The Tarot of the Celtic Heart: How to Enhance Your Love and Relationships through the Tarot by Julian de Burgh.
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DESCRIPTION: Softcover: 180 pages. Publisher: Rider Books; (2002). Dimensions: 8¼ x 5¼ inches; ¾ pound. “The Tarot of the Celtic Heart” is an inspirational guide to love and relationships that marries the wisdom of the Celts and the intuition of the Tarot. Although often fabulous and fantastical, ancient Celtic tales provide great insights into the ways that people behave in relationships. The stories' universal themes remain relevant to us today and connect with the cards of the Tarot. With this book's guidance, you will discover how to use the Tarot and the corresponding Celtic myths to gain understanding about any given relationship, whether you are consulting the cards on behalf of yourself or another. This book uses the artwork of the Celtic Tarot, but it can also be used equally effectively alongside any other Tarot deck. Whatever cards you use, the commentaries, correspondences and special spreads in this book will help you to divine personality traits, emotions and who you are compatible with. Ultimately, you may even discover the means to make all your relationships more loving and successful.
CONDITION: NEW. New oversized softcover. Rider (2002) 180 pages. Unblemished except for VERY faint (almost imperceptible) shelf wear to the covers. Pages are pristine; clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread (though of course it may have been flipped through once or twice while in the bookstore). Condition is entirely consistent with new stock from a bookstore environment wherein new books might show minor signs of shelfwear, consequence of simply being shelved and re-shelved. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 30 days! #2097d.
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PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW.
PUBLISHER REVIEW:
REVIEW: Julian de Burgh has studied tarot and astrology for over twenty years, and founded Ireland’s first Tarot School in 1997 at the House of Astrology in Dublin, where he conducts full-time and part-time classes, and private readings. He writes astrology columns for the Daily Star and four monthly magazines, and appears regularly on Irish television and radio. Contents/Chapter Headings include: A History of the Tarot; Consulting the Tarot; The Cards of the Deck; How to Give a Reading; The Court Cards of the Celtic Heart (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles); The Minor Arcana; The Major Arcana; Simple Readings.
PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS:
REVIEW: The author has taken the wisdom of ancient Celtic tales and connected them with the cards of the Tarot to provide useful insights into the ways people behave in relationships.
REVIEW: What culture is more steeped in mystery, magic, passion and war, or can more vividly inspire us to use and understand the Tarot, than that of Ireland? There is probably no other culture in the world which stimulates as much interest as that of the Celtic people. By using tales from Celtic mythology we can gain greater depth and insight from Tarot readings, for by interpreting these stories into concrete terms our unconscious minds allow them to become powerful tools for profound inner change and growth. Use what you learn with sensitivity, follow the instructions and interpretations in the book with care, and the wisdom of the Tarot can be yours.
READER REVIEWS:
REVIEW: I got this book from a friend in the UK as a present and it is amazing. I always found it difficult to get a handle on what the Court Cards mean. In this book all of the Court Cards are broken down so you can see what they mean in all types of relationship situations. There is even a section on how to get rid of each of the Court Card type of people.
REVIEW: To the Celtic Pagan, or just plain Celtophile, this set is a treasure trove, and he's done a marvelous job of twining the legends around the Tarot archetypes, surprising me with the breadth of his knowledge of the legends. I feel this is an unusual and unique take on the Tarot, and a real original in the Celtic Tarot group.
REVIEW: The book has very good relationship meanings for all the cards, making it very easy to read. And since relationships are the focus of the majority of my readings, this feature is really useful. The celtic legends in the book are very cool. I have lots of Tarot books and this is one of the ones I use the most. I love the stories associated with the cards. I never realized that Celtic Mythology was so fascinating and could be used along side the Tarot is such a constructive way.
REVIEW: I just would like to say how much I have enjoyed this book. The style of book was easy to follow especially for someone just learning and developing an interest in Tarot. I'm sure any reader with an understanding of tarot would greatly appreciate this style of book. Julian de Burgh's interpretation of the Tarot is a story within itself. Each card is explained in detail, I especially enjoyed the history of each card following its Celtic beliefs. Even for a beginner I could see the meaning unfold in each card.
REVIEW: This is a beautiful book. Not only does Julian give you clear and simple guidance in how to learn and use the Tarot, but he also gives you a tale from Celtic Mythology associated with each card, which certainly gives you greater insight into the meaning of the cards. I loved Julian's step by step system and easy to learn method, which is something that most other authors fail to give. A great buy equally for the experienced or beginner.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:
ANCIENT CELT HISTORY: The Celts are a collection of Indo-European peoples identified by their use of the Celtic languages and other cultural similarities. The history of pre-Celtic Europe and the exact relationship between ethnic, linguistic and cultural factors in the Celtic world remains uncertain and controversial. The exact geographic spread of the ancient Celts is disputed. In particular, the ways in which the Iron Age inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland should be regarded as Celts is historically controversial.
According to one theory the common Proto-Celtic language root language arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe which flourished from around 1200 BC. According to another theory proposed in the 19th century the first people to adopt cultural characteristics regarded as Celtic were the people of the Iron Age Hallstatt culture in central Europe (circa 800–450 BC). The culture is so-named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria. It is thus that this area is sometimes called the "Celtic homeland".
The later La Tène period (about 450 BC to the Roman conquest) was named after the La Tène site in Switzerland. By this point in time Celtic culture had according to most historians expanded by trans-cultural diffusion or migration to the British Isles (Insular Celts), France and the Low Countries (Gauls), Bohemia, Poland and much of Central Europe, the Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians, Celtici, Lusitanians and Gallaeci) and northern Italy (Golasecca culture and Cisalpine Gauls). These migrations followed the Celtic settlement of Eastern Europe beginning in 279 BC, and reached as far east as central Anatolia (Galatians) in modern-day Turkey.
The earliest undisputed direct examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names. Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although they were clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century AD. Coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge ("Cattle Raid of Cooley") survive in 12th-century revised editions.
By the middle of the first millennium AD mid-1st millennium Celtic culture and Insular Celtic languages had become restricted to Ireland, the western and northern parts of Great Britain (Wales, Scotland, and Cornwall), the Isle of Man, and Brittany. This was due to the expansion of the Roman Empire and the migration of Germanic tribes. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. They had a common linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities.
However by the 6th century the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use. Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels (Irish, Scottish and Manx) and the Celtic Britons (Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons) of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, and other European territories, such as Portugal and Spanish Galicia. Today Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival.
The first recorded use of the name of Celts to refer to an ethnic group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC, He was describing a people living near Massilia (modern Marseille). In the 5th century BC the Greek Historian Herodotus (known as the “father of history”) referred to “Keltoi” living around the head of the Danube and also in the far west of Europe. The etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Some linguists suggest the origin is Greek and the meaning was "the tall ones". In the 1st century BC, Julius Caesar reported that the people known to the Romans as Gauls (“Galli” in Latin) called themselves Celts. This suggests that even if the name Keltoi was bestowed by the Greeks, it had been adopted to some extent as a collective name by the tribes of Gaul.
Writing about Gaul towards the end of the first century BC the Roman geographer Strabo refers to the "race which is now called both Gallic and Galatic". He uses the term Celtica as a synonym for Gaul, which is separated from Iberia by the Pyrenees. Yet he also reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani and Iberi. The 1st century AD Roman Historian Pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Galatai refer to the Celts in the region of Galatia in Anatolia.
Classical writers did not apply the terms Keltoi or Celtae to the inhabitants of Britain or Ireland, which has led to some scholars preferring not to use the term for the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands. Celt is a modern English word, first attested in 1707, in the writing of the Welsh antiquary and historian Edward Lhuyd. Along with that of other late 17th-century scholars Lhuyd’s work brought academic attention to the languages and history of the early Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain. The English terms for Gaul (first recorded in the 17th century) comes from the French Gaule and Gaulois, a borrowing from Frankish “Walholant” ("Roman land").
The Volcae were a Celtic tribe who lived first in the south of Germany and in central Europe and then migrated to Gaul. This means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region. Celtic refers to a family of languages and, more generally, means "of the Celts" or "in the style of the Celts". Several archaeological cultures are considered Celtic in nature, based on unique sets of artifacts. The link between language and artifact is aided by the presence of inscriptions.
The relatively modern idea of an identifiable Celtic cultural identity generally focuses on similarities among languages, works of art, and classical texts. Sometimes it may also include similarities among material artifacts, social organization, homeland and mythology. Earlier theories held that these similarities suggest a common racial origin for the various Celtic peoples. However more recent academic thought holds that they reflect a common cultural and language heritage more than a genetic one. Celtic cultures seem to have been widely diverse, with the use of a Celtic language being the main thing they had in common.
Today, the term “Celtic” generally refers to the languages and respective cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany. Collectively they are often referred to as the “Celtic Nations”. These are the regions where four Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent as mother tongues. The four are Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton;. There are also two recent revivals, Cornish (one of the Brittonic languages) and Manx (one of the Goidelic languages). There are also ongoing attempts to reconstruct Cumbric, a Brittonic language from North West England and South West Scotland.
Celtic regions of Continental Europe are those whose residents claim a 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). Continental Celts are the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe and Insular Celts are the Celtic-speaking peoples of the British and Irish islands and their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their language from migrating insular Celts, mainly from Wales and Cornwall, and so are grouped accordingly.
The Celtic languages form a branch of the larger Indo-European family. By the time speakers of Celtic languages entered history around 400 BC, they were already split into several language groups. They had also spread over much of Western continental Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, Ireland and Britain. Writing in the 4th century BC the Greek historian Ephorus of Cyme in Asia Minor believed that the Celts came from the islands off the mouth of the Rhine and were "driven from their homes by the frequency of wars and the violent rising of the sea".
Some scholars posit hat the Urnfield Culture of Western Middle Europe 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 about 1200-700BC. The Urnfield Culture was the successor to the Unetice and Tumulus cultures. The Urnfield period saw a dramatic increase in population in the region. The population increase was likely due to innovations in technology and agriculture.
During the period of 700-500BC the spread of iron-working led to the development of the Hallstatt Culture directly from the Urnfield. Scholars believe that in the early 1st millennium BC the Proto-Celtic language was spoken during late Urnfield and/or or early Hallstatt cultures. It was the latest common ancestor of all known Celtic languages. The spread of the Celtic languages to Iberia, Ireland and Britain would also have occurred during the first half of the 1st millennium BC. This corresponds to the earliest chariot burials in Britain which date to about 500 BC.
Other scholars however believe that Celtic languages were present in Britain, Ireland, and parts of the Continent, long before any evidence of "Celtic" culture is found in archaeology. They suggest that over the centuries Proto-Celtic developed into separate Celtiberian, Goidelic and Brittonic languages. The Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the La Tène Culture of central Europe. Eventually the La Tene Culture was overrun by the Roman Empire. Traces of La Tène style are still to be seen in Gallo-Roman artifacts. In Britain and Ireland La Tène style in art survived precariously to re-emerge in Insular art.
Early Irish literature casts light on the flavor and tradition of the heroic warrior elites who dominated Celtic societies. Celtic river-names are found in great numbers around the upper reaches of the Danube and Rhine. This led many early Celtic scholars before the to place the ethnogenesis of the Celts in this area. Ancient 1st century BC Greek Historians Diodorus Siculus and Strabo both suggest that the heartland of the people they called Celts 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 (in linguistic terms the Gauls were certainly Celts). In fact before discoveries at Hallstatt and La Tène it was widely believed by historians that the Celtic heartland was southern France.
20th century Irish historians Myles Dillon and Nora Kershaw Chadwick accepted that "the Celtic settlement of the British Isles" might have to be dated to the Bell Beaker Culture (2800-1800BC). They concluded that "there is no reason why so early a date for the coming of the Celts should be impossible". 20th century Spanish prehistorian Martín Almagro Gorbea proposed the origins of the Celts could be traced back to the 3rd millennium BC. This also envisioned Celtic roots in the Bell Beaker Period, thus suggesting the wide dispersion of the Celts throughout Western Europe. The concept also embraced wide variation of Celtic peoples, and the existence of ancestral traditions and ancient perspective.
Using a multidisciplinary approach later historians built on Gorbea's work to present a model for the origin of the Celtic archaeological groups in the Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberian, Vetton, Vaccean, and Castro cultures of the northwest, Asturian-Cantabrian and Celtic cultures of the southwest). This proposed a reconsideration of the meaning of "Celtic" from a European perspective.
More recent historians including the renown Barry Cunliffe have suggested that Celtic origins lie with the Atlantic Bronze Age. This would place it roughly contemporaneous with the Hallstatt culture but positioned considerably more westerly, extending along the Atlantic coast of Europe.
The only written evidence that locates the Keltoi near the source of the Danube (i.e. in the Hallstatt region) is in the “Histories of Herodotus”. However Herodotus (the 5th century BC Greek historian) seemed to believe the Danube rose near the Pyrenees, which would place the Ancient Celts in a region (Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula) which is more in agreement with later historians.
The Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the Late Bronze Age. The earliest records of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy). The oldest of those predate the La Tène period. Other early inscriptions from the early La Tène period in the area of Massilia are in Gaulish. The Gauls wrote utilizing the Greek alphabet until the Roman conquest. Using their own script Celtiberian inscriptions appear later, after about 200 BC. Evidence of Insular Celtic is available only from about 400 AD, in the form of Primitive Irish Ogham inscriptions. Besides epigraphical evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is toponymy (the study of place names).
Historically many scholars postulated that there was genetic evidence of a common origin of the European Atlantic populations i.e.: Orkney Islands, Scottish, Irish, British, Bretons, and Iberians (Basques, Galicians). More recent genetic evidence does not support the notion of a significant genetic link between these populations, beyond the fact that they are all West Eurasians. Sardinian-like Neolithic farmers did populate Britain (and all of Northern Europe) during the Neolithic period. However recent genetics research has indicated that between 2400BC and 2000BC over 90% of British DNA was overturned by a North European population.
A genetic study of Spanish Celts returned much the same results. In a March 2019 genetic study published in Science three Celtiberians buried at La Hoya, Salamanca between 400 BC and 195 BC were examined. They were found to possess heightened levels of north-central European ancestry compared to non-Celtic populations of Iberia. The ultimate origin of the Northern European DNA both in the British and Spanish Celts was the Russian Steppe. Evidently this was part of an ongoing migration process that brought large amounts of Steppe DNA to North and West Europe.
Modern autosomal genetic clustering is testament to this fact. Both modern and Iron Age British and Irish samples cluster genetically very closely with other North European populations. However the relationship is much more limited with Galicians, Basques or those from the south of France. Such findings have largely put to rest the theory that there is a significant ancestral genetic link (beyond being Europeans) between the various 'Celtic' peoples in the Atlantic area.
Before the 19th century the mainstream scholarship assumed that the original land of the Celts was west of the Rhine, more precisely in Gaul. This is due to the fact that it was where Greek and Roman ancient sources located the Celts (in particular, Julius Caesar). This view was challenged by some 19th century historians who placed the land of origin of the Celts east of the Rhine. This view was based on Herodotus' writings which placed the Celts at the source of the Danube. The argument was that Herodotus had meant to place the Celtic homeland in southern Germany. The finding of the prehistoric cemetery of Hallstat in 1846 and the finding of the archaeological site of La Tène in 1857 drew seemed to provide support to this perception.
By the end of the 19th century the perception that the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures could be seen not just as chronological periods but as "culture groups" had started to grow. Researchers realized that the two cultures were composed of people of the same ethnicity and language. At the beginning of the 20th century many historians believed that these "culture groups" could be thought of in racial or ethnic terms was strongly held. As the 20th century progressed, the racial ethnic interpretation of La Tène culture became much more strongly rooted. Any findings of La Tène culture and flat inhumation cemeteries were directly associated with the Celts and the Celtic language.
The Iron Age Hallstatt (800–475 BC) and La Tène (500–50 BC) cultures are typically associated with Proto-Celtic and Celtic culture. The expansion of the Celtic culture in the third century BC was considered a key aspect in the Central European Iron Age. However archaeological finds from the Halstatt and La Tène culture were rare in the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern France, northern and western Britain, southern Ireland and Galatia. Further those limited finds did not provide enough evidence for a cultural scenario comparable to that of Central Europe. It is considered difficult to postulate that the origin of the Peninsular Celts can be linked to the preceding Urnfield culture. A more recent approach introduces a 'proto-Celtic' substratum. A process of “Celticization” which has its initial roots in the Bronze Age Bell Beaker culture.
The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC) in eastern France, Switzerland, Austria, southwest Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. It developed out of the Hallstatt culture without any distinct cultural break, under the impetus of considerable Mediterranean influence from Greek and later Etruscan civilizations. A shift of settlement centers 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. For instance in the 5th century BC burial customs in the Celtic world were not uniform. Localized groups had their own beliefs, which, in consequence, also gave rise to distinct artistic expressions.
Thus while the La Tène culture is certainly associated with the Gauls, the presence of La Tène artifacts may be due to cultural contact and does not imply the permanent presence of Celtic speakers. Hellenic/Greek Historian Polybius (2nd century BC) published a history of Rome about 150 BC in which he describes “the Gauls of Italy” and their conflict with Rome. The 1st century BC Greek/Hellenic historian Posidonius described the southern Gauls about 100 BC. Though his original work is lost it was used by later writers such as the Roman Historian Strabo a century later.
The region of Celt habitation known as Celtica at time of the Roman conquest in 54 BC was soon renamed by the Romans as “Gallia Lugdunensis”. Julius Caesar wrote extensively about those Gallic Wars in 58–51 BC. The Spartan General/Chronicler Pausanias in the 2nd century AD stated that the Gauls "originally called Celts…live on the remotest region of Europe on the coast of an enormous tidal sea". Writing in the early 1st century AD the Roman Historian Strabo wrote extensively or the Celt inhabitants of Britain and Gaul as well as Hispania, Italy and Galatia. Ancient Greek Historian Diodorus Siculus also provides written descriptions of the Celts of Gaul and Britain in his 1st century history.
The Romans knew the Celts then living in present-day France as Gauls. The territory of these peoples probably included the Low Countries, the Alps and present-day northern Italy. Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars described the 1st century BC descendants of those Gauls. Eastern Gaul became the centre of the western La Tène culture. In later Iron Age Gaul, the social organization resembled that of the Romans, with large towns. From the 3rd century BC the Gauls adopted coinage. Texts with Greek characters from southern Gaul have survived from the 2nd century BC.
Greek traders founded Massalia about 600 BC, with some objects (mostly drinking ceramics) being traded up the Rhone valley. But trade became disrupted soon after 500 BC and re-oriented over the Alps to the Po valley in the Italian peninsula. The Romans arrived in the Rhone valley in the 2nd century BC and encountered a mostly Celtic-speaking Gaul. Rome wanted 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 developed along the Mediterranean coast. The Romans knew the remainder of Gaul as Gallia Comata ("Hairy Gaul").
In 58 BC the Helvetii planned to migrate westward but Julius Caesar forced them back. He then became involved in fighting the various tribes in Gaul. By 55 BC Caesar had overrun most of Gaul. 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, Caesar's Celtica formed the main part of Roman Gaul. It was transformed into the province of Gallia Lugdunensis. This territory of the Celtic tribes was bounded on the south by the Garonne and on the north by the Seine and the Marne. The Romans attached large swathes of this region to neighboring provinces Belgica and Aquitania, particularly under Augustus, Julius Caesar’s successor.
The analysis of place and personal names and inscriptions suggest that the Gaulish Celtic language was spoken over most of what is now France. Until the end of the 19th century traditional scholarship dealing with the Celts did acknowledge their presence in the Iberian Peninsula as a material culture related to the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. However according to the 19th century definition of the Iron Age Celtic populations were supposedly rare in Iberia. The presumed cultural scenario was not linked to that of Central Europe. The presence of Celtic culture in that region was generally not fully recognized.
Modern scholarship however has clearly established that Celtic presence and influences were most substantial in what is today Spain and Portugal, particularly in the central, western and northern regions. Evidence suggests that it is quite possible that the region had the highest settlement saturation in Western Europe. In addition to Gauls infiltrating from the north of the Pyrenees, the Roman and Greek sources mention Celtic populations in three parts of the Iberian Peninsula. This includes the eastern part of the Meseta (inhabited by the Celtiberians), the southwest (Celtici, in modern-day Alentejo) and the northwest (Gallaecia and Asturias).
Contemporary scholarly analysis finds several archaeological groups of Celts in Spain. There were Celtiberian groups in the Upper-Douro Upper-Tagus Upper-Jalón area. Archaeological data suggest a continuity at least from the 6th century BC. In this early period the Celtiberians inhabited in hill-forts (Castros). Around the end of the 3rd century BC Celtiberians adopted more urban ways of life. From the 2nd century BC they minted coins and wrote inscriptions using the Celtiberian script. These inscriptions make the Celtiberian Language the only Hispano-Celtic language classified as Celtic with unanimous academic agreement.
In the late period before the Roman Conquest both archaeological evidence and Roman sources suggest that the Celtiberians were expanding into different sreas in the Peninsula (e.g. Celtic Baeturia). The Vetton group expanded into western Meseta between the Tormes, Douro and Tagus Rivers. They were characterized by the production of Verracos, sculptures of bulls and pigs carved in granite. The Vaccean group expanded into the central Douro valley. They were mentioned by Roman sources as already occupying the region in 220 BC. Some of their funerary rituals suggest strong influences from their Celtiberian neighbors.
The Castro Culture expanded in northwestern Iberia, modern day Galicia and Northern Portugal. From the late Bronze Age onward it had a high degree of continuity. This makes it difficult to support the proposition that the introduction of Celtic elements from the nucleus area of Celtiberia was due to the same process of Celticization of the western Iberia. Two typical elements include sauna baths with monumental entrances. Secondly the "Gallaecian Warriors", stone sculptures built in the 1st century AD. A large group of Latin inscriptions contain linguistic features that are clearly Celtic, while others are similar to those found in the non-Celtic Lusitanian language.
The areas inhabited by the Astures and the Cantabri area was “Romanized” late as the area was not conquered by Rome until the Cantabrian Wars of 29–19 BC. The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to understanding the Celticization process in the rest of the Peninsula. An example might be the Celts in the southwest in the area Strabo called Celtica. The process of Celticization of the southwestern area of the peninsula by the Keltoi and of the northwestern area is a complex Celtiberian issue.
Recent investigations about the Callaici and Bracari in northwestern Portugal are providing new approaches to understanding Celtic culture (language, art and religion) in western Iberia. Research by the Welch Aberystwyth University suggested that Tartessian inscriptions of the 8th century BC might be classified as Celtic. This would mean that Tartessian is the earliest attested trace of Celtic by a margin of more than a century.
The Canegrate culture represented the first migratory wave of the proto-Celtic Population. Through the alpine passes from the northwest part of the Alps into the western Po valley between Lake Maggiore and Lake Como previously settled by the Scamozzina culture. It has also been proposed that a more ancient proto-Celtic presence can be traced back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. This period was when Northwestwern Italy was closely linked to the western groups of the Tumulus culture with respect to the production of bronze artifacts, including ornamentation. La Tène cultural material appeared over a large area of mainland Italy. The southernmost example would be the Celtic helmet from Canosa di Puglia.
Italy is home to Lepontic, the oldest attested Celtic language. From the 6th century BC Lepontic was spoken in ancient Switzerland and in Northern-Central Italy, from the Alps to Umbria. More than 760 Gaulish inscriptions have been found throughout present-day France and Italy (with the notable exception of Aquitaine). The sheer number of finds speaks volumes as to the importance of Celtic heritage in the peninsula.
According to 1st century BC Hellenic Historian Diodorus Siculus 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 Apennine mountains and the Alps". The area was known to the Romans as Cisalpine Gaul). The Roman army was routed at the battle of Allia and Rome was sacked in 390 BC by the Senones. The Po Valley and the rest of northern Italy came to be inhabited by Celtic-speakers who founded cities such as Milan. However a century and a half later 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. However it was not until 192 BC that the Roman armies conquered the last remaining independent Celtic kingdoms in Italy. The Celts also expanded down the Danube River and its tributaries. The Scordisci who were one of the most influential tribes had established their capital at Singidunum in the 3rd century BC. The site of Singidunum corresponds to 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.
The Serdi were a Celtic tribe inhabiting Thrace. They founded Serdika which is now Sofia in Bulgaria. There is no evidence for their existence in the area before the 1st century BC. However by that time they were well-established. Initially they would have established themselves in this area during the Celtic migrations at the end of the 4th century BC. Serdi are among traditional tribal names reported into the Roman era. They were gradually “Thracianized” over the centuries, however they retained their Celtic character in material culture well beyond the Roman era.
According to some sources they may have been simply of Thracian origin. According to others they may have become of mixed Thraco-Celtic origin. Further south Celts settled in Thrace (Bulgaria) which they ruled for over a century. They also ruled Anatolia where they settled as the Galatians. Despite their geographical isolation from the rest of the Celtic world the Galatians maintained their Celtic language for at least 700 years. In 373 AD St. Jerome visited Ancyra (modern-day Ankara) and likened their language to that of the Treveri of northern Gaul.
Galatia in central Turkey was an area of dense Celtic settlement. The Boii tribe gave their name to Bohemia, Bologna and possibly Bavaria. Celtic artifacts and cemeteries have even recently been discovered further east in what is now Poland and Slovakia. A Celtic coin (Biatec) from Bratislava's mint was displayed on the old Slovak 5-crown coin. There is no archaeological evidence for large-scale invasions in these areas. Current research suggests that Celtic language and culture spread to those areas by contact rather than invasion. However,the Celtic invasions of Italy and the expeditions into Greece and western Anatolia are well documented in Greek and Latin history. There are also records of Celtic mercenaries in Egypt serving the Ptolemies. Thousands were employed in 283–246 BC and again around 186 BC in an attempt to overthrow Ptolemy II.
All Celtic languages extant today belong to the Insular Celtic languages, derived from the Celtic languages spoken in Iron Age Britain and Ireland. They were separated into a Goidelic and a Brythonic branch from an early period. Linguists have been arguing for many years whether a Celtic language came to Britain and Ireland and then split or whether there were two separate linguistic "invasions". The earlier view held by most pre-historians was that the Celtic influence in the British Isles was the result of successive invasions from the European continent by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over the course of several centuries. However recent research has challenged the traditional view hypothesizing that the Celtic languages of the British Isles evolved to form the Insular Celtic dialect group.
Scholars of the 19th and 20th centuries commonly dated the "arrival" of Celtic culture in Britain (via an invasion model) to the 6th century BC. This corresponded to archaeological evidence of Hallstatt influence and the appearance of chariot burials in what is now England. Some Iron Age migration does seem to have occurred but the nature of the interactions with the indigenous populations of the isles is unknown. According to this model, by about the 6th century (Sub-Roman Britain), most of the inhabitants of the Isles were speaking Celtic languages. Since the late 20th century a new model has emerged supported both by archaeologists as well as Celtic historians.
They propose that the evidence suggests the emergence of Celtic culture in Britain much earlier, in the Bronze Age. They posit the spread of Celtic culture to a gradual emergence in situ out of Proto-Indo-European culture rather than by invasion. They suggest the culture was introduced to the region by the Bell Beaker People. That this was enabled by an extensive network of contacts that existed between the peoples of Britain and Ireland and those of the Atlantic seaboard.
Classical writers did not apply the terms “Keltoi” or "Celtae" to the inhabitants of Britain or Ireland. This naturally gives rise to the scholarly question as to the accuracy of the term “Celt” to describe the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands. The first historical account of the islands of Britain and Ireland was by Pytheas. Pytheas was a Greek from the city of Massalia. Somewhere around 310–306 BC Pytheas sailed around what he called the "Pretannikai Nesoi", which can be translated as the "Pretannic Isles". Most classical writers referred to the inhabitants of Britain as “Pretannoi” or “Britanni”. Writing in the Roman era the 1st century Greek/Hellenic Historian Strabo clearly distinguished between the Celts and Britons.
Under Julius Caesar the Romans conquered Celtic Gaul. From Claudius onward the Roman empire absorbed parts of Britain. Roman local government of these regions closely mirrored pre-Roman tribal boundaries. Archaeological finds suggest native involvement in local government. The native peoples under Roman rule became Romanized and were motivated to adopt Roman ways. Celtic art had already incorporated classical influences. 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. In the case of the continental Celts, this eventually resulted in a language shift to Vulgar Latin, while the Insular Celts retained their language. There was also considerable cultural influence exerted by Gaul on Rome. This was particularly true with respect to military matters and horsemanship. Gauls often served in the Roman cavalry. The Romans adopted the Celtic cavalry sword, the spatha, and Epona, the Celtic horse goddess.
To the extent that sources are available they depict a pre-Christian Iron Age Celtic social structure based formally on class and kingship. However this may only have been a particular late phase of organization in Celtic societies. Patron-client relationships similar to those of Roman society are also described by Caesar and others in the Gaul of the 1st century BC. The preponderance of evidences suggests that tribes were led by kings. It can be argued however that there is also evidence of oligarchical republican forms of government eventually emerging in areas which had close contact with Rome.
Most descriptions of Celtic societies portray them as being divided into three groups. First was a warrior aristocracy. Second an intellectual class including professions such as druid, poet, and jurist. Third was everyone else. In later times recorded in historical accounts the offices of high and low kings in Ireland and Scotland were filled by election under the system of tanistry. This system eventually came into conflict with the feudal principle of primogeniture in which succession goes to the first-born son.
Little is known of family structure among the Celts. Patterns of settlement varied from decentralized to urban. The popular stereotype is of non-urbanized societies settled in hillforts and duns. This impression arises from Britain and Ireland where there are about 3,000 known hill forts. However this stereotype contrasts with the fortified urban settlements (oppida) present in the core Hallstatt and La Tène areas, particularly in Gaul 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. Slaves were acquired from war, raids, and penal and debt servitude. Slavery was hereditary, though manumission was possible. The Old Irish and Welsh words for 'slave' are derived from the Latin “captus” (“captive”). This suggests that the slave trade was the focus of early contact between Latin and Celtic societies. In the Middle Ages slavery was especially prevalent in the Celtic countries. Manumissions were discouraged by law and the word for "female slave", “cumal” , was used as term to describe a general unit of value in Ireland.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the pre-Roman Celtic societies were linked to the network of overland trade routes that spanned Eurasia. Archaeologists have discovered large prehistoric trackways crossing bogs in Ireland and Germany. Due to their substantial construction these are believed to have been created for wheeled transport as part of an extensive roadway system that facilitated trade. The territory held by the Celts contained tin, lead, iron, silver and gold. 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 to some degree false. The monetary system was complex and is still not fully understood (much like the late Roman coinages). Due to the absence of large numbers of coin items, it is assumed that "proto-money" was used. This included bronze items made from the early La Tène period and onwards. The “proto-money” was often in the shape of axeheads, rings, or 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.
Prior to the Roman conquest low-value coinages were minted in most Celtic areas of the continent and in South-East Britain. These coins were composed of potin, a bronze alloy with high tin content,. Higher-value coinages suitable for use in trade were minted in gold, silver, and high-quality bronze. Despite being worth substantially more gold coinage was much more common than silver coinage. Silver was more rarely mined than gold despite the fact that were around 100 mines in Southern Britain and Central France.
This was due partly to the relative sparseness of the mines and the amount of effort needed for extraction compared to the profit gained. As the Roman civilization expanded and trade with the Celtic world grew, silver and bronze coinage became more common. This coincided with a major increase in gold production in Celtic areas to meet the Roman demand. The Romans placed a very high on the metal. The large number of gold mines in France is thought to be a major reason why Julius 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. An Early Medieval alphabet known as the Ogham script was mostly used in early Christian times in Ireland. Also used in Wales and England) the script was only used for ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions on gravestones. Though eventually recorded by monasteries, evidence suggests a strong oral tradition such as that preserved by bards in Ireland.
Celtic art also produced a great deal of intricate and beautiful metalwork. Many examples have been preserved by their distinctive burial rites. In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative. They still used chariots in combat long after they had been reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans. Despite being outdated however Celtic chariot tactics were able to repel the invasion of Britain attempted by Julius Caesar. According to the 1st century B.C. Greek Historian 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 color 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.
During the later Iron Age the Gauls generally wore long-sleeved shirts or tunics and long trousers (called braccae by the Romans). Clothes were made of wool or linen, with some silk being used by the rich. Cloaks were worn in the winter. Brooches and armlets were sometimes worn. However the most famous item of jewelry was the torc, a neck collar of metal, sometimes gold. The horned Waterloo Helmet in the British Museum long set the standard for modern images of Celtic warriors. However it is a unique survival, and may have been a piece for ceremonial rather than military wear.
Very few reliable sources exist regarding Celtic views on gender divisions and societal status. Some archaeological evidence does suggest that their views of gender roles may differ from contemporary and less egalitarian classical counterparts of the Roman era. There are some general indications 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 La Tène period. However the evidence is far from conclusive.
Examples of individuals buried with both female jewelry and weaponry have been identified such as the Vix Grave. However there are questions about the gender of some skeletons that were buried with warrior assemblages. Some historians have suggested that the weapons many Celts were buried with maybe an indication of rank and not necessarily restricted then to male warriors. Among the insular Celts there is a greater amount of historic documentation to suggest warrior roles for women.
In addition to commentary by 1st century AD Roman Historian Tacitus (considered by most contemporary scholars to be the greatest Roman historian) about Boudica there are indications from later period histories that also suggest a more substantial role for "women as warriors". Posidonius (the 1st century BC Greek/Hellenic historian) and Strabo (the 1st century BC Roman geographer) described an island of women where men could not venture for fear of death and where the women ripped each other apart. Other writers such as Tacitus and the 4th century AD Roman Soldier/Historian Ammianus Marcellinus described Celtic women inciting, participating in, and leading battles. Posidonius' anthropological comments on the Celts had common themes. These cultural attributes included primitivism, extreme ferocity, cruel sacrificial practices, and the strength and courage of their women.
Under Brehon Law a woman had the right to divorce her husband and gain his property if he was unable to perform his marital duties due to impotence, obesity, homosexual inclination or preference for other women. These laws were recorded in writing in early Medieval Ireland after the conversion to Christianity. Classical literature records the views of the Celts' neighbors. Of course historians are not certain how much relation to reality these observations may have had. According to Aristotle most "belligerent nations" were strongly influenced by their women. However he claimed that the Celts were unusual because their men openly preferred male lovers.
Contemporary historians note that other ancient chroniclers (including the 2nd century Greek Athenaeus and 4th century Roman Ammianus) recorded the same impressions. It seems in antiquity this was the general opinion of peoples neighboring the Celts. In book XIII of his “Deipnosophists” Athenaeus repeated assertions made by the 1st century BC Greek Historian Diodorus Siculus. In his Bibliotheca Historica (5:32) Siculus wrote that Celtic women were beautiful but that the men preferred to sleep together. Diodorus went further, stating that "the young men will offer themselves to strangers and are insulted if the offer is refused". Modern historians believe that these “accounts” are echoes of the writings of the 2nd century BC Greek Historian Posidonius. That the “accounts” are most likely of male "bonding rituals".
The sexual freedom of women in Britain was noted by 2nd Century AD Roman Historian Cassius Dio: “... a very witty remark is reported to have been made by the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to the Roman Empress 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 fill 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. There are instances recorded where women participated both in warfare and in kingship, although they were in the minority in these areas. Plutarch reports that Celtic women acted as ambassadors to avoid a war among Celts chiefdoms in the Po valley during the 4th century BC.
Celtic art is generally used by art historians to refer to art of the La Tène period across Europe. The Early Medieval art of Britain and Ireland is referred to as “Insular” art in art history. The term Celtic art when used by the general public usually refers to the latter, Insular art. Both styles absorbed considerable influences from non-Celtic sources. Both retained a preference for geometrical decoration over figurative subjects. However when figurative subjects are depicted they are often extremely stylized when. Narrative scenes in Celtic art only appear under outside influence.
Energetic circular forms, triskeles and spirals are quite characteristic. Much of the surviving material is in precious metal, which no doubt gives a very unrepresentative picture. However apart from Pictish stones and the Insular high crosses, large monumental sculpture is very rare. Possibly it was originally common in wood, even with decorative carving, but only survived in stone. Celts were also able to create developed musical instruments such as the carnyces. These famous war trumpets were used before battle to frighten the enemy. The best preserved archaeological specimens were found in Tintignac (Gaul) in 2004. They were decorated with a boar head or a snake head.
The interlace patterns that are often regarded as typical of "Celtic art" were characteristic of the whole of the British Isles. The style is referred to as Hiberno-Saxon art. This artistic style incorporated elements of La Tène, Late Roman, and, most importantly, animal Style II of Germanic Migration Period art. The style was taken up with great skill and enthusiasm by Celtic artists in metalwork and illuminated manuscripts. The forms used for the finest Insular art were all adopted from the Roman world.
Gospel books like the Book of Kells and Book of Lindisfarne, chalices like the Ardagh Chalice and Derrynaflan Chalice, and penannular brooches like the Tara Brooch, are all works from the period of peak achievement of Insular art. The period lasted from the 7th to the 9th centuries, prior to the Viking attacks which so sharply set back cultural life. In contrast the less well known but often spectacular art of the richest earlier Continental Celts often adopted elements of Roman, Greek and other "foreign" styles. This time frame was prior to the Roman conquest, and the Celts may have used imported craftsmen to decorate objects that were distinctively Celtic.
Some Celtic elements remained in popular art after the Roman conquests. This was especially true with Ancient Roman pottery, of which Gaul was actually the largest producer. Most of that produced was in Italian styles. However work was also produced to local Celtic tastes. This included figurines of deities and wares painted with animals and other subjects in highly formalized styles. Roman Britain also took more interest in enamel than most of the Empire. The development of champlevé technique was probably important to the later Medieval art of the whole of Europe. The energy and freedom of Insular decoration was an important element therein.
Tribal warfare appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. Epic literature depicts this warfare as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organized territorial conquest. However the historical record is more along the lines of tribes using warfare to exert political control and harass rivals, for economic advantage, and in some instances to conquer territory. The Celts were described by classical writers such as Strabo (1st century BC Roman geographer), Livy (1st century AD Roman historian), Pausanias (2nd century AD Spartan General/Chronicler), and Florus (2nd century A.D. poet and historian) as fighting like "wild beasts", and as hordes.
The 1st century BC Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus said of the Celts 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 armor and all…”
Such descriptions have been challenged by contemporary historians. Polybius (the 2nd century BC Hellenic/Greek Historian) 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 (the 1st century AD Greek philosopher/historian) as frequently having to cease fighting in order to straighten their sword blades. This claim has been questioned by some archaeologists. They note that steel produced in Celtic Noricum (“Noric steel”) was famous in the Roman Empire period and was used to equip the Roman military.
However recent metallurgical analytic investigations provide some evidence supporting Polybius to a limited degree. Around one third of surviving swords from the period might well have behaved as he describes. Polybius also asserts that certain of the Celts 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..." According to Livy (the 1st century A.D. Roman historian) this was also true of the Celts of Asia.
Celts also had a reputation as head hunters. According to one early 20th century Celtic historian, "…Amongst the Celts the human head was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, center of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world…” Arguments for a Celtic cult of the severed head include the many sculptured representations of severed heads in La Tène carvings. The arguments are also bolstered by the surviving Celtic mythology. Celtic mythology is full of stories of the severed heads of heroes and the saints who carry their own severed heads. These myths even include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In that tale 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.
Physical evidence exists for the ritual importance of the severed head at the religious center at Roquepertuse (southern France). This center was destroyed by the Romans in 124 BC. However recent archaeological finds include stone pillars with prominent niches for displaying severed heads. A further example of this regeneration after beheading lies in the tales of Connemara's St. Feichin. After being beheaded by Viking pirates he carried his head to the Holy Well on Omey Island. Upon dipping the head into the well he placed it back upon his neck and was restored to full health.
In his 1st-century “History” Diodorus Siculus related pertaining to 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…”
Like other European Iron Age tribal societies the Celts practiced a polytheistic religion. Many Celtic gods are known from texts and inscriptions from the Roman period. Rites and sacrifices were carried out by priests known as Druids. The Celts did not see their gods as having human shapes 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. Nonetheless some common deities and worship rituals appeared over a wide geographical and temporal range. The Celts worshipped both gods and goddesses.
In general Celtic gods were deities of particular skills. Examples would include the many-skilled Lugh and Dagda. Goddesses were associated with natural features, particularly rivers. Examples of these would include Boann, goddess of the River Boyne. This was not universal. For example 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.
Triplicity is a common theme in Celtic cosmology, and a number of deities were seen as threefold. This trait is exhibited by The Three Mothers, a group of goddesses worshipped by many Celtic tribes (with some regional variations). The Celts had hundreds of deities. Some were unknown outside a single family or tribe. Others were popular enough to have a following that crossed lingual and cultural barriers. The Irish god Lugh is a good example. Lugh was associated with storms, lightning, and culture. He was seen in similar forms as Lugos in Gaul and Lleu in Wales. Similar patterns are also seen with the continental Celtic horse goddess Epona. Her likely Irish and Welsh counterparts were Macha and Rhiannon (respectively).
Roman reports of the Druids mention ceremonies being held in sacred groves. La Tène Celts built temples of varying size and shape. They also maintained shrines at sacred trees and votive pools. Druids fulfilled a variety of roles in Celtic religion. Of course they served as priests and religious officiants. But they also served as judges, sacrificers, teachers, and lore-keepers. Druids organized and ran religious ceremonies. They memorized and taught the calendar. Other classes of Druids performed ceremonial sacrifices of crops and animals on behalf of and to the perceived benefit of the community.
The Coligny Calendar was found in 1897 in Coligny, Ain. It was engraved on a bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments. In antiquity the original dimensions were 4 feet 10 inches wide and 2 feet 11 inches high. Based on the style of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the 2nd century AD. It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals and is in the Gallic language. The restored tablet contains 16 vertical columns, with 62 months distributed over 5 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.
The Roman invasion of Gaul brought a great deal of Celtic peoples into the Roman Empire. Roman culture had a profound effect on the Celtic tribes which came under the empire's control. Roman influence led to many changes in Celtic religion. The most noticeable was the weakening of the role of the Druid class, especially their religious roles. The druids were to eventually disappear altogether. Romano-Celtic deities also began to appear. These deities often had both Roman and Celtic attributes. They often combined the names of Roman and Celtic deities and/or included couples with one Roman and one Celtic deity.
Other changes included the adaptation of the Jupiter Column. This was a sacred column set up in many Celtic regions of the empire, primarily in northern and eastern Gaul. Another major change in religious practice was the use of stone monuments to represent gods and goddesses. Previous to the Roman conquest the Celts had only created wooden idols. These included monuments carved into trees, which were known as sacred poles. Celtic regions under Roman rule adopted Christianity along with the rest of the Roman Empire. Unconquered areas of Ireland and Scotland began to move from Celtic polytheism to Christianity in the 5th century.
Ireland was converted by missionaries from Britain, such as Saint Patrick. Later missionaries from Ireland were a major force in Scotland, Anglo-Saxon parts of Britain, and central Europe. The form of Celtic Christianity that took hold in Britain and Ireland for some centuries had only limited and intermittent contact with Rome, Continental, and Coptic. Some elements of Celtic Christianity developed features that made them distinct from the rest of Western Christianity, Most famous of these is their conservative method of calculating the date of Easter. In 664 the Synod of Whitby began to resolve these differences. They achieved this by adopting the current Roman practices, which the Gregorian Mission from Rome had introduced to Anglo-Saxon England [Wikipedia].
THE ANCIENT CELTS: The ancient Celts were various population groups living in several parts of Europe north of the Mediterranean region from the Late Bronze Age onwards. Given the name Celt by ancient writers, these tribes often migrated and so eventually occupied territories from Portugal to Turkey. Although diverse tribes the ancient Celts spoke the same language and maintained the same artistic tradition which is characterised by the use of idiosyncratic flowing lines and forms. Celtic languages are still spoken today in parts of the British Isles and northern France.
Ancient writers gave the name Celts to various population groups living across central Europe inland from the Mediterranean coastal areas. Most scholars agree that the Celtic culture first appeared in the Late Bronze Age in the area of the upper Danube sometime around the 13th century B.C. These early Celts were known as the ‘Urnfield people’ and they probably spoke a proto-Celtic language. By the 8th century B.C., iron had replaced bronze-working and the cultural group is then referred to by scholars as the ‘Hallstatt culture’. Spain saw a similar development with tribes using iron weapons. The Hallstatt culture declined by the 5th century B.C., perhaps due to internal political tensions and economic difficulties. The next phase of Celtic development was carried out by a group known as the La Tène culture.
The migration of various Celtic tribes in order to flee wars meant that eventually they occupied Territory from the Iberian peninsula to Turkey. The prosperity of the La Tène culture in ancient France, Spain and wider central Europe meant that they were able to challenge the contemporary Mediterranean cultures and so they appear for the first time in Classical history. From then on these peoples were widely referred to as Celts. In antiquity writers did not describe tribes in ancient Britain and Ireland as Celts, although they have acquired that label in modern times and some Celtic languages or their derivatives are still spoken there, as a form of Celtic still is in the Brittany region of northern France. The religion of the Celts, led by a priesthood known as the Druids, is described by ancient writers with some disdain as crude and violent.
The migration of various Celtic tribes in order to flee wars – they were famously attacked in Gaul by Julius Caesar in the 1st century B.C. and by the Germanic tribes - and find new prospects meant that eventually the territory occupied by them ranged from Galicia (the Iberian peninsula) to Romania. Many Celtic tribes spread eastwards, for example, traversing Macedonia in 280 B.C. and crossing the Hellespont in 278 B.C. into Asia Minor. The Galatians, as they were now called, colonised areas of central Asia Minor which brought them into direct conflict with both the Hellenistic kingdoms and Rome.
Celtic armies first came to the attention of historians when the Gauls, led by their king Bran (Brennus), sacked Rome in 390 B.C., and again in 279 B.C. when they looted Delphi as they passed through Greece on their way to Asia. The Celts attacked the Romans again in 225 B.C. and were frequent mercenary allies of Carthage during the Punic Wars. The Celts thus gained a reputation with Latin and Greek writers for being fierce warriors and skilled horsemen who also fielded chariots in battle. Julius Caesar faced them when he invaded Gaul. They were light, pulled by two horses, and had an open front and back with double hoops at the sides. Containing two men they were used to attack enemy cavalry first by throwing javelins and then one man dismounted to fight on foot while the rider drove the chariot to a safe distance to await a retreat if necessary. Caesar describes them as driven with great skill and so were a highly maneuverable weapon of disruption and attack.
Celtic warriors were known for their long hair and imposing physique. They are depicted in Greek art with their distinctive long shields (wooden panels covered in decorated hide) and long swords. Such was the respect for Celtic warriors that Hellenistic kings who defeated Galatian armies were given the title of soter, meaning ‘savior’. Although Galatian armies were almost always defeated by their more disciplined and better-equipped enemies in single battles, once conquered, they did fight successfully as mercenaries in many Hellenistic and Roman armies.
The Celtic language is a branch of the Indo-European language family. Scholars have divided Celtic languages into two groups: Insular Celtic and Continental Celtic. The latter group was no longer widely spoken after the Roman imperial period, and the only surviving examples of it are mentions in the works of Greek and Roman writers and some epigraphic remains such as pottery graffiti and votive and funerary stelae. The best documented of this group is Gaulish.
The Insular Celtic group of languages are two: British or Brittonic (Breton, Cornish, and Welsh) and Goidelic (Irish and its medieval derivatives, Scots Gaelic and Manx). Brittonic was spoken in all of Britain in the Roman period. From it evolved Cumbrian (extinct since medieval times), Cornish (no longer spoken after the 18th century A.D. but recently revived), Breton (likely introduced by 5th-century CE British settlers and not connected directly to Gaulish), and Welsh, which is still spoken today. The earliest evidence of Goidelic-Irish dates to the 5th century A.D., and it later evolved into Middle Irish (circa 950 – 1200 A.D.) and, thereafter, morphed again into Modern Irish, which is still spoken today. [Ancient History Encyclopedia].
THE ANCIENT CELTS: Most of us are unaware that Celts once dominated the breadth of Europe from the Black Sea to the Atlantic—and for a long time. An early form of Welsh was spoken in Britain 1,500 years before Old English took root. The Celtic languages still spoken in Europe hark back to the Late Bronze Age (1200-800 B.C.) and a civilization of aristocratic warrior tribes. The word "Celtic" comes from the Greek Keltoi, first appearing in the sixth century B.C. to describe "barbarians" living inland from the Mediterranean Sea. Little suggests these people united or called themselves Celts.
Yet there is no denying that these far-flung peoples spoke closely related languages and shared beliefs, styles of art and weaponry, and tribal societies. Trade, principally by water, connected them. Calling them Celts makes sense, if only to separate them from what they weren't: Roman or Greek. All this categorizing might easily have become an arid academic debate about a lost people. Beginning in the second century B.C. Roman legions vanquished Celtic armies across Europe. Only the peoples of northern Britain and Ireland remained unconquered.
In the fifth century A.D. the Anglo-Saxons invaded Celtic lands, followed by the Vikings, storming the coasts in their long warships, the Normans, who attacked from France, and finally the colonizing armies of the English and French crowns. From these wars of resistance came many Celtic heroes and martyrs such as the legendary King Arthur, the Irish High King Brian Boru, and Scotland's William Wallace, known as Braveheart. By the end of the Middle Ages, Celtic culture was headed toward extinction, its remnants pushed to the very western edge of Europe. "No one else wanted to live where the Celts did," a Breton man said. "Those places were poor and remote, and no one spoke their languages."
Being ostracized to no-man's-land did not spare the Celts from further depredations. The English and French banned or restricted their languages, their instruments and music, their names, their right to own property, and in the case of the kilt-wearing Scottish Highland clans, even their clothing. It's a bit miraculous Celtic civilization survived in any form. By clinging to the fringes, geographically and culturally, Celts refused to vanish. Now, in one of those delectable backward flips of history, Celts and all things Celtic suddenly seem omnipresent. "Europe's beautiful losers," as one British writer called them, are commanding attention as one of the new century's seductive identities: free-spirited, rebellious, poetic, nature-worshipping, magical, self-sufficient. [National Geographic].
ANCIENT CELTIC HISTORY: The Celts were known in the ancient world (as they are today) for their stylized and fantastic plant and animal forms, as well as strong, geometrical, intertwining patterns. Celtic artwork decorated the surfaces of household and ritual vessels, weapons, and body ornaments (jewelry). The principal materials used in the surviving pieces of metalwork, most numerous of the remains, are gold and bronze. Though largely absorbed by the Roman Empire, Celtic art work, especially jewelry, was highly prized both in the Hellenic as well as the Roman world. The Celts were a group of peoples that occupied lands stretching from the British Isles to biblical Galatia in Asia Minor. Though the Celts left no written history of their own, though it is believed they originated in Southern Russia and by around 2,000 B.C. had reached the British Isles.
The Celts were a loosely confederated group of tribes speaking Indo-European dialects. Armed with iron weapons and mounted on horses, they spread rapidly over Europe, fought the Macedonians, and penetrated into Asia Minor, where they raided Hellenistic centers. The Celts lived in semi-fortified villages, with a tribal organization that became increasingly hierarchical as wealth was acquired. Priests, nobles, artisans, and peasants were clearly distinguished, and the powers of the chief became kinglike. The Celts believed in a demonic universe and relied on the ministry of the priests known as druids. Much Western European folklore is derived from the Celts.
History’s first written account of the Celts comes from northern Italy around 400 B.C. The nascent Roman Empire records an encounter between their neighbors, the Etruscans, and a previously unknown group of “barbarians”. These peoples had come down from the Alps and displaced the Etruscans from the fertile Po valley. The Romans sent envoys both to the besieged Etruscans as well as to (study and negotiate with) the Celts. The people who made up these various tribes were called “Galli” (Gaullic) by the Romans and “Keltoi” (Celtic) by the Greeks. The Romans eventually betrayed their diplomatic overtures, and the enraged Celts sacked Rome in 390 B.C. and ransomed the city for 1,000 pounds of gold – a humiliating defeat for the early Roman Empire.
Traditional Western (Graeco-Roman) History emphasizes the evolution of Europe from classical Roman and Greek culture. In reality, Europe throughout most of recorded history was dominated by the powerful and culturally diverse Celts. Through the period of classical Greece to first few centuries A.D, most of Europe was under the shadow of the Celts whom still represented a fairly unified culture. From this great culture arose the Germans and many of the cultural forms, ideas, and values of medieval Europe. Not only did medieval Europe look back to the Celtic world as a golden age of Europe, they also lived with social structures and world views that ultimately owe their origin to the Celts as well as to the Romans and Greeks.
The period of Celtic dominance in Europe began to unravel in the first centuries A.D., with the expansion of Rome, the migrations of the Germans, and later the influx of an Asian immigrant population, the Huns. The Celts were crushed between these forces. By the time Rome fell to Gothic invaders, the Celts had been pushed west and north, to England, Wales and Ireland and later to Scotland and the northern coast of France. The earliest Celts who were major players in the classical world were the Gauls, who controlled an area extending from France to Switzerland.
It was the Gauls who sacked Rome and later invaded Greece; it was also the Gauls who migrated to Asia Minor to found their own, independent culture there, that of the Galatians. Through invasion and migration, they spread into Spain and later crossed the Alps into Italy and permanently settled the area south of the Alps which the Romans then named, Cisalpine Gaul. Two Celtic tribes, the Cimbri and the Teutones emigrated east and settled in territory in Germany. The center of Celtic expansion, however, was Gaul, which lay north of the Alps in the region now within the borders of France and Belgium and part of Spain.
Aside from their art work, the Celts were also known for their method of warfare, as depicted in the epic opening scenes of the movie “Gladiator”. The Celtic method of warfare was to stand in front of the opposing army and scream and beat their spears and swords against their shields. They would then run headlong into the opposing army and screamed the entire way. This often had the effect of scaring the opposing soldiers who then broke into a run; and fighting a fleeing army has always been relatively easy work. Throughout history Celtic treasures have been inadvertently discovered by farmers in their fields, uncovered by erosion, and the target of unsystematic searches by treasure seekers. With the introduction of metal detectors and other modern technologies to Eastern Europe in the past three or four decades, an amazing number of new finds are seeing the light of day 2,000 years or more after they were originally hidden by their past owners [AncientGifts].
SHIPPING & RETURNS/REFUNDS: We always ship books domestically (within the USA) via USPS INSURED media mail (“book rate”). Most international orders cost an additional $19.99 to $53.99 for an insured shipment in a heavily padded mailer. There is also a discount program which can cut postage costs by 50% to 75% if you’re buying about half-a-dozen books or more (5 kilos+). Our postage charges are as reasonable as USPS rates allow. ADDITIONAL PURCHASES do receive a VERY LARGE discount, typically about $5 per book (for each additional book after the first) so as to reward you for the economies of combined shipping/insurance costs.
Your purchase will ordinarily be shipped within 48 hours of payment. We package as well as anyone in the business, with lots of protective padding and containers. All of our shipments are fully insured against loss, and our shipping rates include the cost of this coverage (through stamps.com, Shipsaver.com, the USPS, UPS, or Fed-Ex). International tracking is provided free by the USPS for certain countries, other countries are at additional cost.
We do offer U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, Registered Mail, and Express Mail for both international and domestic shipments, as well United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (Fed-Ex). Please ask for a rate quotation. Please note for international purchasers we will do everything we can to minimize your liability for VAT and/or duties. But we cannot assume any responsibility or liability for whatever taxes or duties may be levied on your purchase by the country of your residence. If you don’t like the tax and duty schemes your government imposes, please complain to them. We have no ability to influence or moderate your country’s tax/duty schemes.
If upon receipt of the item you are disappointed for any reason whatever, I offer a no questions asked 30-day return policy. Send it back, I will give you a complete refund of the purchase price; 1) less our original shipping/insurance costs, 2) less any non-refundable fees imposed by eBay Please note that though they generally do, eBay may not always refund payment processing fees on returns beyond a 30-day purchase window. So except for shipping costs and any payment processing fees not refunded by eBay, we will refund all proceeds from the sale of a return item. Obviously we have no ability to influence, modify or waive eBay policies.
ABOUT US: Prior to our retirement we used to travel to Eastern Europe and Central Asia several times a year seeking antique gemstones and jewelry from the globe’s most prolific gemstone producing and cutting centers. Most of the items we offer came from acquisitions we made in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) during these years from various institutions and dealers. Much of what we generate on Etsy, Amazon and Ebay goes to support worthy institutions in Europe and Asia connected with Anthropology and Archaeology. Though we have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, our primary interests are ancient/antique jewelry and gemstones, a reflection of our academic backgrounds.
Though perhaps difficult to find in the USA, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia antique gemstones are commonly dismounted from old, broken settings – the gold reused – the gemstones recut and reset. Before these gorgeous antique gemstones are recut, we try to acquire the best of them in their original, antique, hand-finished state – most of them originally crafted a century or more ago. We believe that the work created by these long-gone master artisans is worth protecting and preserving rather than destroying this heritage of antique gemstones by recutting the original work out of existence. That by preserving their work, in a sense, we are preserving their lives and the legacy they left for modern times. Far better to appreciate their craft than to destroy it with modern cutting.
Not everyone agrees – fully 95% or more of the antique gemstones which come into these marketplaces are recut, and the heritage of the past lost. But if you agree with us that the past is worth protecting, and that past lives and the produce of those lives still matters today, consider buying an antique, hand cut, natural gemstone rather than one of the mass-produced machine cut (often synthetic or “lab produced”) gemstones which dominate the market today. We can set most any antique gemstone you purchase from us in your choice of styles and metals ranging from rings to pendants to earrings and bracelets; in sterling silver, 14kt solid gold, and 14kt gold fill. When you purchase from us, you can count on quick shipping and careful, secure packaging. We would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from us. There is a $3 fee for mailing under separate cover. I will always respond to every inquiry whether via email or eBay message, so please feel free to write.