the style of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the 2nd century.^[30] It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals, and is in the Gallic 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 druids wishing to preserve their tradition of timekeeping in a time when the Julian calendar was imposed throughout the Roman Empire. However, the general form of the calendar suggests the public peg calendars (or parapegmata) found throughout the Greek and Roman world.^[31]

There were four major festivals in the Gallic Calendar: "Imbolc" on 1 February, possibly linked to the lactation of the ewes and sacred to the Irish Goddess Brigid. "Beltaine" on 1 May, connected to fertility and warmth, possibly linked to the Sun God Belenos. "Lúnasa" on 1 August, connected with the harvest and associated with the God Lugh. And finally "Samhain" on 1 November, possibly the start of the year.^[32] Two of these festivals, Beltaine and Lúnasa 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. Imbolc does not seem to be shown at all however.^[33]

The Celtic Calendar seems to be based on astronomy^[34] 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.^[35]

Society

To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian Celtic social structure based formally on class and kingship. Patron-client relationships similar to those of Roman society are also described by Caesar and others in the Gaul of the 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 forms of government eventually emerging in areas in close contact with Rome. Most descriptions of Celtic societies describe them as being divided into three groups: a warrior aristocracy; an intellectual class including professions such as druid, poet, and jurist; and everyone else. There are instances recorded where women participated both in warfare and in kingship, although they were in the minority in these areas. In historical times, the offices of high and low kings in Ireland and Scotland were filled by election under the system of tanistry, which eventually came into conflict with the feudal principle of primogeniture where the succession goes to the first born son.

Little is known of family structure among the Celts. Patterns of settlement varied from decentralised to the urban. The popular stereotype of non-urbanised societies settled in hillforts and duns, drawn from Britain and Ireland (there are over 2000 hill forts known in Britain)^[36] contrasts with the urban settlements present in the core Hallstatt and La Tene areas, with the many significant oppida of Gaul late in the first millennium BC, and with the towns of Gallia Cisalpina.

Slavery as practiced by the Celts was very likely similar to the better documented practice in ancient Greece and Rome.^[37] Slaves were acquired from war, raids, penal and debt servitude.^[37] Slavery was hereditary, although manumission was possible. The Old Irish word for slave, cacht, and the Welsh term caeth are likely derived from the Latin captus, captive, suggesting that slave trade was an early venue of contact between Latin and Celtic societies.^[37] In the Middle Ages, slavery was especially prevalent in the Celtic countries.^[38] Manumissions were discouraged by law and the word for "female slave", cumal, was used as a general unit of value in Ireland.^[39]

There is archaeological evidence to suggest that the pre-Roman Celtic societies were linked to the network of overland trade routes that spanned Eurasia. Large prehistoric trackways crossing bogs in Ireland and Germany have been found by archaeologists. They are believed to have been created for wheeled transport as part of an extensive roadway system that facilitated trade, because of their substantial nature.^[40] The territory held by the Celts contained tin, lead, iron, silver and gold.^[41] Celtic smiths and metalworkers created weapons and jewelry for international trade, particularly with the Romans.

The myth that the Celtic monetary system consisted of wholly barter is a common one, but is in part false. The monetary system was complex and is still not understood (much like the late Roman coinages), and due to the absence of large numbers of these coin items it is assumed that "proto-money" was used, which is the collective name given to the bronze items made from the early La Tene period onwards, and were often in the shape of axeheads, rings and bells. Due to the large number of these present in some burials it is thought they had a relatively high monetary value, and could be used for "day to day" purchases. Low value coinages of potin, a bronze alloy with high tin content, but also were minted in gold, silver and bronze of higher value, 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. Gold coinage was much more common than silver coinage, despite being worth substantially more, as there were around 100 mines in Southern Britain and Central France, but silver was more rarely mined, partly due to the comparative sparcity of mines and the amount of effort needed for extraction compared to the profit gained. Silver and bronze coinage became more common with the rise of the Roman civilisation, due to trade with them, and this coincided with a major increase in gold production in the Celtic world to meet the Roman demand, made by the high value romans put on it. The large number of gold mines in France is thought to be a major reason why Caesar invaded.

There are only very limited records from pre-Christian times written in Celtic languages. These are mostly inscriptions in the Roman, and sometimes Greek, alphabets. The Ogham script, an Early Medieval alphabet was mostly used in early Christian times in Ireland and Scotland (but also in Wales and England), and was only used for ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions on gravestones. The available evidence is of a strong oral tradition, such as that preserved by bards in Ireland, and eventually recorded by monasteries. The oldest recorded rhyming poetry in the world is of Irish origin 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 chariots 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 Dying Gaul, a Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic work of the late third century BC Capitoline Museums, Rome

According to Diodorus Siculus:

The Gauls are tall of body with rippling muscles and white of skin and their hair is blond, and not only naturally so for they also make it their practice by artificial means to increase the distinguishing colour which nature has given it. For they are always washing their hair in limewater and they pull it back from the forehead to the nape of the neck, with the result that their appearance is like that of Satyrs and Pans since the treatment of their hair makes it so heavy and coarse that it differs in no respect from the mane of horses. Some of them shave the beard but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks but they let the moustache grow until it covers the mouth.

—Diodorus Siculus

Clothing

During the later Iron Age the Gauls generally wore long-sleeved shirts or tunics and long trousers (called braccae by the Romans^[42]). Clothes were made of wool or linen, with some silk being used by the rich. Cloaks were worn in winter. Brooches and armlets were used but the most famous item of jewellery was the torc, a rigid piece of adornment made from twisted metal.

Gender and sexual norms

According to Aristotle, most "belligerent nations" are strongly influenced by their women, but the Celts were unusual because of openly preferred male lovers (Politics II 1269b).^[43] H. D. Rankin in Celts and the Classical World notes that "Athenaeus echoes this comment (603a) and so does Ammianus (30.9). It seems to be the general opinion of antiquity."^[44] In book VIII of his Deipnosophists, the Roman Greek rhetorician and grammarian Athenaeus, repeating assertions made by Diodorus Siculus in the 1st century BC, wrote that Celtic women were beautiful but that the men preferred to sleep together and "the young men will offer themselves to strangers and are insulted if the offer is refused" (Diod 5:32). Rankin argues that the ultimate source of these assertions is likely to be Poseidonius and speculates that these authors may be recording male "bonding rituals"^{[45][46][47][48]}

Under Brehon Law, which was written down in early Medieval Ireland after conversion to Christianity, a woman had the right to divorce her husband and gain his property if he was unable to perform his maritial duties due to impotence, obesity, homosexual inclination or preference for other women.^[49]

The sexual freedom of women in Britain was noted by Cassius Dio:^[50]

...a very witty remark is reported to have been made by the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to Julia Augusta. When the empress was jesting with her, after the treaty, about the free intercourse of her sex with men in Britain, she replied: "We fulfill the demands of nature in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest." Such was the retort of the British woman.

—Cassius Dio

Very few reliable sources exist regarding Celtic views towards gender divisions, though some archaeological evidence does suggest that their views towards gender roles may have been different from those of their contemporary classical counterparts.^[51] 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 4th century BC.^[52]

There are some general indications coming from Iron Age burial sites in the Champagne and Bourgogne regions of Northeastern France suggesting that women may have had roles in combat during the earlier portions of the La Tène period. The evidence is, however, far from conclusive.^[53] Examples of individuals buried with both torcs (generally associated as being female grave goods^{[citation needed]}), and weaponry have been identified, and there are some questions regarding the sexing of some skeletons that were buried with warrior assemblages.^[54]

Among the insular Celts, there is a greater amount of historic documentation to suggest warrior roles for women however. In addition to commentary by Tacitus about Boudica, there are indications from later period histories that also suggest a more substantial role for "women as warriors" in symbolic if not actual roles.

Posidonius and Strabo described an island of women where men could not venture to for fear of death and the women ripped each other apart.^[55] Other writers, such as Ammianus Marcellinus and Tacitus, mentioned Celtic women inciting, participating, and leading battles.^[56] Poseidonius' anthropological comments on the Celts had common themes, primarily primitivism, extreme ferocity, cruel sacrificial practices, and the strength and courage of their women.^[57]

Warfare and weapons

A Gallic statue of a Celtic warrior, in the Museum of Brittany

Principal sites in Roman Britain, with indication of the Celtic tribes. Tribal warfare appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest, the historical record is more of tribes using warfare to exert political control and harass rivals, for economic advantage, and in some instances to conquer territory.^{[citation needed]}

The Celts were described by classical writers such as Strabo, Livy, Pausanias, and Florus as fighting like "wild beasts", and as hordes. Dionysius said that their "manner of fighting, being in large measure that of wild beasts and frenzied, was an erratic procedure, quite lacking in military science. Thus, at one moment they would raise their swords aloft and smite after the manner of wild boars, throwing the whole weight of their bodies into the blow like hewers of wood or men digging with mattocks, and again they would deliver crosswise blows aimed at no target, as if they intended to cut to pieces the entire bodies of their adversaries, protective armour and all".^[58] Such descriptions have been challenged by contemporary historians.^[59]

Polybius (2.33) indicates that the principal Celtic weapon was a long bladed sword which was used for hacking edgewise rather than stabbing. Celtic warriors are described by Polybius and Plutarch as frequently having to cease fighting in order to straighten their sword blades. This claim has been questioned by some archaeologists, who note that Noric steel, steel produced in Celtic Noricum, was famous in the Roman Empire period and was used to equip the Roman military.^[60][61] However, Radomir Pleiner, in The Celtic Sword (1993) argues that "the metallographic evidence shows that Polybius was right up to a point", as around one third of surviving swords from the period might well have behaved as he describes.^[62]

Polybius also asserts that Celts typically fought naked, "The appearance of these naked warriors was a terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of splendid physique and in the prime of life."^[63] According to Livy this was also true of the Celts of Asia Minor.^[64]

Head hunting

Celts had a reputation as head hunters. According to Paul Jacobsthal, "Amongst the Celts the human head was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world."^[65] Arguments for a Celtic cult of the severed head include the many sculptured representations of severed heads in La Tène carvings, and the surviving Celtic mythology, which is full of stories of the severed heads of heroes and the saints who carry their decapitated heads, right down to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where the Green Knight picks up his own severed head after Gawain has struck it off, just as St. Denis carried his head to the top of Montmartre.

A further example of this regeneration after beheading lies in the tales of Connemara's St. Feichin, who after being beheaded by Viking pirates carried his head to the Holy Well on Omey Island and on dipping the head into the well placed it back upon his neck and was restored to full health.

Diodorus Siculus, in his 1st century History had this to say about Celtic head-hunting:

They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants and striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold

In Gods and Fighting Men, Lady Gregory's Celtic Revival translation of Irish mythology, heads of men killed in battle are described in the beginning of the story The Fight With The Fir Bolgs as pleasing to Macha, one aspect of the war goddess Morrigu.

Religion

Polytheism

A statuette in the Museum of Brittany, Rennes, probably depicting Brigantia/Brigid: ca. 1st century CE, with iconography derived from Roman statues of Minerva.

The Celts had an indigenous polytheistic religion and culture.^[66]

Many Celtic gods are known from texts and inscriptions from the Roman period, such as Aquae Sulis, while others have been inferred from place names such as Lugdunum (stronghold of Lug). Rites and sacrifices were carried out by priests, known as Druids. The Celts did not see their gods as having a human shape until late in the Iron Age. Celtic shrines were situated in remote areas such as hilltops, groves, and lakes.

Celtic religious patterns were regionally variable; however, some patterns of deity forms, and ways of worshiping these deities, appear over a wide geographical and temporal range. The Celts worshipped both gods and goddesses. In general, the gods were deities of particular skills, such as the many-skilled Lugh and Dagda, and the goddesses were associated with natural features, particularly rivers (such as Boann, goddess of the River Boyne). This was not universal, however, as goddesses such as Brighid and The Morrígan were associated with both natural features (holy wells and the River Unius) and skills such as blacksmithing and healing.^[67]

Triplicity is a common theme in Celtic cosmology, and a number of deities were seen as threefold.^[68]

The Celts had literally hundreds of deities, some unknown outside of a single family or tribe, while others were popular enough to have a following that crossed boundaries of language and culture. For instance, the Irish god Lugh, associated with storms, lightning, and culture, is seen in similar forms as Lugos in Gaul and Lleu in Wales. Similar patterns are also seen with the continental Celtic horse goddess Epona, and what may well be her Irish and Welsh counterparts, Macha and Rhiannon, respectively.^[69]

Roman reports of the druids mention ceremonies being held in sacred groves. La Tène Celts built temples of varying size and shape, though they also maintained shrines at sacred trees and votive pools.^[66]

Druids fulfilled a variety of roles in Celtic religion, as priests and religious officiants, but also as judges, sacrificers, teachers, and lore-keepers. Druids organized and ran the religious ceremonies, and they memorized and taught the calendar. Other classes of druids performed ceremonial sacrifices of crops and animals for the perceived benefit of the community.^[70]

Celtic Christianity

A Celtic cross.

While the regions under Roman rule adopted Christianity along with the rest of the Roman empire, unconquered areas of Ireland and Scotland moved from Celtic polytheism to Celtic Christianity in the fifth century AD. Ireland was converted under missionaries from Britain, such as Patrick. Later missionaries from Ireland were a major source of missionary work in Scotland, Saxon parts of Britain, and central Europe (see Hiberno-Scottish mission). The development of Christianity in Ireland and Britain brought an early medieval renaissance of Celtic art between 390 and 1200 AD^{[citation needed]}, developing many of the styles now thought of as typically Celtic, and found throughout much of Ireland and Britain, including the northeast and far north of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland. This Celtic renaissance was ended by the Norman Conquest of Ireland in the late 12th century.^{[citation needed]} 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.

See also

• Modern Celts
• Celtic nations
• Celtic languages
• Ethnic groups of Europe

Notes

Literature

• Alberro, Manuel and Arnold, Bettina (eds.), e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies, Volume 6: The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Center for Celtic Studies, 2005.
• Collis, John. The Celts: Origins, Myths and Inventions. Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7524-2913-2. Historiography of Celtic studies.
• Cunliffe, Barry. The Ancient Celts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-815010-5.
• Cunliffe, Barry. Iron Age Britain. London: Batsford, 2004. ISBN 0-7134-8839-5
• Cunliffe, Barry. The Celts: A Very Short Introduction. 2003
• Freeman, Philip Mitchell The Earliest Classical Sources on the Celts: A Linguistic and Historical Study. Diss. Harvard University, 1994. (link)
• Gamito, Teresa J. The Celts in Portugal. In E-Keltoi, Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies, vol. 6. 2005.
• Haywood, John. Historical Atlas of the Celtic World. 2001.
• James, Simon. Exploring the World of the Celts 1993.
• James, Simon. The Atlantic Celts - Ancient People Or Modern Invention? Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, August 1999. ISBN 0-299-16674-0.
• James, Simon & Rigby, Valerie. Britain and the Celtic Iron Age. London: British Museum Press, 1997. ISBN 0-7141-2306-4.
• Kruta, V., O. Frey, Barry Raftery and M. Szabo. eds. The Celts. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0-8478-2193-5. A translation of Les Celtes: Histoire et Dictionnaire 2000.
• Laing, Lloyd. The Archaeology of Late Celtic Britain and Ireland c. 400–1200 AD. London: Methuen, 1975. ISBN 0-416-82360-2
• Laing, Lloyd and Jenifer Laing. Art of the Celts, London: Thames and Hudson, 1992 ISBN 0-500-20256-7
• MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-280120-1
• McEvedy, Colin. The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History. New York: Penguin, 1985. ISBN 0-14-070832-4
• Mallory, J. P. In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0-500-27616-1.
• O'Rahilly, T. F. Early Irish History Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946.
• Powell, T. G. E. The Celts. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1980. third ed. 1997. ISBN 0-500-27275-1.
• Raftery, Barry. Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994. ISBN 0-500-27983-7.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Celts

Additional articles

• Ancient Celtic music - in the Citizendium
• Essays on Celtiberian topics - in e-Keltoi, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Ancient Celtic Warriors in History

Geography

• An interactive map showing the lands of the Celts between 800BC and 305AD.
• Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC), showing the Celtic territories
• Map of Celtic lands

Multimedia

• Discussion - with academician Barry Cunliffe, on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, February 21, 2002. (Streaming Realplayer format)
• "The Primitive Celts" - part of Terry Jones' Barbarians, June 2006.

Organisations

• newworldcelts.org
• XIII. International Congress of Celtic Studies in Bonn

Special interest

• Related Nordic-Celtic DNA material - at FamilyTreeDNA.com
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/celts-descended-from-spanish-fishermen-study-finds-416727.html

v • d • e Celts Ancient Celts Celtic studies Peoples Names · Gaels · Britons · Picts · Gauls · Celtiberians Places Éire · Dálriata / Alba · Iron Age Britain / Roman Britain / Sub-Roman Britain · Iron Age Gaul / Roman Gaul · Galatia · Gallaecia Religion Polytheism · Christianity Mythology Irish · Scottish · Welsh · British · Breton Society Calendar · Law · Gaelic clothing and fashion · Gaelic warfare · Celtic warfare · Coinage Art Insular art · Triple spiral · Knot · High cross · Maze · Pictish · Interlace · Wheel Modern Celts Celtic Revival Modern Celtic nations · Pan-Celticism (Celtic Congress · Celtic League) · Music · Neopaganism (Reconstructionist) Languages Proto-Celtic · Insular Celtic (Brythonic · Goidelic) · Continental Celtic (Celtiberian · Gaulish · Galatian · Lepontic · Noric) Festivals Samhain/Calan Gaeaf · Imbolc/Gŵyl Fair · Beltane/Calan Mai · Lughnasadh/Calan Awst Lists Celts · Tribes · Deities · English words of Celtic origin · Spanish words of Celtic origin

Additional info - part 2

Astures

The Astures were the original Indo-European inhabitants of the northwest area of Hispania that now comprises almost the entire modern autonomous community of Asturias and the modern provinces León, and northern Zamora (all in Spain), and east of Trás os Montes in Portugal. Isidore of Seville^[1] gave an etymology as coming from a river Asturia, identified by David Magie with the Órbigo in the plain of León, by others the modern Esla; at a later date the name was retained in the medieval Kingdom of Asturias.

Asturias

The Principality of Asturias (Spanish: Principado de Asturias - Asturian: Principáu d'Asturies) is an autonomous community within the kingdom of Spain, former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages. It is situated on the Spanish north coast facing the Cantabrian Sea (Mar Cantábrico, the Spanish name for the Bay of Biscay).

Athenaeus

Athenaeus (Ancient Greek Ἀθήναιος Nαυκρατίτης - Athếnaios Naukratítês, Latin Athenaeus Naucratita), of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century A.D. The Suda only tells us that he lived in the times of Marcus (sc. Aurelius); but the contempt with which he speaks of Commodus (died 192) shows that he survived that emperor.

Atlantic Europe

Atlantic Europe is a geographical and anthropological term for the western portion of Europe which borders the Atlantic Ocean. The term may refer to the idea of Atlantic Europe as a cultural unit and/or as an biogeographical region.

Austria

Austria /ˈɔːstriə/ (help·info) (German: Österreich (help·info)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people^[3] in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,872 square kilometres (32,383 sq mi), and is influenced by a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,797 metres (12,457 ft).^[6] The majority of the population speaks German,^[7] which is also the country's official language.^[1] Other local official languages are Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.^[6]

Baltic languages

The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. The language group is sometimes divided into two sub-groups: Western Baltic, containing only extinct languages, and Eastern Baltic, containing both extinct and the two living languages in the group: Lithuanian (including both Standard Lithuanian and Samogitian) and Latvian (including both literary Latvian and Latgalian). While related, the Lithuanian, the Latvian, and particularly the Old Prussian vocabularies differ substantially from one another and are not mutually intelligible. The now-extinct Old Prussian language has been considered the most archaic of the Baltic languages^{[by whom?]}.

Barry Cunliffe

Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, CBE, b. December 10, 1939 (1939-12-10) (age 70), known as Barry Cunliffe, was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007.

Basque people

1^st row: Arista - Sancho III - Elcano - Loyola - Urdaneta - Oñate - Francis Xavier
2^nd row:Bolívar - Zumalakarregi - Gardoqui- Garat - Iraola - Arana - Errázuriz
3^rd row:Garrastazu - Ravel - Evita - Atano VII - Basterretxea - Guevara -Mariano
4^th row:Etxenike - Garamendi - Ibarretxe - Eyharts - Chao - Fernandez - Arteta

Battle of Telamon

The Battle of Telamon was fought between the Roman Republic and an alliance of Gauls in 225 BC. The Romans, led by the consuls Gaius Atilius Regulus and Lucius Aemilius Papus, defeated the Gauls, thus extending their influence over northern Italy.

Battle of the Allia

The Battle of the Allia was a battle of the first Gallic invasion of Italy. The battle was fought near the Allia river: the defeat of the Roman army opened the route for the Gauls to sack Rome. It was fought in 390/387 BC.

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪ.ʃtaːt ˈbaɪ.ɐn]  ( listen)) is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of the country. With an area of 70,548 square kilometres (27,200 sq mi) and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, it is the largest German state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany. Its capital is Munich in Upper Bavaria.

Beaker culture

The Bell-Beaker culture (sometimes shortened to Beaker culture, Beaker people, or Beaker folk; German: Glockenbecherkultur), ca. 2400 – 1800 BC,^[1] is the term for a widely scattered cultural phenomenon of prehistoric western Europe starting in the late Neolithic or Chalcolithic running into the early Bronze Age. The term was coined by John Abercromby, based on their distinctive pottery drinking vessels.

Belgae

The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul, on the west bank of the Rhine, in the 3rd century BC, and later also in Britain. They gave their name to the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, and later, to the modern country of Belgium.

Belgrade

Belgrade (Serbian: Београд, Beograd ( listen (help·info)) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets the South European Balkans. Likewise, the city is placed along the pan-European corridors X and VII.^[4] With a population of 1,630,000 (official estimate 2007),^[3] Belgrade is the fourth largest city in Southeastern Europe, after Istanbul, Athens and Bucharest. Its name in Serbian translates to White city.

Beltane

Beltane or Beltaine (pronounced /ˈbɛltən/, origin Old Irish) is the anglicised spelling of Bealtaine (Irish pronunciation: [ˈbʲal̪ˠt̪ˠənʲə]) or Bealltainn ([ˈbʲal̪ˠt̪ˠənʲ]), the Gaelic names for either the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day of May.

Biatec

Biatec was the name of a person, presumably a king, who appeared on the Celtic coins minted by the Boii in Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) in the 1st century BC. The word Biatec (or Biatex) is also used as the name of those coins. In the literature, they are also sometimes referred to as "hexadrachms of the Bratislava type".^[1] Biatecs, in fact hexadrachms and tetradrachms made of high quality silver and gold, bear inscriptions in capital Latin letters. Among 14 different inscriptions (for example NONNOS, DEVIL, BUSU, BUSSUMARUS, TITTO), BIATEC appears most frequently. The inscriptions represent the oldest known use of writing in Slovakia and the neighboring territories. The coins have a diameter of 25 millimeters and a weight of 16.5-17 grams. The obverse usually shows various depictions of a head or a pair of heads. The reverse usually shows a horseman, but various mythological and real animals also occur.

Boann

Boann (or Boand) is the Irish mythology goddess of the River Boyne, a river in Leinster, Ireland. According to the Lebor Gabála Érenn she was the daughter of Delbáeth, son of Elada, of the Tuatha Dé Danann.^[1] Her husband is variously Nechtan, Elcmar or Nuada. Her lover is the Dagda, by whom she had her son, Aengus. In order to hide their affair, the Dagda made the sun stand still for nine months; therefore, Aengus was conceived, gestated and born in one day.^[2]

Bohemia

Bohemia (Czech: Čechy;^[1] German: Böhmen (help·info); Polish: Czechy; French: Bohême; Latin: Bohemia) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic and with its capital in Prague. In a broader meaning, it often refers to the entire Czech territory, including Moravia and Czech Silesia,^[2] especially in historical contexts, such as the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Boii

Boii (Latin plural, singular Boius; Greek Βόϊοι) is the Roman name of an Iron age tribe located at the beginning of their history in central Europe, perhaps in or including the regions that still bear their name: Bavaria and Bohemia. The Roman and Greek historians of the late Roman Republic and Roman Empire considered them to be a Gallic or Celtic tribe; that is, a member of a larger ethnic group in Europe termed the Celts or Gauls. Inscriptions from various locations in their range indicate that the latter spoke languages of the Celtic family. The language of the Boii specifically, however, is not known.

Bologna

Bologna (Italian pronunciation: [boˈloɲːa], from the Latin Bononia, Bulåggna IPA: [buˈlʌɲːa] in Bolognese dialect) is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley (Pianura Padana in Italian) of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River.

Book of Kells

The Book of Kells (Irish: Leabhar Cheanannais) (Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. (58), sometimes known as the Book of Columba) is an illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was transcribed by Celtic monks ca. 800. The text of the Gospels is largely drawn from the Vulgate, although it also includes several passages drawn from the earlier versions of the Bible known as the Vetus Latina. It is a masterwork of Western calligraphy and represents the pinnacle of Insular illumination. It is also widely regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure.

Book of Leinster

MS H 2.18 (cat. 1339), or the Book of Leinster (Irish Lebor Laignech), formerly known as the Book of Oughaval (Lebor na Nuachongbála), is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled ca. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin. It was previously kept at Oughaval for many generations.^[1] Some fragments of the book, such as the Martyrology of Tallaght, are now in the collection of University College, Dublin.^[2]

Boudica

Boudica (pronounced /ˈbuːdɨkə/; also spelled Boudicca), formerly known as Boadicea (/boʊˌædɨˈsiːə/) and known in Welsh as "Buddug" /ˈbɨ̞ðˈɨ̞ɡ/)^[1] (d. AD 60 or 61) was a queen of the Brittonic Iceni tribe of what is now known as East Anglia in England, who led an uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.

Bracari

The Bracari were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, akin to the Calaicians or Gallaeci, living in the northwest of modern Portugal, in the province of Minho, between the rivers Tâmega and Cávado, around the area of the modern city of Braga (the Roman Bracara Augusta).

Braccae

Braccae is the Latin term for trousers, and in this context is today used to refer to a style of pants, made from wool. The Romans encountered this style of clothing among peoples whom they called Galli (Gauls)^[1]. This is often assumed to mean speakers of Celtic languages, though many scholars (including John Collis^[2], Peter S Wells^[3], Stephen Oppenheimer^[4]) doubt that the term Galli was primarily based on linguistic affiliation.

Bratislava

Bratislava (German: Pressburg, Hungarian: Pozsony) is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city.^[1] Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries,^[2] and it and Vienna are the two European national capitals closest to one another, at less than 60 kilometres (37 mi) apart.

Brennus (4th century BC)

Brennus (or Brennos) was a chieftain of the Senones, a Gallic tribe originating from the modern areas of France known as Seine-et-Marne, Loiret, and Yonne, but which had expanded to occupy northern Italy.^[1] In 387 BC he led an army of Cisalpine Gauls in their attack on Rome. It has been theorized that Brennus is actually a title rather than a name. This is because "Brennus" also appears as the name of a Gallic leader 100 years later. It is also possible that Brennus refers to a God, his name taken by the leader before battle in order to invoke the God's favor and powers, likely to be the Celtic God Bren (Bran 'Raven').

Brigid

In Irish mythology, Brigit or Brighid ("exalted one"^[1]) was the daughter of the Dagda and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She was the wife of Bres of the Fomorians, with whom she had a son, Ruadán. She had two sisters, also named Brighid, and is considered a classic Celtic Triple Goddess.^[2]

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain, Ireland and over six-thousand smaller islands.^[7] There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland.^[8] The British Isles also include the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man and, by tradition, the Channel Islands, although the latter are not physically a part of the island group.^[9][10]

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects,^[2] are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present.^[a]

Britons (historic)

The Britons (sometimes Brythons or British) were the Celtic people living in Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages.^[1] They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic. They lived throughout Britain south of about the Firth of Forth; after the 5th century Britons also migrated to continental Europe, where they established the settlements of Brittany in France and the obscure Britonia in what is now Galicia, Spain.^[1] Their relationship to the Picts north of the Forth has been the subject of much discussion, though most scholars accept that the Pictish language during this time was a Brythonic language related to, but perhaps distinct from, British.^[2]

Britons (historical)

The Britons (sometimes Brythons or British) were the Celtic people living in Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages.^[1] They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic. They lived throughout Britain south of about the Firth of Forth; after the 5th century Britons also migrated to continental Europe, where they established the settlements of Brittany in France and the obscure Britonia in what is now Galicia, Spain.^[1] Their relationship to the Picts north of the Forth has been the subject of much discussion, though most scholars accept that the Pictish language during this time was a Brythonic language related to, but perhaps distinct from, British.^[2]

Brittany

Brittany (Breton: Breizh, pronounced [brɛjs]; French: Bretagne [bʁətaɲ]  ( listen); Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Brittany was previously a kingdom and then as a duchy it was a fief of the Kingdom of France. It was at one time called Less, Lesser or Little Britain (in opposition to Great Britain). It is one of the six Celtic nations.^[1]

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age. Bronze derives from the Italian: bronzo and, in turn, is perhaps ultimately taken from the Persian word birinj ("copper"). It is also believed that the word may have come from the Nordic word Brongru (brown).^[1]

Brythonic languages

The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages or British languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic.^[1] The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael. The name Brittonic derives ultimately from the name Prettanic recorded by Greek authors for the British Isles. Some authors reserve the term Brittonic for the modified later Brythonic languages after about AD 600.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria (pronounced /bʌlˈɡɛəriə/ ( listen); Bulgarian: България, Bălgariya, pronounced [bəlˈɡarija]), officially the Republic of Bulgaria (Република България, Republika Bălgariya, [rɛˈpublika bəlˈɡarija]), is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north (mostly along the River Danube), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. The Black Sea defines the extent of the country to the east.

Calan Gaeaf

Calan Gaeaf is the name of the first day of winter in Wales, observed on 1 November.^[1] The night before is Nos Calan Gaeaf,^[1] an Ysbrydnos when spirits are abroad. People avoid churchyards, stiles, and crossroads, since spirits are thought to gather there.

Calan Mai

In Wales, May 1 is a holiday known as Calan Mai or Calan Haf, which means the first day of summer. Celebrations start on the evening before, known as May Eve, with bonfires; as with Calan Gaeaf, the night before (Nos Galan Mai) is an Ysbrydnos, or "spirit night," when spirits are out and about and divination is possible. The tradition of lighting Midsummer bonfires happened annually in south Wales until the middle of the 19th century. It is the Welsh equivalent of the Goidelic Beltane.

Cantabri

The Cantabri were an ancient confederacy of eleven tribes^[1], perhaps Celtic, that inhabited the north coast of Hispania in the whole modern autonomous community of Cantabria, the eastern third of Asturias and the nearby mountainous regions of modern Castile-Leon. According to Strabo the Cantabrians were either formerly called Lusitanians or as according to Julius Caesar, they were a tribe of native origin. ^[2] Regarded as savage and untamable mountaineers, they long defied the Roman arms and made a name for themselves for their independent spirit and freedom. They were first attacked by the Romans about 150 BC. In his Gallic War^[3] Julius Caesar describes how Crassus scored a victory over combined forces of Cantabri and Aquitanians, who are described as relatives, casting some doubt on the alleged Celticity of this nation. The tribe name Cantabri is a word of Ligurian origin meaning Highlanders, so the tribe may have had a different name prior to the arrival of the Romans. The names of some of the tribes and clans in their Mountains Confederation and some related traditions distinguished them from proper Celts in having elements of a previous and still strong local Culture, and by it local People, and as the classic observers noted, in common with others along the Pyrenees.

Cantabria

Cantabria is a Spanish historical region ^[1] and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community (province of Biscay), on the south by Castile and León (provinces of León, Palencia and Burgos), on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.

Capitoline Museums

The Capitoline Museums (Italian Musei Capitolini) are a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The museums are contained in three palazzi surrounding a central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over a period of over 400 years. The history of the museums can be traced to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important ancient bronzes to the people of Rome and located them on Capitoline Hill. Since then, the museums' collection has grown to include a large number of ancient Roman statues, inscriptions, and other artifacts; a collection of medieval and Renaissance art; and collections of jewels, coins, and other items. The museums are owned and operated by the municipality of Rome.

Cassius Dio

Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus^[1][2] (Greek: Δίων ὁ Κάσσιος, c. AD 155 or 163/164^[3] to after 229), known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio (Dione. lib) was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek. Dio published a history of Rome in 80 volumes, beginning with the legendary arrival of Aeneas in Italy through the subsequent founding of Rome and then to 229; a period of about 1,400 years. Of the 80 books, written over 22 years, many survive into the modern age intact or as fragments, providing modern scholars with a detailed perspective on Roman history.

Castile and León

Castile and León (Spanish: Castilla y León), known formally as the Community of Castile and León, is one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain. It was constructed from Old Castile (Spanish: Castilla la Vieja) and León, first as a preautonomía—a "pre-autonomous" region—in 1978 and then as an autonomous community in 1983. It is the largest autonomous community in Spain, covering an area of 94,223 square kilometres (36,380 sq mi) with an official population of around 2.5 million (2005).

Castro culture

Castro culture (cultura castreja in Portuguese, cultura castrexa in Galician and cultura castreña in Spanish, Asturian and Leonese) is the archaeologists' descriptor for the culture of the northwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula (roughly present-day northern Portugal, Galicia, Asturias and northern and western León), from the end of the Bronze Age (9th century BC) until it was subsumed in local Roman culture. The most notable and permanent characteristic of this culture is their walled villages and hill forts, known as castros (from Latin castrum, castle). The area of these villages extends as far as the Cares river to the east and to the Douro River in the south.

Cedar oil

Cedar oil was used as the base for paints by the ancient Sumerians. They would grind cobalt compounds in a mortar and pestle to produce a blue pigment. They could obtain green from copper, yellow from lead antimoniate, black from charcoal, and white from gypsum.

Celtiberian language

Celtiberian (also known as northeastern Hispano-Celtic) is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians in an area of the Iberian Peninsula lying between the headwaters of the Duero, Tajo, Júcar and Turia rivers and the Ebro river. This language is directly attested in nearly two hundred inscriptions dated in the 2nd century BC and the 1st century BC, mainly in Celtiberian script, a direct adaptation of the northeastern Iberian script, but also in Latin alphabet. The longest extant Celtiberian inscriptions are those on three Botorrita plaques, bronze plaques from Botorrita near Saragossa, dating to the early 1st century BC, labelled Botorrita I, III and IV (Botorrita II is in the Latin language).

Celtiberians

The Celtiberians were Celtic-speaking people of the Iberian Peninsula in the final centuries BC. The group originated when Celts migrated from Gaul and integrated with the local pre-Indo-European populations, in particular the Iberians.

Celtic Christianity

Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity is a term referring broadly to the Early Medieval Christian practice that developed in Britain and Ireland before and during the sub-Roman period. During this period, the Roman withdrawal and the Anglo-Saxon invasion sharply reduced contact between the broadly Celtic peoples of the islands and other Christians in Continental Europe. In this relatively isolated environment distinctive practices began to emerge, first gaining widespread use in Ireland in the 5th century^{[citation needed]} (though elements of the Celtic Rite may have been introduced to Ireland by the British St. Patrick), and spreading to Britain with the Irish mission system established by Saint Columba. Celtic Christianity may be distinguished by its organisation around monasteries rather than dioceses, and certain traditions, especially in matters of liturgy and ritual, that were different from those of the greater sub-Roman world.

Celtic Congress

The International Celtic Congress is a cultural organisation that seeks to promote the Celtic languagues of the nations of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man. It was formed out of previously existing bodies that had sought to advance the same goals such as the Celtic Association and the Pan-Celtic Congress. There had even been two meetings of an Inter-Celtic Congress in 1838 and 1867.

Celtic Gallaecia

Following the Leabhar Gabhala, from Egypt and after a brief scale again in Scythia, the Gaedels reached Iberia (called Hispania by the Romans) which they took by “force of the arms”. This journey, carried out mainly by the hero Breogan, Bregon or Bregan, according to versions (also called, otherwise, Golam) culminated with the well-known episode in which Ith, son of Breogan, described Ireland from the high Tower of Brigantia and marched towards its conquest.

Celtic League (political organisation)

The Celtic League is a political and cultural organisation in the modern Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man. It places particular emphasis on the indigenous Celtic languages.

Celtic Neopaganism

Celtic Neopaganism refers to Neopagan movements based on, or loosely inspired by, historical Celtic polytheism. There are at least three currents to be distinguished:

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism (also Celtic Reconstructionism or CR) is a polytheistic, animistic, religious and cultural movement. It is an effort to reconstruct and revive, in a modern Celtic cultural context, pre-Christian Celtic religions.

Celtic Revival

Celtic Revival covers a variety of movements and trends, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, which drew on Celtic art and traditions. Although the revival was complex and multifaceted, occurring across many fields and in various countries in North-West Europe, its best known incarnation is probably the Irish Literary Revival also called the Celtic Twilight. Here, Irish writers including William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, "AE" Russell, Edward Martyn and Edward Plunkett (AKA Lord Dunsany) stimulated a new appreciation of traditional Irish literature and Irish poetry in the late 19th and early 20th century.^[1]

Celtic art

Celtic art is a art associated with various people known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient people whose language is unknown, but where cultural and stylistic similarities suggest they are related to Celts. Perhaps its best known and most influential phase is more correctly known as Insular art of Ireland and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages, which produced the Book of Kells and other masterpieces. Also covered by the term is the visual art of the Celtic Revival (on the whole more notable for literature) from the 18th century to the modern era, which began as a conscious effort by Modern Celts to express self-identification and nationalism.

Celtic coinage

The first coins to be minted in Europe were by the Celts and by Philip II of Macedon.^[2] They were first minted in the 4th century B.C. and flourished around Europe for around 400 years. Celtic coinage emerged in the 4th century BCE, and, influenced by trade with and the supply of mercenaries to the Greeks, initially copied Greek designs.^[3] Celtic coinage was influenced by Greek designs,^[4] and Greeks letters can be found on various Celtic coins, especially those of Southern France.^[5]

Celtic cross

A Celtic cross (Irish: cros Cheilteach^[1], Welsh croes Celtaidd) is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. The early Celtic stone high cross is generally in the form of a normal cross with a ring joining the arms for structural strength, often with an extended rectangular or cubic base that is mounted on the ground. Early groups have broad undecorated front faces with many animal scenes in relief. Later groups have narratives upon them.^[2]

Celtic knot

Celtic knots are a variety of (mostly endless) knots and stylized graphical representations of knots used for decoration, adopted by the ancient Celts. These knots are most known for their adaptation for use in the ornamentation of Christian monuments and manuscripts like the 8th century St. Teilo Gospels, the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Celtic maze

A Celtic maze is a straight-line spiral pattern drawn all over the world beginning in prehistory. The patterns originate in early Celtic developments in stone and metal-work, and later in medieval Insular art. Prehistoric spiral designs date back to Gavrinis (circa 3,500 BCE).^[1]

Celtic music

Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe. As such there is no real body of music which can be accurately be described as Celtic, but the term has stuck and may refer to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded popular music. Celtic music means two things mainly. First, it is the music of the peoples calling themselves Celts (a non-musical, primarily political definition), as opposed to, say, "French music" or "English music." Secondly, it refers to whatever qualities may be unique to the musics of the Celtic Nations (a musical definition). Some insist that different ostensibly Celtic musics actually have nothing in common – such as Geoff Wallis and Sue Wilson in their book The Rough Guide to Irish Music – whereas others (such as Alan Stivell), say there is.

Celtic nations

Celtic nations is a term used to describe territories in North-West Europe in which that area's own Celtic languages and cultural traits have largely survived. The term "nation" is used in this context to mean a group of people associated with a territory and who share a common identity, language or culture. It is not synonymous with "sovereign state" or "country".

Celtic studies

Celtic studies is the academic discipline occupied with the study of any sort of cultural output relating to a Celtic people. This ranges from linguistics, literature and art history archaeology and history, the focus lying on the study of the various Celtic languages, living and extinct.^[1] The primary areas of focus are the six Celtic languages which still survive, or have only recently become extinct: Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton.

Celtic toponymy

Celtic toponymy is the study of place names wholly or partially of Celtic origin. These names are found throughout continental Europe, the British Isles, Asia Minor and latterly through various other parts of the globe not originally occupied by Celts.

Celtic warfare

The history of Celtic warfare spans from ca. 10th century BC up to the first few centuries AD and it concerns the distinct styles of warfare of the peoples known as Celts. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Celtic tribes and their kingdoms. Apart from conflicts between Celts and neighboring nations and tribes, numerous inter-tribal conflicts were recorded among Celtic tribes also.This includes the Celtic peoples of Ireland, Britain, Gaul, Iberia, and Anatolia.

Celtic wheel

The Celtic wheel is an important symbol in Celtic art and religion. Wheels were used as votive instruments, offered at shrines (such as in Alesia), cast in rivers (such as the Seine), buried in tombs or worn as amulets since the Middle Bronze Age.^[1]

Celtica

Celtica. Journal of the School of Celtic Studies is an academic journal devoted to Celtic studies, with particular emphasis on Irish literature, linguistics and placenames. It was founded in 1946 and has since been published by the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Previous editors include T.F. O'Rahilly (1946-1950). The latest volume (25) was edited by Fergus Kelly and Malachy McKenna.

Celtici

The Celtici were a Celtic tribe of the Iberian peninsula, akin either to the Lusitanians and Gallaecians or the Celtiberians, living in what today are the provinces of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal, though some migrated north alongside the Turduli. Their presence was the result of a third or even fourth wave of migrations of Celts (or other speakers of Indo-European languages) into Iberia. Their migration most likely occurred in the 4th century BC.

Central Europe

Central Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion^[1] after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West, splitting Central Europe in half.

Cephalophore

A cephalophore (from the Greek for "head-carrier") is a saint who is generally depicted carrying his or her own head; in art, this was usually meant to signify that the subject in question had been martyred by beheading. Handling the halo in this circumstance offers a unique challenge for the artist. Some put the halo where the head used to be; others have the saint carrying the halo along with the head.

Cerdic of Wessex

Cerdic (from the early British name represented by modern Welsh Caradog; died 534) was the King of Wessex (519–534) and is regarded as the ancestor of all subsequent Kings of Wessex (See House of Wessex family tree), and as such an ancestor of virtually every royal throne in Europe.

Chariot

The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open, two or four-wheeled conveyance drawn by two or more horses hitched side by side. The car was little else than a floor with a waist-high semicircular guard in front. The chariot, driven by a charioteer, was used for ancient warfare during the Bronze and Iron Ages, armor being provided by shields. The vehicle continued to be used for travel, processions and in games and races after it had been superseded militarily. Militarily, the chariot became obsolete as horse breeding efforts produced an animal that was large enough to ride into battle.^{[citation needed]}

Chinese astrology

Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. Chinese astrology does not calculate the positions of the sun, moon and planets at the time of birth.

Cisalpine Gaul

Cisalpine Gaul (Latin: Gallia Cisalpina, meaning "Gaul on this side of the Alps") was the Roman name for a geographical area (later a province of the Roman Republic), in the territory of modern-day northern Italy (including Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto), inhabited by the Celts.

Citizendium

Citizendium ("the citizens' compendium of everything"; pronounced /ˌsɪtɪˈzɛndiəm/, SI-tə-ZEN-dee-əm) is an English-language wiki-based free encyclopedia project led by Larry Sanger, who co-founded the encyclopedia Wikipedia in 2001.^[2][3]

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman literature (such as Aeschylus, Ovid, Homer and others) flourished.^[1]

Claudius

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) (Tiberius Claudius Drusus from birth to AD 4, then Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus from then until his accession) was the fourth Roman Emperor, a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 24 January AD 41 to his death in AD 54. Born in Lugdunum in Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France), to Drusus and Antonia Minor, he was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italia.

Clootie well

Clootie wells (also Cloutie or Cloughtie wells) are places of pilgrimage in Celtic areas. They are wells or springs, almost always with a tree growing beside them, where strips of cloth or rags have been left, usually tied to the branches of the tree as part of a healing ritual. In Scots nomenclature, a "clootie" or "cloot" is a strip of cloth or rag.

Coligny calendar

The Gaulish Coligny Calendar was found in Coligny, Ain, France (46°23′N 5°21′E / 46.383°N 5.35°E / 46.383; 5.35) near Lyon in 1897, along with the head of a bronze statue of a youthful male figure. It is a lunisolar calendar. It is now held at the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon.

Colin Burgess (author)

Colin Burgess (1947 - ) is an Australian author and historian, specializing in space flight and military history. He is a former customer service manager for Qantas Airways, and a regular contributor to the collectSPACE online community. He lives in New South Wales.^[1] Two of Burgess's co-authored 2007 books, Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965 and In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969 were named as finalists for the 2007 Eugene M. Emme Award given by the American Astronautical Society. "In the Shadow of the Moon" was also named as "2009 Outstanding Academic Title" by Choice Magazine.^[2]

Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn

Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn (b. July 25, 1937 (1937-07-25) (age 72) in Stockton-on-Tees) is a British archaeologist, noted for his work on radiocarbon dating, the prehistory of languages, archaeogenetics, and the prevention of looting at archaeological sites. He developed the Renfrew Hypothesis, which argues that Proto-Indo-Europeans lived 2,000 years before the Kurgans, in Anatolia, later diffusing throughout the Mediterranean and into Central and Northern Europe. Along with fellow Archaeologist Paul Bahn, Renfrew has come up with the 'Renfew and Bahns indicator of Religion and Ritual', a definition to determine whether the actions or conducts of Archaeological civilizations were a religious ritual.

Commentarii de Bello Gallico

Commentarii de Bello Gallico (English: Commentaries on the Gallic War) is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting local armies in Gaul that opposed Roman domination. The "Gaul" that Caesar refers to is sometimes all of Gaul except for the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis (modern day Provence), encompassing the rest of modern France, Belgium and some of Switzerland.

Comparative advantage

In economics, the law of comparative advantage refers to the ability of a party (an individual, a firm, or a country) to produce a particular good or service at a lower opportunity cost than another party. It is the ability to produce a product most efficiently given all the other products that could be produced.^[1][2] It can be contrasted with absolute advantage which refers to the ability of a party to produce a particular good at a lower absolute cost than another.

Complutense University of Madrid

The Complutense University of Madrid (Spanish: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, UCM) is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of Pozuelo de Alarcón.

Connemara

Connemara (in Irish: Conamara), which derives from Conmhaicne Mara (meaning: descendants of Con Mhac, of the sea), is a district in the west of Ireland consisting of a broad peninsula between Killary Harbour and Kilkieran Bay in the west of County Galway or south west Connacht.

Continental Celtic

The Continental Celtic languages is a modern name for the Celtic languages, now all extinct, that originated and were spoken on the continent of Europe (as opposed to the Insular Celtic languages that originated in Britain and Ireland). The Continental Celtic languages were spoken by the people known to Roman and Greek writers as Keltoi, Celts, Gauls and Galatae. These languages were spoken from Iberia to the Balkans and in Asia Minor. However they have been superseded mainly by Germanic and Italic languages.

Continental Celtic languages

The Continental Celtic languages is a modern name for the Celtic languages, now all extinct, that originated and were spoken on the continent of Europe (as opposed to the Insular Celtic languages that originated in Britain and Ireland). The Continental Celtic languages were spoken by the people known to Roman and Greek writers as Keltoi, Celts, Gauls and Galatae. These languages were spoken from Iberia to the Balkans and in Asia Minor. However they have been superseded mainly by Germanic and Italic languages.

Continental Europe

Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands and, at times, peninsulas.^[1] Notably, in British English usage, the term means Europe excluding the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland and Iceland.