The first stories of the ancient Celts (Part 1)
Celtic describes a language group which over a period of time divided into two strains:
P-Celtic (Brythonic) spoken in Wales, Cornwall and Brittany.
Q-Celtic (Gaelic) spoken today in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
The ancient Celts were communities of people sharing linguistic and cultural ties, who inhabited most of northern Europe between 800 BC and 400 AD. The Age Iron Celtic communities spread from Ireland to Eastern Europe at the height of its expansion of BC 400-300 BC.
archaeological map of the distribution of the Hallstatt Celtic culture ca. 800 -400 BC. Hallstatt culture 800 BC-250 BC, the site name in Hallstatt in Austria, ranging from the Paris Basin to the valley of Morava in Europe del Este, and from the Alps to the plains of northern Europe. The first burials (800 BC-600 BC) show small cemeteries denoting small settlements, perhaps a family or a small group of related families. The graves show little wealth, a tomb with a few wagons and horse teams, but most of the warriors as men and women with swords, some personal ornaments and pots containing food.
Between 600 BC C.-450 a. C. aristocratic burials start to appear, associated with much larger residences with architecture inspired by the Greeks, and Mediterranean artefacts begin to appear in the graves. The overall leader or head together in a wooden chamber with horses and equipment cart full of imported items, bronze wine drinking vessels, silk, gold, amber, crystal and coral. vassal The 'individual' chief wagon filled with more locally made goods, and 'sub-chiefs' similar, but less elaborately furnished with totally locally produced items. This prestige system of burials was widespread from Burgundy to the settlements in the middle of the Rhine. This unstable system based solely of imports and exports as its core, threw up warrior societies, whose wealth came from raiding the settled traders. Along with population growth among the tribes and political changes within the Mediterranean area, this caused collapse, and the Celtic migrations began around 400 BC.
The "culture of La Tene, known for its elaborate artwork, coincided with the last 50 years of the Hallstatt culture, and this culture developed in the migration. Guerrero bands moved south and east toward the bounty of the rich people had traded with. Rome was attacked in 369 a. C. and continued in Italy, Delphi being attacked in 279 BC, and to East roving bands continued into Asia Minor. Migrations due to population growth continued throughout the next hundred years.
The attempted migration of 'Helvetii was detained for eight year war with Caesar's Rome, as hundreds of thousands of Celts were killed, sold into slavery or maimed. After of his victory Caesar returned to Rome, Gaul and Britain were left alone for 15 years. When the Roman emperors later began to establish an administration, most of southern and eastern Gaul was brought within the Roman empire fairly easily, as the Celts in this region had already established a sedimentary lifestyle, and trade based on the economic system. The boundaries of the Roman Empire more remained in a state of flux at some point, with the constant pressure of the so-called "tribes Germanic "by pressing from the east, which eventually contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. The term 'Germanic' has been considered by Caesar who called anybody in northern Rhine Germans' southern one, and the Rhine 'Celtic'. Archaeology makes clear that while there were two materials different cultures, housing and burial styles, they were much more mixed than Caesar's simplistic geographical divisions would indicate.
There were differences between the religious practices of the Europeans and the British Celts. The South of England, which was colonized by the Belgian people is more closely linked to the mainland, while northern England has more unique deities and practices. Ireland had even less contact with Europe and maintained its culture during longer. The Continental Celts had been influenced by the Mediterranean cultures, with regular exchanges with the eastern Mediterranean from as early as eighth century BC, and regulate the river and inland trading between southern Britain and the Mediterranean from the sixth century BC. Where, for the links trade, with the other Celtic regions was occasional and maritime.
Recorded history.
According to Caesar there are no contemporary religious writings of Celts themselves because, as the Celts had a religious prohibition against writing things down, but eventually kept trade related records in Greek characters. We must rely on the writings of others. A number of classical writers mentioned the Celts. The first use of the term Keltoi is opposite the Greek Hecataeus of Miletus around 500 BC. Most of these Greek and Roman authors whose works have survived had no firsthand knowledge of the Celts. Most Existing wording comes from the first two centuries of the Common Era, and based on observations of the Stoic philosopher Posidonius, early first century BC whose own writings are lost. His information was based on first hand knowledge of Celtic society in Gaul. Snippets of his writings are contained in the writings later, especially Athenaeus, Diodorus Siculus, mid first century BC and 40 a. C. Strabo-25 AD.
From Posidonius we learn that the Celts adheres to the Pythagorean idea of transmigration of the soul, which Caesar mentions as well though he couches in terms of making the fighters unafraid of death. Julius Caesar had the opportunity to see first hand the Celts, both on the continent and in Britain, but their concerns were mainly military. His writings also served as propaganda to raise money for his campaign against him. He was not particularly interested in the religion of others to take note of the influence of the Druids nobility. Caesar describes the Druids, saying "officiate in the worship of the gods, regulate public and private sacrifices, and decide on all religious questions. Many young people come to them for instruction and are held in honor by the people. They act as judges in practically all disputes between tribes or between people. "He also noted that the Druids had the power to ban someone's sacrifice, which meant both excommunication and rejecting the community. He mentions that there are many different deities, but not the name, except to use the name of the Roman deity possessed similar attributes.
It is Pliny the Elder first century AD, that we owe our image of the Druids cutting mistletoe with a golden sickle. It was an afterthought on the entry of mistletoe in his book on trees. The word he used was 'sacerdos' not Druid, and was probably the poets who would perform such a ritual. We get this division of the Celtic priesthood'' from 'Strabo Geographica' written at the end of the first century BC, which says: 'Among all the Gallic peoples, generally, there are three groups of men and women who are held in exceptional honor: the Bards, bards of, and the Druids. The Bards are singers and poets, the seers, diviners and natural philosophers, while Druids, in addition to natural philosophy, study also moral philosophy. "
In addition, Irish vernacular evidence tends to support this division into three parts.
Classical sources tended to sensationalize the Celtic religion. They were, after all, writing about foreigners who were regarded as barbarians. As today is the unconventional and 'civilized' information that received the most attention, there was little accurate information on the Celtic deities, as the authors tend to use their own Gods, already understood by the people who they thought nearest to the adoration of the Celtic gods. Again like today was the sensational as the 1st century AD Lucan, who reported that the three main gods of the Gauls demanded human sacrifice, Taranis (burning) Teutates (drowning), and Esus (hanging and wounding). The Romans had banned human sacrifice only a generation or two earlier and this was reported, so the Romans were to be superior beings, the early propaganda.
The classic writers of the day also described the appearance of the Celts, says Diodorus men of the Gauls being tall, fair and loud voices and piercing eyes, and women were almost as big and strong and as fierce as their men. Tacitus described the Caledonians Scotland as having reddish hair and large loose limbs, the Silurians of Wales described as dark, dark curly hair. Dio Cassius as large and fearsome, with red hair bright, Strabo records that both sexes liked to wear lots of jewelry, as confirmed by archaeological findings, which show strong torques, fibulae, rings, necklaces and bracelets.
Appears as an idealized image of Celtic Classic is best described by Virgil in the following quote, "gold is her hair, and gold is your dress. They are resplendent in their striped cloaks, and their milk-white necks are a golden circle. "
Inscriptions on alters and votive objects provide nearly 400 names of Celtic deities, unfortunately many of the names appear only once, and have no evidence for the deity, others had descriptive epithets was added to their names, others are linked to the Roman deities, allows us to guess more accurately about their Celtic counterparts. Some classical Roman deities receive Celtic epithets, and classical Gods often received Celtic consorts.
The Celts considered them a hierarchy in the sense of a home coherent pantheon somewhere remote. The human world and the Otherworld formed a unity in which human and divine interaction. Each location has numinous powers which are recognized by the people as we can see the names of mountains, rivers and other natural features, many of which have associated deities.
When the Celts invaded Greece in 278 a. C., Brennus entered the precinct of Delphi, saw no gold and silver dedications, only stone and wooden statues and laughed at the Greeks for the creation of deities in human form. Caesar mentions that the Germans worship the forces of nature only.
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