origin of name
The appearance of the word "Celtic" in English language happened in the 17th century. The Oxford-based Welsh linguist Edward Lloyd drew attention to the similarities inherent in the languages spoken in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. He called these languages “Celtic” - and the name stuck. The word "Celtic" is also used to describe the "scroll" style of a variety of jewelry sold in gift shops in Ireland. However, there is no evidence that this design was created by an ethnically homogeneous group of people.
Story
The internecine wars that weakened the Celts contributed to the invasion of the Germans from the east and the Romans from the south. The Germans pushed back some of the Celts in the 1st century BC. e. beyond the Rhine. Julius Caesar in 58 BC e. - 51 BC e. took possession of all of Gaul. Under Augustus, the Romans conquered areas along the upper Danube, northern Spain, Galatia, and under Claudius (mid-1st century AD) a significant part of Britain. The Celts, who wished to remain on the territory of the Roman Empire, underwent strong Romanization.
Contacts with ancient civilizations
The Celts were one of the most warlike peoples in Europe. To intimidate the enemy before the battle, the Celts uttered deafening screams and blew war trumpets - carnyxes, the bells of which were made in the form of animal heads.
Roman name Gauls was used to a greater extent in relation to the tribes that lived north of Massalia, near the Ocean and at the Gerkinsky mountain. Gauls(from Latin Gallus - “rooster”) - the name given by the Romans to a group of Celtic tribes, mostly living in the territory of modern France. This etymology is due to the fact that the battle helmets of the ancient Gauls were decorated with rooster feathers, since the first acquaintance of the Romans with the Gauls occurred initially, mainly on the battlefields.
The Eastern Celts, settled along the Danube valley, penetrated far to the east in 281 BC. e. to Thrace in northern Greece, the Greeks called them Galatians.
While settling, the Celts mixed with local tribes: Iberians, Illyrians, Thracians, but some of them managed to maintain the “purity” of the race for a long time (Lingones, Boii), which was one of the reasons for their small numbers. So, for example, in 58 AD. e. there were 263,000 Helvetii and only 32,000 Boii [the argument here is controversial, because the Dacian king Burebista dealt mercilessly with the Boii after the death of Julius Caesar]. The Celts of southern France developed in conditions of active interaction with ancient city-states and therefore were distinguished by the highest level of culture. Driven out by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. e. from the north of Italy (from the so-called Cisalpine Gaul), the Celts settled in central and northwestern Bohemia (these were the Boii tribes, from which the territory received the name Boiohaemum - the homeland of the Boii - Bohemia).
According to DNA genealogist B. Sykes, the Celts of the British Isles are genetically related not to the Celts of mainland Europe, but to more ancient newcomers from Iberia, who brought agriculture to Britain in the early Neolithic era.
The most numerous tribes of the Celts were the Helvetii, Belgians, and Arverni
It should also be noted that the Celtic origin of the Arverni is still in question, and most of the Belgian tribal union had Germanic roots. The Biturigs and Volci were also not native Celtic tribes.
Celtic beliefs
Irish law
The original national law, which had been in force in Ireland since ancient times, was abolished by the English government at the beginning of the 17th century and doomed to oblivion, like everything that could remind the Irish of their former national existence. But in 1852, the English government commissioned Irish scientists to find and publish monuments of ancient Irish law.
It is believed that the legal provisions contained in Great Book of Ancient Law, developed under the influence of the Bregons, approximately in 1st century AD, and the legal treatises, which serve as the basis of the collection and the subject of the later gloss, were compiled during the era of the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, that is, in the first half of the 5th century, then were preserved by oral tradition for several centuries, and were written down in the 8th century. The oldest manuscript that has come down to us dates back to the 14th century. For the study of the original foundations and evolution of primitive Indo-European law, there is no other source - with the possible exception of the laws of Manu - that would surpass in importance the ancient Irish laws. Senhus-Mor consists of 5 books, of which the first two treat legal proceedings, the last three - about raising children, various forms lease and about the relations of different persons among themselves, as well as to the church.
The book of Aicillus, another source of information on Celtic law, was based on two works, one by King Cormac (circa 250 AD) and the other by Cennfelads, who lived four centuries later; its manuscripts are no older than the 15th century, but the book itself was compiled much earlier, and the institutions described in it date back to remote antiquity.
In addition to these two main sources, other monuments of ancient Irish literature can serve, especially church texts - the confession of St. Patrick, Collatio canonum hibernica, etc.
All these monuments find the people in a state of tribal life, the highest manifestation whose clan was. Along with clan relations, and sometimes in addition to them, a dependence similar to the vassal relations of the feudal system was established through the lease of land. The basis of the lease, which, however, could be free, that is, not to establish a dependent relationship between the tenant and the owner, was actually the giving for use not of land, but of livestock (the so-called shetel, cheptel, from the Celtic chatal or chetal - livestock) .
The owner by name was in fact only the manager of the common family estate, burdened with duties for the benefit of the family. Marriage was concluded through the purchase of wives and, before the introduction of Christianity, apparently could be performed for one year. The ransom for the daughter went in favor of the father, but in subsequent marriages a certain part of it, which gradually increased with each new marriage (the law provides for 21 marriages), was turned in favor of the daughter. When a brother replaced a father, he received half of what the father was due. When the spouses were equal both in social status and in the contributions they made to compile a common property fund, then the wife enjoyed the same rights as her husband and one could not enter into transactions without the other; in the case of an unequal marriage, priority in household affairs belongs to the spouse who made the contribution. Along with these cases, Senkhus-Mor provides for 7 more forms of marriage relations, reminiscent of irregular marriages, which are mentioned in the laws of Manu. When spouses separate, each takes their entire contribution, while acquired property is distributed between them on the basis of special rules that provide for the smallest details.
There was a very complex system family relations, applied not only to the distribution of inherited property, but also to the distribution of monetary fines that took the place of blood feud: relatives were called upon to pay and receive these fines in the same manner as to inheritance. The reward for killing a free person (the price of blood, eric) was determined at 7 slaves (a slave was a common unit of value among the Celts) or 21 milk cows. In addition, there was also a price for honor (enechlann), the size of which depended on the wealth and social position of the victim. It was up to the relatives of the criminal to either pay for him, or abandon him and doom him to exile. Accidental killing did not exempt from payment of reward; murder by secret or ambush carried a double fine. There was a tariff of fines for injuries and beatings. The amount of remuneration for losses was in direct relation to the rank of the victim and inversely to the rank of the one who caused the harm. Initial stage The process served as a seizure, which was imposed by the plaintiff on the property (livestock) of the defendant and at the same time served as security for the claim. If the defendant did not have any property, then he was subjected to personal detention and taken to the plaintiff with shackles on his legs and a chain around his neck; the plaintiff was obliged to give him only a cup of meat broth a day. If the plaintiff and defendant belonged to different tribes and the seizure of the latter’s property was inconvenient, then the plaintiff could detain any person from the defendant’s tribe. The hostage paid for his fellow tribesman and had the right to claim back against him. If, by seizing property, it was impossible to induce the defendant to appear in court, then the case ended in a duel, the conditions of which were established by custom and which, in any case, took place in front of witnesses.
The court belonged to the head of the clan or the people's assembly, but in general it had an arbitration character. When making a decision, he was guided by the opinion Bregon(actually brithem, then brehon - judge), who in the pagan era belonged to the filé (filé - clairvoyant, prophet) - the category of priests who directly followed the Druids; in the Middle Ages they became a hereditary corporation. Bregons are the broadcasters of law, the custodians of formulas and rather complex rituals of the process, characterized by the formalism usual in antiquity; in their conclusions they do not create law, but only reveal and formulate those legal norms that lie in the legal consciousness of the people. The Bregons were also poets and were at the head of schools in which law was studied through oral transmission, along with the rules of poetic creativity. In the pagan era, the Bregons’ belonging to the number of priests imparted their religious authority to the conclusions, especially since the fillet was attributed with supernatural power, the ability to bring all sorts of troubles to the rebellious. Then at the head of the fille class was the so-called ollaw, corresponding in its position Archdruid Gauls And after the introduction of Christianity, the conclusions of the Bregons did not lose their mystical connotations: various magical actions of Oregon were performed at the trial, which were supposed to cause supernatural revelations. Then the evidence was a judicial duel, an oath, ordeals, and the support of fellow jurors.
Celtic War
The ancient Celts were terrible in battle - they did not wear any clothes and painted themselves Blue colour. The spectacle of a crowd of naked blue warriors in itself terrified the enemy, as even Julius Caesar wrote about. In addition to this, they covered their hair with white lime and their bodies with tattoos.
Celtic names in modern Europe
- Amiens - on behalf of the Gallic Ambian tribe;
- Belgium - on behalf of the Belgian tribe;
- Belfast - in Celtic “bel fersde” - “ford of the sandbank”;
- Bohemia (obsolete name of the historical region of the Czech Republic) - on behalf of the Boj tribe;
- Brittany (region in France) - named after the Briton tribe;
- Britain is the same;
- Burj - on behalf of the Biturigian tribe;
- Galatia (historical region in the territory of modern Turkey) - from the name of the Celts by the Greeks “Galatians”;
- Galicia (province in Spain), Galicia, Gaul - the same;
- Dublin - Irish for “black lake”;
- Quimper - Breton for “confluence of rivers”;
- Cambrian Mountains - from the ancient self-name of the Welsh, Cymry;
- Langres - from the name of the Gaulish tribe Lingones;
- Lyon - “Fortress of Lug”, from the ancient name “Lugdunum” (Lug - Gallic god of the Sun, Gallic “dun” - fortress, hill);
- Nantes - on behalf of the Namnet tribe;
- Auvergne - on behalf of the Arverni tribe;
- Paris - from the name of the Celtic tribe of Parisians;
- Poitiers - from the name of the Picton (Pictavi) tribe;
- Seine (river in France), from Gaulish Sequana;
- Tur - on behalf of the Turon tribe;
- Troyes - on behalf of the Tricasse tribe.
Modern Celtic peoples
- Irish (self-name - Irish. Muintir na hÉireann or Irish. na hÉireannaigh, singular - Éireannach, name of the language - An Ghaeilge, name of the state - Poblacht na hÉireann (Republic of Ireland))
- Welsh (self-name - Welsh. Cymry, singular - Cymro, name of the language - Cymraeg, name of the country - Cymru, name of the administrative-territorial entity - Tywysogaeth Cymru (Principality of Wales))
- Scots (self-name - Gaelic. Albannaich, name of the language - Gàidhlig, name of the country - Alba, name of the administrative-territorial entity - Rìoghachd na h-Alba (Kingdom of Scotland))
- Bretons (self-name - Bret. Brezhoned, name of the language - Brezhoneg, name of the province - Breizh)
- Cornish people (self-name - Kernowyon, language name - Kernowek, county name - Kernow (Cornwall))
see also
Literature
- //
- // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
- Shirokova N. S. Celtic Druids and the book of Francoise Leroux // Francoise Leroux. Druids. SPb., 2003, p. 7-23
- D. Collis. Celts: origins, history, myth. - M.: Veche, 2007. - 288 p. - ISBN 978-5-9533-1855-6
Links
- The Gospel of Kells is a masterpiece of 9th-century Celtic miniature painting
| Celts | ||
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| Ancient Celts | ||
CELTS - a group of peoples speaking Celtic languages, who in ancient times inhabited most of Western Europe.
Nowadays, not to the Celts, from the Bretons, Gaels and Welsh.
The core of the Celts formed in the 1st half of the 1st millennium BC in the Rhine and Upper Danube basins. Ancient authors considered the Celts as a community of closely related tribes, contrasting them with other communities (Iberians, Ligurians, Germans, etc.). Along with the term “Celts,” ancient authors used the name “Gauls” (Latin - Galatae, Greek - Гαλάται).
By the 1st century BC, the name “Galatians” begins to be assigned to a group of Celts who settled in Asia Minor, and the name “Celts” to the tribes of Southern and Central Gaul (in particular, in the writings of Julius Caesar), who were influenced by Greek and Roman civilizations; in contrast, the term "Gauls" continues to be more general. For a number of peripheral groups of Celts, ancient authors also introduced artificial double names: “kel-ti-be-ry” (Celts of Iberia - Iberian Peninsula), “Celtoligurs” (North-Western Italy), “Celto-Scythians” (on the Lower Danube), “Gallogrecs” (in Asia Minor). The process of the formation of the Celts is associated with the Upper Rhine and Upper Danube groups of the arch-heo-logical culture of Gal-stat and their advancement before everything in the environment of the genus -Western Western-Gal-State tribes. On this basis, the for-mi-ru-et-xia cult-tu-ra La-ten is formed, reflecting the Celtic cult-tu-ru per-rio-da so-called. is-to-ri-che-skoy (i.e. from-ra-wives in Greek-Latin sources) ex-pan-si.
According to a common view, around the 7th century BC (Halstatt C period), some Celts penetrated into the Iberian Peninsula, where they formed a group later known as the Celtiberians, heavily influenced by the local Iberian and Lusitanian tribes. Having occupied Northern and Central Spain, they carried out military campaigns in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Apparently, already in the 6th-5th centuries BC, the Celtiberians established trade relations with the Phoenician colonies of southern Spain (Gades, Melaka) and North Africa(Carthage).
Literature
- Kalygin V.P. Etymological dictionary of Celtic theonyms. M., 2006
- Kalygin V.P., Korolev A.A. Introduction to Celtic philology. 2nd ed. M., 2006
- Powell T. Celts. M., 2004
- Megaw J. V. S., Megaw R. Celtic art: from its beginnings to the book of Kells. L., 2001
- Guyonvarch Kr.-J., Leroux Fr. Celtic civilization. St. Petersburg, 2001
- Drda P., Rybova A. Les Celtes en Bohême. P., 1995
In speaking of the nature of ancient Celtic society we are immediately confronted with a problem which differs in two essential respects from the problems involved in defining and describing the society of many other ancient peoples. To begin with, the Celts did not have a great material civilization to suddenly discover, such as the civilization of ancient Babylonia and Assyria. The sophisticated world of the ancient Egyptians or the sophisticated cities of the Mediterranean had little in common with the simple hamlets of the mobile, almost nomadic Celts. In fact they left very few lasting structures, and the Celtic forts and burials, shrines and chattels scattered throughout Europe and the British Isles cover centuries in both temporal and social terms. There were no significant concentrations of population in Celtic society. Moreover, unlike the creators of the great civilizations of the ancient world, the Celts were practically illiterate (as far as their own languages were concerned): most of what we know about the early forms of their speech and their spiritual culture comes from very limited and often hostile sources: for example, in the stories of ancient authors about the Celts there are names of tribes, localities and the names of leaders. The names of the places speak for themselves - they are motionless and permanent. The names of chiefs and tribes appear on many Celtic coins and reveal much about trade, economics and politics; epigraphy gives the ancient forms of the Celtic names of gods and names of donors. Apart from these fragments of language, only a few a large number of Celtic phrases that appear in the inscriptions (Fig. 1). However for early period There are no long lists of kings or mythological legends in Celtic history until those recorded by Irish Christian scribes; there are no intricate poems in praise of kings and chiefs, which we know were performed in the homes of aristocrats; there are no lists of the names of the gods, no instructions to the priests on how to perform their duties and monitor the correctness of the ritual. So the first aspect of the problem is that we are dealing with a dispersed, barbaric society, and not with the great urban civilization of antiquity. And although we know that the Celts were educated, cultured people (or at least capable of easily adopting cultural influences), it is obvious that the education of the Celts was little like education in our sense of the word. The culture of the Celts was also not at all striking: it could only be discovered and appreciated using the most diverse and dissimilar methods.
Rice. 1. Celtic inscription: "Korisios" (Korisius), written in Greek letters on a sword discovered along with other weapons in an old riverbed at Porte (in Petinesca antiquity), Switzerland.
The world of the Celts differs from the world of other ancient civilizations in that the Celts survived: in certain limited geographical areas, Celtic society in a certain recognizable form cannot be said to have ever ceased to exist at any particular period in antiquity. The ancient Celtic languages continue to be spoken in parts of the British Isles and Brittany, and are still living languages in places in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Brittany. Much of the social structure and organization of the Celts survives, as well as their oral literary tradition, their tales and folk superstitions. Sometimes in some places certain features of this ancient way of life can be traced to this day, for example among peasants west coast Scotland and Ireland. In Wales, where the Celtic language now retains its strongest position, everything is somewhat different, and the story of this is beyond the scope of our book. That some aspects of Celtic society have survived to this day is remarkable in itself, and will help us think more meaningfully about difficult task- a story about Everyday life pagan Celts in Europe and the British Isles.
Since we must somehow limit the scope of our study, it seems reasonable to accept the year 500 AD. e. what's his name upper limit. By this time Christianity was already fully established in Ireland and the rest of the Celtic world. However, it should be remembered that much of the literary data from which we draw much information about the Celtic past was written down in Ireland after the pagan period and under the auspices of the Christian church. Many aspects of Celtic society were characterized by impressive continuity and longevity, and so, although this time boundary is convenient, it is essentially artificial.
Celtic peoples
So who are the Celts whose daily life we are going to talk about here? For different people the word "Celt" has very different meanings.
To a linguist, the Celts are a people who spoke (and still speak) very ancient Indo-European languages. From the original Common Celtic language came two distinct groups of Celtic dialects; We do not know when this division occurred. Philologists call one of these groups Q-Celtic or Goidelic because the original Indo-European qv was preserved in it as q (later it began to sound like k, but was written c). The Celtic language belonging to this branch was spoken and written in Ireland. The language was later brought to Scotland by Irish settlers from the kingdom of Dal Riada at the end of the 5th century AD. e. The same language was spoken on the Isle of Man; some of its remains still remain. There are some traces of Q-Celtic languages on the continent, but we know little about their distribution there.
The second group is called p-Celtic or "Britonic". In it, the original Indo-European qv turned into p; Thus, in the Goidelic group the word “head” sounds like “cenn”, in the Brythonic group it sounds like “penn”. This branch of the Celtic languages was widespread on the continent, where the languages related to it are called Gaulish or Gallo-Brythonic. It was this language that Iron Age settlers brought from the continent to Britain (the Celtic language of Britain is called “British”). This language was spoken in Britain during the period of Roman rule. It later split into Cornish (already extinct as a spoken language, although there is now an active struggle to revive it), Welsh and Breton.
For archaeologists, Celts are people who can be classified into a particular group on the basis of their distinctive material culture, and who can be identified as Celts based on the evidence of authors outside their own society. The word “Celts” has a completely different meaning for modern Celtic nationalists, but this is no longer relevant to our topic.
First of all, we will try to find out how to recognize this people, which was formed over such a large territory and existed for so long (albeit in a limited space). Since the Celts did not leave any pre-Christian written historical records or legends that would tell about the most ancient period of their history, we will be forced to use data obtained by inference. The earliest and perhaps most reliable (albeit very limited) source of information is archaeology. The later historical writings of the Greeks and Romans about the manners and customs of the Celts, combined with what can be gleaned from the early Irish literary tradition, provide us with further detail and help to bring to life the somewhat sketchy picture we have drawn through archaeology.
The belligerence of these peoples was clearly manifested in their relations with the Romans, who considered the Belgae the most stubborn and unyielding of all the Celts of Britain and Gaul. It appears that the Belgians introduced the plow to Britain, as well as the technique of enameling and their own version of La Tène art. The Belgian ceramics are also very distinctive. In addition, the Belgae were the first to mint their own coins in Britain. These tribes created urban settlements - actual cities, in fact, such as St. Albans (Verulamium), Silchester (Calleva), Winchester (Venta) and Colchester (Camulodunum).
The resettlement of the Celts in Ireland presented even more problems. This is partly due to the fact that all the wealth of ancient narrative literature is practically not reflected in archaeology. However, this appears to be because until recently there has been relatively little genuine scientific archaeological research carried out in Ireland. Many careless excavations only complicate the interpretation of the data obtained. But now Irish archaeologists are doing a great job, and the results obtained allow us to hope that in the future we will get closer to solving the problem.
As we have already seen, the Q-Celtic or Goidelic language was widespread in Ireland, Gaelic Scotland and, until recently, among the local inhabitants of the Isle of Man. For Celticologists, this language itself poses a problem. So far we do not know who and where brought the Q-Celtic language to Ireland, and we are not even sure that this issue can be resolved at all. All we can say now is that the British speech of the aristocrats of Yorkshire and the south-west Scottish colonists of Ulster was completely absorbed by the Goidelic language, which we can assume was spoken there. Scientists have put forward many different theories, both archaeological and linguistic, but so far no sufficiently convincing assumptions have been made. It can be assumed that the Goidelic (or Q-Celtic) form of the Celtic language is more ancient, and perhaps even the language of the Hallstatt Celts was Goidelic. If so, early colonists brought it with them to Ireland around the 6th century BC. e. The question arises: was the Goidelic language elsewhere absorbed by the language of immigrants who had higher technology and fighting techniques and spoke Briton? We cannot yet answer this question, but the Goidelic language continued to dominate in Ireland, despite all the British immigrations to Ulster, which we know took place for several centuries before the beginning of our era. Only the combined efforts of archaeologists and philologists can help answer these questions. For now, the amazing phenomenon of the Q-Celtic language remains an inexplicable mystery to us.
The Hallstatt colonization of Ireland may have partly come from Britain, but there is evidence that it passed directly from the continent and the Celts entered Ireland through north-eastern Scotland. The available evidence for the introduction of La Tène culture into Ireland shows that there may have been two main sources of immigration: one, already mentioned, through Britain around the 1st century BC. e. with the main concentration in the northeast, and another, earlier movement directly from the continent, which dates from around the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. This was a move to western Ireland. This assumption is based not only on archaeological material, but also on the early literary tradition, where we see the primordial rivalry between Connacht in the west and Ulster in the northeast. The tradition recorded in the texts reinforces the archaeological evidence and illuminates aspects of the daily life of at least some of the ancient Celtic peoples.
Ancient writers about the Celtic peoples
Now we must consider another source of data about the ancient Celts, namely the writings of ancient authors. Some of their evidence of Celtic migrations and settlements is very fragmentary, others are more detailed. All of this evidence must be used with caution, but on the whole it conveys information that we should accept as genuine - making allowance, of course, for the author's emotions and political leanings.
The first two authors to mention the Celts were the Greeks Hecataeus, who wrote around the second half of the 6th century BC. e., and Herodotus, who wrote a little later, in the 5th century BC. e. Hecataeus mentioned the founding of a Greek trading colony in Massilia (Marseille), which was located in the territory of the Ligurians, adjacent to the land of the Celts. Herodotus also mentions the Celts and states that the source of the Danube River is located in Celtic lands. It testifies to the widespread settlement of the Celts in Spain and Portugal, where the merging of the cultures of the two peoples led to the fact that these tribes began to be called Celtiberians. Although Herodotus was mistaken about the geographical position of the Danube, believing that it was located on the Iberian Peninsula, perhaps his statement is explained by some tradition about the connection of the Celts with the sources of this river. Author of the 4th century BC. e. Ephorus considered the Celts to be one of the four great barbarian nations; others are Persians, Scythians and Libyans. This suggests that the Celts, as before, were considered a separate people. Although they had practically no political unity, the Celts were characterized by a common language, a unique material culture and similar religious ideas. All these features are distinct from the inevitable local cultural traditions that arose from the fusion of the traditions of the Celts with the traditions of the peoples among whom they settled over a large area of Europe (Fig. 2).
The main social unit of the Celts was the tribe. Each tribe had its own name, while the common name for the whole people was “Celtae” (Celtae). The name Celtici continued to exist in southwestern Spain until Roman times. However, it is now believed that the creators of this name were the Romans themselves, who, being familiar with the Gauls, were able to recognize the Celts in Spain, and therefore called them Celtici. We have no evidence of the use of this term in relation to the Celts who lived in ancient times in the British Isles; There is also no evidence that the Celtic inhabitants of these areas called themselves by a common name, although this could have been the case. The Greek form of the word "Keltoi" comes from the oral tradition of the Celts themselves.
There are two other names for the Celts: Galli (as the Romans called the Celts) and Galatae (Galatae), a word often used by Greek authors. Thus we have two Greek forms - Keltoi and Galatae - and their equivalent Roman forms - Celtae and Galli. Indeed, Caesar writes that the Gauls call themselves “Celts,” and it seems clear that, in addition to their individual tribal names, this is what they called themselves.
The Romans called the region south of the Alps Cisalpine Gaul and the region beyond the Alps Transalpine Gaul. Around 400 BC. e. Celtic tribes coming from Switzerland and southern Germany, led by the Insubri, invaded northern Italy. They captured Etruria and marched along the Italian peninsula all the way to Mediolan (Milan). Other tribes followed their example. Large-scale resettlement occurred. Warriors setting off on a campaign of conquest were accompanied by their families, servants and belongings in heavy and uncomfortable carts. This is also evidenced by one interesting place in the Irish epic “The Rape of the Bull from Cualnge”: “And again the army set out on a campaign. It was not an easy path for the warriors, for many people, families and relatives moved with them, so that they would not have to part and everyone could see their relatives, friends and loved ones.”
Using the conquered lands as a base, bands of skilled warriors raided vast areas. In 390 BC. e. they successfully attacked Rome. In 279, the Galatians, led by a leader (although more likely a Celtic deity) named Brennus, attacked Delphi. The Galatians, led by Brennus and Bolgius, penetrated into Macedonia (most likely, both were not leaders, but gods) and tried to settle there. The Greeks stubbornly resisted. After the attack on Delphi, the Celts were defeated; nevertheless, they remained in the Balkans. The three tribes moved to Asia Minor and, after several skirmishes, settled in northern Phrygia, which became known as Galatia. Here they had a sanctuary called Drunemeton, "oak grove." The Galatians also had their own fortresses, and they retained their national identity for quite a long time. The letter of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians is well known. If the archeology of Galatia ever becomes a separate, well-developed discipline, then we will have another interesting panorama of local civilization within the vast world of the Celts.
When we think of the Celts today, we usually think of peoples who spoke Celtic languages on the periphery of western Europe: Brittany, Wales, Ireland and Gaelic Scotland, as well as their last representatives on the Isle of Man. However, it should always be borne in mind that for archaeologists the Celts are a people whose culture covers vast territories and long periods of time. For archaeologists of Eastern Europe the Celts who lived further to the East are just as important and interesting as the better known Celts of the West. Much more archaeological and linguistic research will be needed across all Celtic areas, with onomastics (the study of place names) being particularly important, before we can paint a more or less complete picture.
But let's return to the early history of the Celts - as it was seen by ancient writers. Already by 225, the Celts began to lose control of Cisalpine Gaul: this process began with the crushing defeat that the Romans inflicted on the huge Celtic army at Telamon. Among the Celts' troops were the famous Gesati "spearmen", spectacular Gallic mercenaries who entered the service of any tribe or alliance of tribes that needed their help. These bands are somewhat reminiscent of the Irish Fenians (Fiana), bands of warriors who lived outside the tribal system and roamed the country, fighting and hunting, under the leadership of their legendary leader Finn Mac Cumal. Writing about the Battle of Telamon, the Roman author Polybius vividly describes the Gesati. His comments on the appearance of the Celts in general will be discussed in detail in Chapter 2. Polybius says that the Celtic tribes who took part in the battle - the Insubri and Boii - wore trousers and cloaks, but the Gesati fought naked. The Roman consul Guy died at the very beginning of the battle and, according to Celtic custom, was beheaded. But then the Romans managed to lure the Celts into a trap, sandwiching them between two Roman armies, and, despite all their suicidal courage and endurance, they were completely defeated. Thus began the departure of the Celts from Cisalpine Gaul. In 192, the Romans, having defeated the Boii in their very stronghold - present-day Bologna - finally achieved dominance over all of Cisalpine Gaul. From that moment on, the same thing began to happen everywhere: the territory of the independent Celts was gradually shrinking, and the Roman Empire was advancing and growing. By the 1st century BC. e. Gaul, which at that time remained the only independent Celtic country on the continent, became part of the Roman Empire after the final defeat inflicted on the Gauls by Julius Caesar in the war that began in 58. It took Caesar about seven years to complete the conquest of Gaul, and after that the rapid Romanization of the country began.
Celtic speech and religious traditions continued to live under the auspices of Rome, and they had to change and adapt to Roman ideology. Latin was widely used among the privileged classes. The Celtic priests - the Druids - were officially banned, but the reason for this was not only their cruel religious rituals, which allegedly offended the sensibilities of the Romans (human sacrifice had long ceased in the Roman world), but also because they threatened Roman political dominance. Much of the information we have about Celtic life and religion in both Gaul and Britain has to be literally picked out from under the Roman varnish. Local religious cults also need to be separated from ancient layers, although sometimes this is not easy and sometimes almost impossible. Nevertheless, we have enough information and comparative material to paint a fairly convincing picture of Celtic life in Roman Gaul and Britain. The arrival of Christianity also brought with it significant changes, as did the eventual conquest of the Roman Empire by barbarian hordes from northern Europe. After this the Celtic world, with the exception of Ireland, dies, and in those areas which after this period retained the Celtic language it became a relic of the past, and this is beyond the scope of our book.
Let's return to the British Isles. We know little about the history of the Celts here from written sources - in fact, much less than we know about the Celts in Europe. Caesar's account of the Belgian migration to south-eastern Britain is the first truly historical account of Celtic migration to the British Isles, but beyond the archaeological evidence we have one or two more nuggets of information. The poem “The Sea Route” (“Ora maritima”), written in the 4th century by Rufus Festus Avienus, preserves fragments of a lost manual for sailors compiled in Massilia and called the “Periplus of Massaliot.” It dates back to around 600 BC. e. and was a story about a journey that began in Massilia (Marseille); then the route continues along the eastern coast of Spain to the city of Tartessos, which, apparently, was located near the mouth of the Guadalquivir. In this story there was a mention of the inhabitants of two large islands - Ierne and Albion, that is, Ireland and Britain, who were said to trade with the inhabitants of the Estrymnides, the inhabitants of what is now Brittany. These names are the Greek form of names that were preserved among the Celts, who spoke Goydel languages. We are talking about the Old Irish names “Eriu” and “Albu”. These are words of Indo-European, most likely Celtic origin.
In addition, we have accounts of Pytheas's journey from Massilia, which took place around 325 BC. e. Here Britain and Ireland are called pretannikae, "Pretan Islands", apparently also a Celtic word. The inhabitants of these islands were to be called "Pritani" or "Priteni". The name "Prytane" is preserved in the Welsh word "Prydain" and apparently denoted Britain. This word was misunderstood and appears in Caesar's story as "Britannia" and "Britannians".
Rome and the coming of Christianity
After several waves of Celtic migrations to the British Isles, which we have already discussed, the next major event in the history of ancient Britain was, of course, its entry into the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar arrived in Britain in 55 and again in 54 BC. e. Emperor Claudius began the final subjugation of the south of the island in 43 AD. e. The era of Roman expansion, military conquest and Roman civil rule began, when the most prominent local princes were Romanized. In a word, about the same thing happened here as in Gaul, but the process was less complex and large-scale; local languages survived, although the aristocracy used Latin, as in Gaul. In Britain they adopted Roman customs, built cities in the Mediterranean style and erected stone temples according to classical models, where the British and ancient gods were worshiped side by side. Gradually local elements began to come to the fore, and by the 4th century AD. e. we see a revival of interest in local religious cults; one or two impressive temples dedicated to Celtic deities were built, such as the temple of Nodonta in Lydney Park on the Severn Estuary and the temple of an unknown deity with a bronze image of a bull with three goddesses on its back at Maiden Castle, Dorset. Each of these temples was on the site of an Iron Age hill fort. Christianity also appeared, which brought with it its changes and influenced the local society.
We have looked at the background against which the daily life of the Celts took place. As we have already seen, we are talking about a very extensive time and geographical framework - from about 700 BC. e. before 500 AD e. We have learned that between the age of Herodotus and the age of Julius Caesar, fate lifted the Celts to dizzying heights, from which they fell just as dramatically. The Celtic language (with its two main branches) was, in one form or another, common to the entire Celtic world, and the religious beliefs of the Celts were also common. By virtue of this individuality or "nationality," if the word can be applied to a people who had no strong central political authority, the Celts were distinguished and recognized by their more developed and educated neighbors. It is partly the observations of these neighbors that tell us about the Celtic way of life that distinguishes the Celts as a separate people, and other data about the early Celts help us to gain deeper insight into this problem. We must now try to find out more about the domestic, personal side of life among the pagan Celtic peoples; we want to know about how they expressed themselves in literature, about their religious beliefs, about the laws that governed their daily lives. We learn what the structure of their society was, what they looked like and how they dressed - in a word, about what, in the eyes of ancient writers, distinguished them from other tribes. Ancient authors said that the Celts were one of the four barbarian peoples of the inhabited world. What did they mean by this? How can we check this? How reliable are these sources? Later in this book we will try to answer at least some of these questions.
Hallstatt is a small town in Upper Austria, at the foot of the Salzbergtal mountain, in the depths of which salt mines have been mined since ancient times. Today the name of this town is known throughout the scientific world. It all started in 1846, when Georg Ramsauer, the director of the local salt mines and part-time amateur archaeologist, discovered a vast ancient burial ground in the vicinity of Hallstatt.
Ramsauer conducted excavations here for 17 years. He opened almost 1,000 of the 2,500 graves. The discoveries he made were sensational: they indicated the existence here in 700–500 AD. BC e. civilization that used iron. The magnificent burials of representatives of the powerful aristocracy and the modest graves of community members carried material evidence of the life of people of that distant era. Surprisingly well-preserved weapons, tools, jewelry, horse harnesses and war chariots testified to the high skill of ancient foundries and blacksmiths.
What kind of people lived in this remote mountainous region? Who left behind these treasures?
Today we know the answers to these questions. We are talking about the Celts, or more precisely, about the ancestors of those “historical” Celts who, fully armed with their brilliant culture, appeared on the stage of European history around 500 BC. e., becoming one of the most significant nationalities in Europe.
What kind of people were these - the Celts? From what sources do we know about him?
The main source of information about the Celts, their religion, life, culture, and crafts today is, of course, archeology, which provides the most “tangible” material. In addition, important information about the Celts is provided by written evidence from Greek and Roman authors, toponymic data, preserved proper names, works of early medieval chroniclers of Ireland and Wales, folklore.
The appearance of the Celts coincides with the emergence of Iron Age cultures. This period is rich in such changes that the question rightly arises: are these changes caused by the development of one culture or are they the result of the influence of external factors and cultures of different peoples? As linguists testify, modern Celtic languages are very ancient. They are one of the groups big family Indo-European languages, which, according to modern experts, arose somewhere between the Balkans and the Black Sea. From the regions located between the Rhine and the Vltava and which, apparently, were their cradle, the Celts settled to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Black Seas.
The Celts were first mentioned by Greek historians of the 5th century BC. e. Hecataeus of Miletus and Herodotus. Later, the Romans called the Celts Gauls, and the lands inhabited by them - Gaul. Between the 6th and 3rd centuries. BC e. Celtic tribes settled northern Spain, Britain, southern Germany and the territory of modern Hungary and the Czech Republic. Individual Celtic tribes penetrated into the Balkans. In the 3rd century BC. e. Celtic detachments moved to Macedonia and Greece, fought in Asia Minor, where part of them settled, forming a strong union of Celtic tribes - the so-called Galatia. This association was made up of three tribes of people from Northern Gaul - the Tectosagi, the Trocms and the Tolistoags. They retained their tribal structure and their language for quite a long time. St. Jerome (IV century AD) especially noted the purity of their Celtic speech. The Roman historian Titus Livius spoke of the fortified hilltop forts that these tribes created, and recent excavations have revealed the remains of such forts. Traces left by Celtic campaigns can be found today in Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, and objects of their material culture, if not its bearers themselves, reached Silesia, southern Poland and Ukraine.
The Celts were at a fairly high stage of development already in the 8th–7th centuries. BC e., and later, between 500–250. BC e., reached the peak of their heyday. Then began a gradual decline in their influence and power under the blows of the rapidly rising Rome. Of the Celtic lands, only Ireland and Scotland remained outside the control of the Roman Empire.
There are two Celtic periods in the history of Europe. The first is the ancient Celts of the Iron Age, contemporaries of Ancient Greece, the empire of Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire, whom the Romans gradually pushed out to the British Isles. The second period is the Christian Celts, the successors of the ancient Celts, who lived in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. From the 5th century, part of the Welsh (residents of Wales) moved again to Armorica (Brittany) and created brilliant literature there, which, thanks to Irish monks wandering across the European continent, had a profound influence on the development of all Western culture in the Middle Ages. We owe the first “real” European literature to the Celts: the Irish and Welsh sagas, the tales of King Arthur, Tristan and Isolde.
Ramsauer's discovery in Hallstatt allowed scientists to turn to the beginnings of the history of the ancient Celts. It was here, in the mountainous region of Austria, around 700 BC. e. early Celtic culture developed. Due to the diversity and richness of archaeological material discovered in the burial grounds of Hallstatt, this culture was called Hallstatt. Subsequently, monuments of this kind were discovered in many places in Europe.
The heyday of Hallstatt culture falls in the 7th–6th centuries. BC e., when peoples Western Europe came into close contact - as a result of trade exchanges - with Greek and Etruscan cities. In Hallstatt, archaeologists discovered burials, the inventory of which shows that people in this era made their tools and swords no longer from bronze, but from iron. They buried their leaders in magnificent burial chambers made of logs (most often oak, considered a sacred tree), under mounds, which were crowned with a full-length statue of the deceased, an image of a deity or a tombstone and a ritual stele. Richly decorated horse harnesses, expensive jewelry, gold crowns and tiaras, bronze vessels and numerous ceramics, simple locally made and painted Greek, were placed in the graves. Even four-wheeled carts with a full set of harnesses were placed in the tombs of the nobility. Later, the carts were replaced by light two-wheeled war chariots, which retained the same role as a symbol of nobility and greatness. Skilled artisans, who occupied a fairly high place in the rigid hierarchy of Celtic society (blacksmiths were endowed with supernatural strength), made their chariots very elegant, which did not prevent them from being quite durable. Craftsmen learned to cover the rims of wooden wheels with spokes with iron tires, and their products not only delighted the eye with their beauty, but also withstood the weight of the leader and his driver.
Various forms of veneration of the dead - complex funeral rites, inclusion in the burial inventory of magnificently crafted items - richly decorated weapons, jewelry, artistically made vessels, perhaps filled with ale to quench the thirst of those traveling to another world, and even boar hams, the favorite food of the Celts, - all these are manifestations of the reverence for ancestors that was so widespread later among the Celts, the cult of graves characteristic of them. The Celts believed that a person's grave is a kind of threshold to the desired life after death.
The life of the ancient Celts was simple. Their dwellings were quite primitive in structure: usually it was wooden house with a floor sunk into the ground (semi-dugout), covered with straw. Such huts constituted a village or hamlet, not protected from enemy raids. During periods of frequent wars of one tribe against another, the villagers sought refuge for themselves and their herds in fairly well-fortified settlements located on hills. This place, protected by a rampart, a wall made of logs and stones, and a ditch, was called the “oppidum.”
The tribal nobility built themselves much more complex dwellings, something like a castle or fortified estate. Usually, the burial places of its owners were located near the estate. An interesting example of such a “castle” dating back to the 6th century BC. e., is a fortified manor discovered by archaeologists near Heineburg in the upper Danube. Wine amphorae and fragments of painted Greek black-figure pottery found here testify to the connections of the inhabitants of this estate with the ancient world. Near the estate in Heineburg there are several burial mounds of local leaders.
A major Celtic fortification of the Hallstatt era was Latisk (France, 6th century BC). Within the ring of its defensive ramparts, numerous traces of the life of its inhabitants were found - hundreds of thousands of fragments of clay vessels, many bronze brooches, and a large amount of black-figure Greek ceramics. Of particular interest is the burial of a Celtic “princess” discovered nearby in 1953, also dating back to the 6th century BC. e. A wooden burial chamber was built under the mound with a diameter of 42 m. The body of the “princess” rested on a four-wheeled cart. The woman's head was crowned with a gold diadem weighing 480 g, she wore gold bracelets on her hands, and an amber necklace on her neck. In addition to the funeral chariot, the chamber contained four more carts and a huge bronze cauldron 164 cm high and weighing 208 kg. A bronze vessel of this size is unknown throughout the ancient world! Judging by the many details, it was made by Greek craftsmen in Massilia (now Marseille) by order of a Celtic leader.
A true treasure of the applied art of the Hallstatt Celts is the collection of ceramic vessels from mounds near Sopron (Hungary). The vessels date back to the end of the 7th century BC. e. and are remarkable, of course, not for the value of the material from which they are made, but for their images: on their surface, figures of people and entire scenes are scratched with a chisel, giving us today the opportunity to glimpse into the life of the ancient Celts. Sopron's ceramics show how the Celts of the Hallstatt era dressed and did what they did, and they give life to the meager data of archeology and the vague narratives of myth.
On these vessels we see images of fighting men dressed in ports (a typical feature of the “barbarian” world) and cloaks flowing in loose folds (such cloaks were also worn by the later, so-called La Tène Celts - that is, the Celts of that period about which there are already historical records). evidence). We also see women in embroidered bell-shaped skirts: they are also depicted in a skirmish, and they fight using a method truly “honored” by time - clutching each other’s hair. A couple of lovers are also depicted on the vessels - how reluctantly they part with each other... And next to them are curly-haired beauties in dresses that widen at the bottom, decorated with small bells, concentrating on spinning and weaving. Others are captured by the wild element of dance - they dance, selflessly spreading their arms. One of the women depicted plays the lyre, the favorite musical instrument of the Celts. Another, wearing a bell-shaped skirt tied tightly at the waist and tight trousers, sits on a horse. Here we also see a burial scene: the body of the deceased is taken to the grave on a four-wheeled funeral chariot.
The value of these images on vessels from Sopron is enormous, because they go back to those distant times about which we have no written evidence to complement the data of archaeological finds. From this era, apart from some tools and fragments of clothing from the salt mines of Hallstatt, almost no materials have survived to imagine how the Celts of that time looked and dressed.
The Hallstatt culture became the predecessor of the culture of the "classical" or "historical" Celts. It is with them that the era of the heyday of Celtic power is associated - between 600 and 220 AD. BC e., when the Celtic possessions extended from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and from the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Celtic culture of this period - starting from the middle of the 6th century BC. e. and further - received the name La Tène in science. The first discoveries of monuments of this culture were made at the settlement of Laten, located on Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland.
La Tène culture did not arise on its own. It owes its development to earlier cultures that existed in vast territories inhabited by Celtic tribes, as well as to extensive contacts between the Celts and ancient civilizations and the culture of the Scythian tribes. It is sometimes argued that there is nothing in common between the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. If we talk about art, then indeed, there is no direct continuity here. But all other roots of La Tène culture go directly back to Hallstatt.
From about 400 BC. e. The Celts became the dominant force in the areas north of the Alps - from France to Hungary. However, the ancient Celts were not a single nation and did not found their own state. They lived in separate tribes and principalities, sometimes federations of tribes were created. Their political unity did not go further than this.
The various tribes were ruled by kings, chiefs, or "nobles." But all the Celts spoke common language and had many similar features in everyday life and customs, which did not prevent them from waging fierce internecine wars. In his “Notes on the Gallic War,” Julius Caesar repeatedly notes the important, from his point of view, role of “oppidum” - Gallic cities where his troops could receive provisions, settle into winter quarters, and also take shelter during the retreat. From Caesar's notes it is clear that the oppidum were actually the first Celtic cities. These cities were the centers of political and economic life of the Celtic tribes. The city also played an important role in religious life - temples were located here and priests performed sacred functions. Many of the largest modern cities in Europe were founded by the Celts. These include London, Dublin, Paris, Bonn, Vienna, Geneva, Zurich, Bologna. Lyon, Leiden, Milan, Coimbra, Belgrade. Some of these cities moved somewhat, others remained in their original places, but they all retained their original meaning to the present day.
The entire space inhabited by the Celts was dominated by unified culture and a single language (with dialect differences). However, the ancient Celts did not have a written language. The unity of Celtic culture, which is still evident in quite vast and diverse territories, is evidenced primarily by archaeological data.
The religious beliefs of the Celts were one of the main factors connecting these tribes into a single whole. Despite the fact that each Celtic tribe had its own gods and corresponding mythology, at its core the religion of the Celts was united. Evidence of this is the existence of common Celtic gods, whose cult spread over large territories.
The Celts deified natural phenomena, rivers, mountains, animals; among their gods were trifaced deities, a ram-headed serpent, and small gnome spirits; in addition, there were many local gods. At the same time, the Celts very rarely depicted their deities in human form - obviously, they had a certain taboo on this matter. It is known that when in 278 BC. e. The Celts captured the famous Greek sanctuary at Delphi, their leader Brennus was outraged by the human appearance greek gods. This seemed to him blasphemy, for the Celts, deifying the forces of nature, always depicted them in the form of symbolic signs and figures.
In the general Celtic pantheon, the sky god Taranis, the patron goddess of horses Epona, and the triad of nursing goddesses were revered. Their images are repeatedly found in later times in all corners of the Celtic world. Among the main deities was Cernunos - Esus, who sometimes went into the underground kingdom of the dead and was then called Cernunos, then returned to earth - Esus. Cernunos - Esus symbolized the seasons: cold dead winter and blooming summer.
The Celts, in addition to the main gods, had numerous other deities of various kinds, as well as spirits - guardians of sacred springs and groves. The god of the tribe was considered the father of his people, the breadwinner and protector; in battles he was the leader, and in the festivities of the afterlife he was the host. The god's wife was considered the mother of the tribe, the guardian of the fertility of people and animals, and the guardian of the lands.
Later Celtic literary monuments and folklore testify to the sincere faith of the Celts in the afterlife, their conviction that a new birth awaits them in the “other” world, and their lack of fear of the afterlife. Otherworld the Celts were not at all like the dark and sinister underworld of the Mediterranean religions; on the contrary, they pictured it as a place full of the most desirable joys for a Celt - feasts, celebrations, duels, raids, hunting, racing, stories about exciting adventures, the love of beautiful women, enjoying the beauties of nature, etc.
The cult of the death's head is also associated with the religious ideas of the ancient Celts. Probably, the severed heads of enemies constituted not only the most significant trophy of the winner, but also had religious meaning, so the skulls were kept in the sanctuary. This custom was so widespread that one might even say that the severed head is a kind of symbol of the pagan religion of the Celts. One of the tales of the Welsh epic “The Mabinogion” says that the head of the giant Bran, cut off from his body at his own request, continued to live and was a good comrade and manager at feasts in the “other” world, distributing food and drinks to the gods.
Echoes of this cult can also be found in Celtic architecture. Thus, in Germany (near Pfalzfeld and Holzgerlingen) columns with images of human heads were found. The large Celtic sanctuary of Roquepertuse, located in the south of France, at the mouth of the Rhone, is associated with the cult of the death's head. A low portico of three rectangular stone pillars, with small niches in which human skulls were placed, was discovered here. On the stone block crowning the portico there was an image of a large bird of prey, as if about to take off.
There, in Roquepertuse, the now widely known so-called Bikephalus, a two-faced deity, was found. His two heads, carved life-size from local stone, are connected at the back of the head, and between them rises the beak of a bird of prey. An extremely vivid image created by Celtic religious ideas and artistic imagination was embodied in the statue of the Tarascus monster, also found in the south of France. The animal, somewhat similar to a lion, sits on its hind legs and holds a dead human head in its lowered front legs.
On the territory of modern France, Celtic tribes had several sacred places where tribal leaders regularly gathered to perform religious rituals and for general council. One of these most important places was Lugdunum (Lyon). And in the Orleans area, where in the town of Nevi-en-Sullia archaeologists found a whole group of bronze figures, there was probably a sanctuary of the Druids - a Celtic priestly caste, the teachings and rituals of which were kept strictly secret by the participants in the ceremonies.
All evidence about the Celts speaks of a clear division of Celtic society into three main classes: “noble” (priests, soothsayers, poets, warriors), free artisans and farmers, and, finally, slaves who made up the majority of the population. Relations between the three classes of Celtic society were carried out within the framework of the so-called Celtic law - a very ancient and most complex of European legal systems, which even the Romans had to reckon with. Celtic law established certain rights for every member of society, no matter how low his position; a person was deprived of the protection of the law only when he committed a serious crime - he was excommunicated from participating in sacrifices, and the tribe renounced him, condemning him to life as an outcast.
The peculiarities of the life of the Celts corresponded to their character, the natural conditions in which they happened to live, and their traditions. The life of the Celts was filled with hunting, war, predatory raids on other people's herds, cultivation of the land and religious ceremonies. Personal rivalry, the constant desire of leaders and warriors to stand out among their own kind gave a pleasant taste of risk and danger to the Celtic soul. And martial arts - the Celts’ favorite way to decide the outcome of a dispute - often arose for the most unexpected reasons. Celtic society, aristocratic in nature, thanks to the patronage and generosity of noble families, provided wide employment for artisans in a wide variety of specialties. Someone had to build and renovate the homes of the nobility, erect fortified towns on the tops of hills, and decorate sanctuaries. Celtic artisans created magnificent jewelry, vessels, and other household items, not only for their tribal leaders and their wives, but also for barter. Occupying a vast territory, the Celtic tribes differed from each other in the degree of their cultural level and, naturally, in the form of artistic expression.
Celtic art, in its significance and originality, is one of the outstanding phenomena of artistic development in the history of mankind. La Tène culture is especially characterized by the development of applied art. It is extremely unique and unlike any other. La Tène art reflects the independent thinking of the Celts, their passion for the supernatural, for dreaminess, and fabulousness. The aesthetic manifestations of this warehouse can be seen in the subtle and graceful works of art of the ancient Celts - in their beautifully finished weapons, jewelry, ceramics, sculpture, glass, coins, distinguished by an extremely original and surprisingly “modern” style. Abstraction, fantastic transformations, and the faces of imaginary creatures played a big role in the art of the Celts, and all this gave magical power to objects and decor.
The Celts loved beautiful things and spared no effort and skill in making even ordinary kitchen utensils, decorating them with complex ornaments. They were unsurpassed masters of metal chasing. Celtic jewelers owned different ways metal processing. Their products clearly show a penchant for complex ornamentation. Ornaments composed of petals, branches, leaves, images of animals and human heads are the main motifs in the decoration of weapons, jewelry, tombstones and religious monuments.
Jewelry was the passion of the Celts - both women and men. The most typical Celtic jewelry is the "torques", a gold necklace. This is a thick metal hoop, smooth or twisted from several stripes, ending either in balls, or a simple rectangular buckle, or a complex interweaving of stylized leaves and branches.
Bracelets were no less popular. They were worn by men and women throughout the Celtic world for several centuries. Celtic bracelets were usually decorated with large convex hemispheres arranged in different combinations. In general, Celtic gold jewelry, necklaces and bracelets come in a surprising variety of styles.
The desire for rich ornamentation is evidenced by cups taken from Greece and found by archaeologists in Germany. Their Celtic owners clearly felt that the cups were not ornate enough and covered their surfaces with gold foil. In general, when the Celts received Greco-Roman metal products, especially the bronze enochoi (wine jugs) so valued by them, they sought to further decorate them. Sometimes Celtic craftsmen even created copies of them, noticeably superior to the original.
Celtic art is characterized by the use of coral, a material that did not attract the attention of ancient masters. Later, when the corals of the Mediterranean went to markets Far East, it was replaced by red enamel, which remained a characteristic element of ornamentation until the end of the La Tène period.
Helmets made of sheet bronze, some inlaid with coral, have been discovered in a number of Celtic burial grounds. The richest of them is a helmet found near Amfreville-sur-le-Mont (France). This bronze headdress features a soldered gold hoop embossed with trefoils in fine spiral lines, a pattern so characteristic of Celtic design.
The art of the Celts was fully manifested in the minting of coins. Since each tribe had its own style of ornamentation, the study of Celtic coins presents a certain difficulty. Initially, Celtic coins were copies of the gold staters of Philip of Macedon (382–336 BC). On the front side of such a coin was depicted the head of Apollo in a laurel wreath, on the reverse - a two-horse chariot, a symbol of the Olympic Games. Over time, this motif underwent changes, acquiring typical Celtic features. At the same time, symbols characteristic of the Celts and abstract decorative elements were generously used - spirals, discs, trefoils. The images of horses lost their reality, they now looked like mythological creatures, some even had human heads; sometimes wild boars, birds, and snakes were depicted instead of horses.
What did the Celts look like and dress like? Some of them, for example, the Gauls, wore cloaks and ports, since they usually rode horses; others, particularly the Irish, who used chariots, dressed in tunics (long shirts with short sleeves) and cloaks. The ideal of male beauty was depicted by the Celts in the image of a tall, stately warrior, fair-haired, blue-eyed, powerful in body and spirit. The horse among the Celts was not just an animal used for carrying loads or for riding during hunting, but also an animal that they associated with some of their gods. The depiction of horses on Celtic coins and on all kinds of metal products, as well as their sculptural images, testify to the special respect the Celts had for this animal.
This people left its invisible, but still felt, imprint on many countries that later arose where the fortified settlements of the Celtic tribes were located. And their distant descendants, now living in the western part of the British Isles and in Brittany (France), managed to preserve a number of original elements of their ancient culture to this day.
Died Jindrich Wankel- Czech doctor, archaeologist and speleologist. The excavations he carried out in the sites of prehistoric man in the Moravian Karst region yielded important results on the history of the Czech Republic during the period of its settlement by man.
The Celts are a people formed from tribes that have lived in Western Europe since time immemorial. They were descendants of a once united prehistoric people, which is commonly called Indo-European. From this single ancient race subsequently came the Slavs, Germans, Persians, Latins, Goths (an extinct people) and even Indians. And just as Russians, Serbs and Belarusians, for example, are descendants of the Slavs, so are modern Scots, as well as The inhabitants of Wales - the Welsh, Bretons and Irish - have common ancestors - the Celts.
Five thousand years ago, a single, genetically homogeneous people, the Indo-Europeans, lived on the territory of the modern Krasnodar Territory of Russia.
At the beginning of the Bronze Age, these people managed to unravel the mystery of not only the creation of bronze weapons, but also domesticate the horse and invent the wheel. This led to a revolutionary breakthrough. Armed fast cavalry, convoys with provisions, the latest weapons, such were the Indo-Europeans. They began expansion, captured new territories in Europe and Asia, and subsequently became one of the most widespread groups of peoples on earth.
The Indo-Europeans of Western Europe formed a new community, the CELTS.
The center of the Celtic world was in the Alps, which is why the Celtic language group is also called Alpine.
The largest Celtic people are the Gauls. Even during the times of the Roman Empire, it was heavily influenced by Latin, practically losing its language. Then the Celtic kingdoms were attacked by the Germans; the Frankish tribe invaded from the north into the territory of modern France.
Things were different in Britain. Due to their remoteness, the Celts of Britain escaped enslavement by Rome and retained their language and culture. Three thousand years ago, the Celts developed the religious cult of the Druids. Huge stones placed vertically served the Druids as altars, as at Stonehenge. The Druid class had sacred sanctity and the Druids ruled Celtic society.
In Great Britain, the Celts appeared at the dawn of the Iron Age, approximately 600 years before Christ. They were disparate groups that did not recognize themselves as a single people.
Historical information about the Celts was first documented by the Romans, who invaded Albion two thousand years ago. They portray the Celts as dense barbarians, while the Romans naturally positioned themselves as an enlightened people. One can hardly trust such information, because the Celts were their enemies. The Celts were excellent warriors, living by robberies and raids; they were at enmity with the Romans and among themselves. The Celts did not have a single political center, simply put, they did not have kings, and each group of Celts obeyed only the leader of the clan.
These people created some of the greatest monuments of the ancient world, three thousand years before the advent of Rome, they built their stone fortifications, massive tombs and built the most famous ancient monument in Europe - Stonehenge. . The pagan tribes of the Celts did not have a written language, so we are left with few clues as to how they built these incredible structures, but five thousand years later, evidence of their art still stands on the ground.
