Celtica,
the story of us, 2.0
(sorry, for some reason some of the words are dark and i dont know why)
History has always appealed to me, even at a young age, I always
wanted to know the beginnings of the different peoples, I wanted to
know where we came from, I wanted to know where I came from.
Fortunately for me I had a mother who pointed me in the right
direction, the Bible, the ultimate book of history, I will tell you
all right now that I Believe what the Bible says word for word, I
believe that the Bible is infallible, foolproof, unfailing, and
unerring in every way.
I have heard all the arguments about errors in the Bible and have
listened to them, even read them and have found faults with all of
them, so do not try to convince me in any way that there are errors
in the Bible because their are none.
And if any of you become self-important I will not listen to you,
if you become abusive I will not return your comments, nor will I
respond to TROLLS, now that I have had a little rant and layed down
the rules, let us continue with the true subject of this Blog,
History.
I will say up front that all the information in this blog is of
my opinion of all the stuff I have read so far, the content of this
blog come from many different sources and I will try my best
reference them, if you want the source of particular content let me
know and I will try and find it for you.
If you think you see a mistake of any kind in my work tell me
about it and I will compare it with my sources, the
sources used in the
building of this unconventional, non mainstream, original history are
as follows.(most dates I
this blog are general and not exact, unless specified)
the Bible N/A
the book of Jasher(the
book of the upright, righteous)4,000 BC-1800 BC
the book of Jubilees?
the book of Enoch(Hebrew
version with a large grain of salt) 4,000 BC-1,800 BC
Jewish Legends?
the ancient stories of the
Celts(aka the Celtic histories or Celtic Legends) 2,500 BC- 1,000 BC
Lébor Gabála Érinn(the
book of the taking of Ireland) 2,800 BC- 2,000 BC
Chronicles of the Picts
and Scots
Chronicum Scotorum
Scotti Chronicon
Auraicept na nÉces
Oidheadh Cloinne Tuireann
the writings of Ephirus
300-289 BC
the writings of Josephus
50 AD- 80 AD
the writings of Pliny the
elder 100 BC
the writings of Livy(with
a large grain of salt) 300 BC
the writings of Bede 700
AD
the writings of Nennius,
History of Britain 600 AD
Ceaser’s Commentary
Ceaser’s Gallic Wars
To start us off, let us look at Genesis 10:2-5.
v2 the sons of Japheth.
Gomer Magog Madai Javan Tubal Meshech and Tiras.
v3 the sons of Gomer.
Ashkenaz Riphath Togarmah.
v4 the sons of Javan. Elishah Tarshish Kittim Rodanim.
v5 from these the people of the Gentiles were separated into
their lands, everyone according to his Language, according to there
Clans, into there own
Nations.
The 4 words underlined are the important one in these 4 verses,
Japheth is the father of all of Europe, Gomer is the father of
Ashkenaz/Ashkuzzay(a spreading fire) who is the father of the
Germanic Peoples, the Scythians, the Picts, and the Pritanii.
I use peoples instead of Races because the Bible says we are all
of one flesh, one blood, and that Adam was our father, no races, I am
brother to the Africans as well as the Asians, that being said let us
continue.
Gomer is also the father of Togarmah(bone breaker), who was the
father of the Turkish Peoples, the Alanni, the Magyar, the Avar and
possibly the Sarmations, I say possibly because there is some
discrepancies about them being Russian.
And lastly Gomer(aka Golamh) is the father of Riphath(spoken), in
old Hebrew and Celtic Genealogies he bares the name ”Riphath
Scot(hord or great family) Ben(son) Gomer”, when I saw the name
“Scot” I immediately became interested(i am proud of my Scottish
Heritage you know) and so I began digging.
Just so you know up front Riphath is the father of the Celtic
peoples and Clans (family/descendant), I will be getting into the
specifics of how this is true in just a moment, the original name for
the Celts was Celtáe{sell-tay}(ardent warrior), not said Kelt,
that's Latin, the Greek name for the Celts was Keltoi, both Kelt and
Keltoi mean “Foreigner”, like my mother says ”I before E accept
after C” so it is said SEL-TAY or just SELT, its the proper way to
say it, lets continue.
In verse 4 the word “Clans” are highlighted, to my knowledge
so far there are few peoples and or nations that use the term “Clan
or Clann” those peoples and or nations are relegated to the Celtáe,
to the Hebrews and also to the Ninja Clans of Japan.
The word “Clann” means children or descendants, at least in
Celtic that is, the term “Clann” is usually in reference to a
large group of people who are related to a common ancestor and or
bare the name of said ancestor, aka a large family.
The term “Tribe”(i do not have the meaning for Tribe at this
point) is almost always in reference to a large group of families
that are not necessarily related to one another or share a common
ancestor, a perfect example of this is the Germanic Tribes(not
picking on Germans or any other Germanic peoples), Germanic Tribes
were constantly mixing with on another making it difficult to share a
common ancestor, more like common ancestors(there is nothing wrong
with this unless you are trying to track down a specific ancestor).
Israel is different in this because they incorporate both tribes
and clans, there are the 12 tribes of Israel and every tribe has
multiple clans within them, if anyone knows of other examples of
clans being used I other peoples or nations then please comment.
Now on to the Heart, Juice, and or Pulp of the matter at hand,
tracing Celtic ancestry back to Riphath, or visa versa.
To begin with let us look at Riphath’s son, now I must admit
that I have had some trouble with this one, when searching for
Riphath I have found all sorts of names pertaining to him from both
Hebrew and Celtic Genealogies, Riphath Scot Ben Gomer, Ben Riphath
Scot, or just Riphath Scot seems to be the more common one.
Now that we have established that the Bible started the first 3
Generations(Japheth,Gomer and Riphath) let us look farther afield for
the rest of his decedents, to go farther than Riphath Scot we need to
look at the Genealogies of both Jasher and Lébor
Gabála Érinn.
In Jasher Riphath’s decendents are the Bartonim
People(Britain?), in Lébor
Gabála Érinn he is the
father of the Celtáe, Scythians, Picts, and Pritani, some Bible
Encyclopedias say that Riphath is the father of the Ŕhíbii people(
according to someone called Knobel,
if
you know who this is please comment).
The
Ŕhíbii are supposedly connected to the Rhipaean Mountains, which
Knobel (Volkert. p. 44) identifies etymologically and geographically
with the Carpathian range in the northeast of Dacia, and the
river Rhebas, in Bithynia (Bochart don't know who he is); the Rhibii,
a people living eastward of the Caspian Sea (Schulthess, I don't know
who he is ether).
This latter bit actually dose fit with the account in Lébor
Gabála Érinn accept
that the Ŕhíbii are not mentioned, in fact the decedents of Riphath
are not given a name until Mil, son of Íth,
after him they are called “Milesians”.
The
Lébor
Gabála Érinn is
very long, wordy, and hard to read with its grammar, about 70
Pages(not as long as some books but still hard to read), beneath is
my attempt at tracking the Genealogy within the Lébor
Gabála Érinn, I
say it is hard because some of the people within have multiple
names(some times up to 3).
From
what I can make out from Lébor
Gabála Érinn the
Scottish
were the first humans to settle in Ireland(no offense to my Irish
brothers and sisters....... well, cousins I guess), I
don't consider the Gaileoin, Fir-Domnann, Fir-Bolg(Fomorians), or the
De-Danann to be humans, I suspect that they are of the Nephilim(earth
bound), offspring of the fallen Angels after the flood.
(if
you do not agree with my thinking in this area then go listen to
Parry Stone on the Nephilim, if you still don't agree with me, tough
Noogies........PS, I might get into the Nephilim in another blog)
The Lébor
Gabála Érinn talks
about the Scotic Language from which the Gaelic languages came from,
now
there were 2 Mils in the Lébor
Gabála Érinn, Mil
son of Íth,
and Mil son of Bíle,
from what I can tell the latter Mil was the father of the Gallic
Clans, and the Brythionic Clans who came to Britain in 400 BC.
In
the Declaration of Arbroath the Scottish nobles talked
about how they came out of Scythia and through Spain before coming to
Britain, this also matches what was said in the Lébor
Gabála Érinn, now
from
what I have read it seems
that the Celtáe were Mercenaries that kept bouncing between Scythia
and Egypt before they finally settling
in Ireland and Scotland.
I
must also point out that there are many people(myself included) who
have seen a lot of similarities between the Celtáe and the Hebrews,
the most obvious on is language structure, the grammar systems
between the two look as though they both come from the same school,
and the Celtic language is not even Semitic in any way.
As
far as grammar goes Celtic and Hebrew are similar in VSO(verb,
subject, object), Inflected Preposition in Possession and Obligation,
Resumptive Pronouns in Relitive Clauses, Definite Articles but no
Indefinite Articles, Construct
State Genitive, Possessive
Genitive, Subordinate Clauses and
so on.
So
why the similarities, my guess is that when the Celtáe traveled
between Scythia and Egypt they traveled through Israel, in the book
of Jasher chapter 24 verse 8 it tells a little bit more about the 3
witnesses to the land that Abraham bought from Ephron, one of them is
mentioned as a Gomerite, a Gomerite.
I
know its very little to go on, but if you remember, Gomer had 3 sons,
Ashkenaz(Ashkuzzay= a spreading fire) Riphath Scot Ben Gomer, and
Togormah, I have a one in three chance of being right, and it is the
best theory I have right now, if any one has more information on the
subject please comment.
Here
is the map of the travels of the Celtáe.
I
will not tell of Mil’s battle with the Nephilim tribes of Britain,
you can read about that in the Lébor
Gabála Érinn or
wait until I write about it in another blog, this one is about
beginings, the Genesis of the Celtáe so let us begin.
The
Celtáe
The
Celtáe
were a family
group of clan societies in Iron Age Europe. Proto-Celtic culture
formed in the Early Iron Age (1200 BC-400 AD) in Central Europe
(Hallstatt period, named for the site in present-day Austria). By the
later Iron Age (La Tène period), this Celtic culture had expanded
over a wide range of lands, whether by diffusion or migration: to the
British Isles (Insular Celts), the Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians),
much of Central Europe, (Gauls) and following the Gallic invasion of
the Balkans (Dacians)in 279 BC as far east as central Anatolia
(Galatians), in
1,552
B.C. the Celts came over the Alps to plunder and raid.
The
Danube-Rhine river acted as a nateral berrier, stoping the Scythians
advance. The Celts were a brake off from the Scythians, during
1800
B.C. the Balkins under went a power strugle between the Celts and the
Scythians.
The
Tartessian language, along with the Island Alphabet Ogham, may be the
earliest directly arrested Celtic language, the Tartessian written
script used in the inscriptions based on a version of a Phoenician
script in use around 825 BC.
The
next directly attested examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic
inscriptions, beginning from the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic
languages are attested only in inscriptions and place-names.
Insular
Celtic is attested from about the 11th century BC in Ogham
inscriptions, although it is clearly much earlier. Literary tradition
begins with Old Irish from about the 8th century BC. Coherent texts
of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The
Cattle Raid of Cooley), survive in 12th-century recensions.
By
the early 1st millennium AD, following the expansion of the Roman
Empire and the Great Migrations (Migration Period) of Germanic
peoples, Celtic culture had become restricted to the British Isles
(Insular Celtic), and the Continental Celtic languages ceased to be
widely used by the 6th century AD.
Insular
Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels, the Welsh and the
Bretons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern "Celtic
identity" was constructed in the context of the Romanticist
Celtic Revival, mostly in Great Britain and Ireland.
Names
of the Celts
The
origin of the various names used since classical and Biblical times
for the peoples known today as the Celts or Celtáe is obscure and
has been controversial. The Latin name Celtus (pl. Celti ) seems to
have been borrowed from Greek (; Greek Keltai or Keltoi), itself
taken from a native Celtic tribal name of Celtáe (ardent or
passionate warriors).
In
Greek, the first literary reference to the Celtic people, as
Keltai(Keltoi), is by the Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus in 517
BC; he says that the town of Massilia (Marseille) is near the Celts
and also mentions a Celtic town of Nyrex (possibly Noreia in
Austria).
To this day the Celtic language is the oldest Vernacular Language in
all of Europe, in 222 BC Rehea-Slilvia, chieftain of the Insúbres
Clann attacked the roman town of Telamon and then was beaten back,
one of the prisoners captured was Caecilius-Statius, he became a
slave for a few years and after learning the Latin Language he became
a Comic Dramatist, after finding out that the romans did not have an
Alphabet or Writing System of their own he created one for them, he
wrote down 42 Plays that are still in use to this day, the 1st
ones ever recorded in history, later he became one of the Prominent
Roman Writers in the Classical World.
Herodotus
seems to locate the Keltoi at the source of the Danube and/or in
Iberia, but the passage is unclear. The English word Celt is modern,
attested from 1707 in the writings of Edward Lhuyd whose work, along
with that of other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic
attention to the languages and history of these early inhabitants of
Great Britain.
Latin
Gallus might originally be from a Celtic Clann name, perhaps borrowed
into Latin during the Celtic expansions into Italy of the early 5th
century BC.
Its
root may be the Common Celtic *galno, meaning "power" or
"strength". The Greek Galatai seems to be based on the same
root, borrowed directly from the same Celtic source which gave us
Galli (the suffix -atai is simply an ethnic name indicator). (see
Galatia in Anatolia) The English form Gaul (first recorded in the
17th century) and Gaulish come from the French Gaule and Gaulois,
which translate Latin Gallia and Gallus, -icus respectively. In Old
French, the words gualeis, galois, walois (NF phonetics keeping /w/)
had different meanings : Welsh or the Langue d'oïl, etc.
On
the other hand, the word Waulle (NF phonetics keeping /w/) is
recorded for the first time in the 13th century to translate the
Latin word Gallia and then, gaulois is recorded for the first time in
the 15th century and the scholars use it to translate the Latin words
Gallus / Gallicus. The word comes from Germanic *Walha-. (see Gaul:
Name).
The
English word 'Welsh' originates from the word wælisc, the
Anglo-Saxon form of walhiska-, the Germanic word for "foreign"
or "Celt" (South. German Welsch(e) 'Celtic speaker',
'French speaker', ' Italian speaker'; Old Norse valskr, pl. valir
'Gaulish', 'French'), that is supposed to be derived of the Celtic
tribe's name Volcae, that lived first in the South of Germany and
emigrated then to Gaul.
Celticity'
generally refers to the cultural commonalities of these peoples,
based on similarities in language, material artifacts, social
organisation Family Lineage and mythological factors,t this indicated
a common racial origin but more recent theories are reflective of
culture and language rather than race.
Celtic
cultures seem to have had numerous diverse characteristics but the
commonality used language between these diverse peoples was the use
of a main Celtic language. 'Celtic' is a descriptor of a family of
languages and, more generally, means 'of the Celts,' 'in the style of
the Celts' and related to the Celts.
It
has also been used to refer to several archaeological cultures
defined by unique sets of artifacts. The link between language and
artifact is aided by the presence of inscriptions. (see Celtic
(disambiguation) for other applications of the term).
Today,
the term 'Celtic' is generally used to describe the languages and
respective cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle
of Man and Brittany Gaelica Asturas and Cantibria, also known as the
Nine Celtic Nations.
These
are the regions where four Celtic languages are still spoken to some
extent as mother tongues: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and
Breton plus two recent revivals, Cornish (one of the Brythonic
languages) and Manx (one of the Goidelic languages).Sadly the Iberian
languages( Gaelica Asturas and Cantibria) are all but extinct due to
the Inqusition.
There
are also attempts to reconstruct the Cumbric language (a Brythonic
language from Northwest England and Southwest Scotland). 'Celtic' is
also sometimes used to describe regions of Continental Europe that
have Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language has survived;
these areas include the western Iberian Peninsula, i.e. Portugal, and
north-central Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castile and León,
Extremadura), and to a lesser degree, France.
'Continental
Celts' refers to the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe.
'Insular Celts' refers to the Celtic-speaking people of the British
Isles and their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their
language from migrating insular Celts from west Britain and so are
grouped accordingly.
Overview
of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures.
The
territories of some major Celtic clans of the late La Tène period
are labeled as such.The Celtic languages form a branch seprat from
the Indo-European family. By the time speakers of Celtic languages
enter history around 1112 BC (Celtic attack on Delphi in 700 BC),
they were already split into several language groups, and spread over
most of Europe, most of the Iberian peninsula,and all of Ireland and
Britain.
Some
scholars think that the Urnfield culture of northern Germany and the
Netherlands represents an origin for one branch of the Celtic
family(not Germans). This culture was preeminent in central Europe
during the late Bronze Age, from 900 BC until 700 BC, The Urnfield
period saw a dramatic increase in population in the region, probably
due to innovations in technology and agricultural practices.
The
Greek historian Ephoros of Cyme in Asia Minor, writing in the 4th
century BC, believed that the Celts came from the Scythians off the
mouth of the Rhine who were "driven from their homes by the
frequency of wars with the Scythians.
The
spread of iron-working led to the development of the Hallstatt
culture directly from the Urnfield (. 700 to 500 BC). Proto-Celtic,
the latest common ancestor of all known Celtic languages, is
considered by this school of thought to have been spoken at the time
of the late Urnfield or early Hallstatt cultures, in the early 1st
millennium BC.
The
spread of the Celtic languages from Iberia to Ireland and Britain
would have occurred during the first half of the 8th
century BC, the earliest chariot burials in Britain dating to 700 BC.
Over
the centuries these languages developed into the Celtáe languages
that separated into Celtiberian, Goidelic and Brythonic languages.
The Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the La Tène culture of
central Europe, and during the final stages of the Iron Age gradually
transformed into the explicitly Celtic culture of early historical
times.
Celtic
river-names are found in great numbers around the upper reaches of
the Danube and Rhine, which led many Celtic scholars to place the
ethnogenesis of the Celts in this area. Diodorus Siculus and Strabo
both suggest that the Celtic heartland was west of the Balkins. The
former says that the Celts were to the south of the Balkins.
Before
the discoveries at Hallstatt and La Tene, it was generally considered
that the Celtic heartland was west of the Balkins, see Encyclopædia
Britannica for 1813. Martín Almagro Gorbea proposed the origins of
the Celts could be traced back to the 3rd millennium BC, seeking the
initial roots in the Scythian culture, thus offering the wide
dispersion of the Celts throughout western Europe, as well as the
variability of the different Celtic Clanns, and the existence of
ancestral traditions and ancient perspective.
The
rivers Danube, Rhine, and Rhone all can trace their names back to
Celtáe roots, Danube comes from the Celtic name Danuvius=Divine
Waters, the name Rhine comes from the name Rhenus=Sea Way, and lastly
the Rhone comes from Rhodanus=Great Divine Waters, Rho or Rh means
“Great”
Genetics
suggests the Celts were descendants of people who originated in
southwest Asia(Scythia) between 2.000 and 1.830 BC. Celtic origin
legends recorded in Medieval Scotland and Ireland suggest a possible
beginning in the Crimea and then to Iberia via Egypt.
It
has been noted that the distribution of the genetics for lactase
persistence apparently originating near the Caspian Sea between 2.000
and 1.830 indicates a spread from there to both the British Isles and
to Iberia.
This
is somewhat corroborated by the book of Jasher and by the Lébor
Gabála Érinn, the
general idea is that the Scythians are Cousins to the Celtáe in
someway, also for about 800 or so years the Celtáe bounced between
Scythia and Egypt as Mercenaries selling their swords to the highest
bidder.
In
this time they were said to fight against the Tuscans, the
Langobardi, the
Barchu, the
Princedom of the Scythians, and the Egyptians
Proto-Celtic
language
The
Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the early European Iron
Age. The earliest records of a Celtic language are the Lepontic
inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul, the oldest of which still predate the
La Tène period. Other early inscriptions are Gaulish, appearing from
the early La Tène period in inscriptions in the area of Massilia, in
the Greek alphabet.
Celtiberian
inscriptions appear comparatively late, after about 600 BC. Evidence
of Insular Celtic is available only from about 700 BC, in the form of
Primitive Celtic Ogham inscriptions. Besides epigraphical evidence,
an important source of information on early Celtic is toponymy.
As
I mentioned earlier on, there are Many similarities between Celtic
and Hebrew, judging by the account in the Lébor
Gabála Érinn the
Celtáe traveled between Scythia and Egypt, by
land they would have to pass through the land known today as Israel.
Abraham
lived around 2052-1877
BC, well within the time the Celtáe were traveling back and fourth,
the reason I mention Abraham is because of what the book of Jasher
says.
“.......and
he(Abraham) brought all the children of the earth to the service of
Elohim and he taught them the ways of Yahweh and caused them to know
Yahweh.
And
he(Abraham) formed a grove and he planted a vineyard therein, and he
had always prepared in his tent meat and drink to those that passed
through the land, that they might satisfy themselves in his
house..........”
both
Shem and his son Eber are described in similar fashion so it is
possible that the Celts visited these 3 men and learned to write in
in similar pattern
of grammar, it is possible that ether Nel, Gaedil-Glas, or Esru Maq
Rifad were the leaders of the Celts at that time
Iron
Age Europe The Hallstatt Culture
In
various academic disciplines the Celts were considered a Central
European Iron Age phenomenon, through the cultures of Hallstatt and
La Tène. However, archaeological finds from the Hallstatt and La
Tène cultures were rare in the Iberian Peninsula, and did provide
enough evidence for a cultural scenario comparable to that of Central
Europe.
It
is considered equally easy to maintain that the origin of the
Peninsular Celts can be linked to the preceding Urnfield culture,
leading to a more recent approach that introduces a 'proto-Celtic'
substratum and a process of Celticization having its initial roots in
the Bronze Age Scythian culture.
The
Iron Age Hallstatt (c. 800-475 BC) and La Tène (c. 500-50 BC)
cultures are typically associated with Proto-Celtic and Celtic
culture. The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the
late Iron Age (from 550 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 definite cultural
break, under the impetus of considerable Mediterranean influence from
Greek, and later Etruscan civilizations. A shift of settlement
centres took place in the 4th century. The western La Tène culture
corresponds to historical Celtic.
This
means that the whole of La Tène culture can be attributed to a
unified Celtic people is easy to assess; archaeologists have
repeatedly concluded that language, material culture, and political
affiliation run parallel.
Frey
notes that in the 5th century, "burial customs in the Celtic
world were not uniform; rather, localised groups had their own
beliefs, which, in consequence, also gave rise to distinct artistic
expressions". Thus, while the La Tène culture is certainly
associated with the Celts, the presence of La Tène artefacts may be
due to cultural contact and implys the permanent presence of Celtic
speakers.
Hallstatt
& La Tene cultures
Polybius
published a history of Rome about 150 BC in which he describes the
Gauls of Italy and their conflict with Rome. Pausanias in the 2nd
century BC says that the Gauls "originally called Celts live on
the remotest region of Europe on the coast of an enormous tidal sea".
Posidonius
described the southern Gauls about 100 BC. Though his original work
is lost it was used by later writers such as Strabo. The latter,
writing in the early 1st century AD, deals with Britain and Gaul as
well as Hispania, Italy and Galatia.
Caesar
wrote extensively about his Gallic Wars in 58-51 BC. Diodorus Siculus
wrote about the Celts of Gaul and Britain in his 1st-century history.
Continental
Celts of Gaul ca. 54 BC
Gauls
At the dawn of history in Europe, the Celts then living in what is
now France were known as Gauls to the Romans. The territory of these
peoples probably included the low countries, the Alps and what is now
northern Italy. Their descendants were described by Julius Caesar in
his Gallic Wars. Eastern Gaul was the center of the western La Tène
culture.
In
later Iron Age Gaul, the social organization was similar to that of
the Romans, with large towns. From the 3rd century BC the Gauls
adopted coinage, and texts with Greek characters are known in
southern Gaul from the 2nd century.
Greek
traders founded Massalia in about 600 BC, with exchange up the Rhone
valley, but trade was disrupted soon after 500 BC and re-oriented
over the Alps to the Po valley in Italy. The Romans arrived in the
Rhone valley in the 2nd century BC and encountered a Gaul that was
mostly Celtic-speaking but could converse in Greek as well.
Rome
needed land communications with its Iberian provinces and fought a
major battle with the Saluvii at Entremont in 124-123 BC. Gradually
Roman control extended, and the Roman Province of Gallia Transalpina
was formed along the Mediterranean coast. The remainder was known as
Gallia Comata - "Hairy Gaul".
In
58 BC, the Helvetii planned to migrate westward but were forced back
by Julius Caesar. He then became involved in fighting the various
clans in Gaul, and by 55 BC, most of Gaul had been overrun.
In
52 BC, Vercingetorix led a revolt against the Roman occupation and
won a major battle at Gergovia but was defeated at the siege of
Alesia and surrendered. Following the Gallic Wars of 58-51 BC, the
Celticia clan formed the main part of Roman Gaul. Place name analysis
shows that Celtic was used around the Garonne river, the Seine, and
the Marne.
Celtiberians.
(The
peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, Prehistoric Iberia, Hispania,
Lusitania, Gallaecia, and Celtici)
Until
the end of the 19th century, traditional scholarship dealing with the
Celts acknowledged their presence in the Iberian Peninsula as a
material culture relatable to the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures.
Since
according to the definition of the Iron Age in the 19th century
Celtic populations were rare in Iberia and did not provide a cultural
scenario that could easily be linked to that of Central Europe.
Three
divisions of the Celts of the Iberian Peninsula were assumed to have
existed: the Celtiberians in the mountains near the center of the
peninsula, the Celtici in the southwest, and the Lusitanian Celts in
the northwest.
Modern
scholarship, however, has clearly proven that Celtic presence and
influences were most substantial in Iberia (with perhaps the highest
settlement saturation in Western Europe), particularly in the western
and northern regions. The Celts in Iberia were divided into tree main
archaeological and cultural groups, even though that division is not
very clear.
One
group was spread out along Galicia and the Iberian Atlantic shores.
They were made up of the Lusitanians (in Portugal) and the Celtic
region that Strabo called Celtica in the southwestern Iberian
peninsula, including the Algarve, which was inhabited by the Celtici,
the Vettones and Vacceani peoples (of central-western Spain and
Portugal), and the Gallaecian, Astures and Cantabrian peoples of the
Castro culture of northern and northwestern Spain and Portugal.
The
Celtiberian group of central Spain and the upper Ebro valley
originated when Celts migrated from Scythia and settled in Spain. The
origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to understanding
culture. The process of celticization of the southwestern area of the
peninsula by the Keltoi and of the northwestern area is, however, not
a simple celtiberian question.
Recent
investigations about the Callaici and Bracari in northwestern
Portugal are providing new approaches to understanding Celtic culture
(language, art and religion) in western Iberia.
Alps
and Po Valley
(History
of the Alps and Lepontii)
It
had been known for some time that there was an early, although
apparently somewhat limited, Celtic (Lepontic, sometimes called
Cisalpine Celtic) presence in Northern Italy since inscriptions dated
to the 6th century BC have been found there.
The
site of Golasecca, where the Ticino exits from Lake Maggiore, was
particularly suitable for long-distance exchanges, in which
Golaseccans acted as intermediaries between Etruscans and the
Halstatt culture of Austria, supported on the all-important trade in
salt.
In
391 BC Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps streamed
through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that
lay between the Appennine mountains and the Alps" according to
Diodorus Siculus. The Po Valley and the rest of northern Italy (known
to the Romans as Cisalpine Gaul) was inhabited by Celts who founded
cities such as Milan.
Later
the Roman army was routed at the battle of Allia and Rome was sacked
in 390 BC by the Senones under Brennus. At the battle of Telamon in
225 BC a large Celtic army was trapped between two Roman forces and
crushed.
The
defeat of the combined Samnite, Celtic and Etruscan alliance by the
Romans in the Third Samnite War sounded the beginning of the end of
the Celtic domination in mainland Europe, but it was not until 192 BC
that the Roman armies conquered the last remaining independent Celtic
kingdoms in Italy.
The
Celts had some scattered settlement further south of the Po River
than some maps show. Remnants in the town of Doccia, in the province
of Emilia-Romagna, showcase Celtic houses in very good condition
dating from about the 4th century BC.
Gallic
invasion of the Balkans
by
the 1st century BC The Celts also expanded down the Danube river and
its tributaries. One of the most influential clans, the Scordisci,
had established their capital at Singidunum in 3rd century BC, which
is present-day Belgrade, Serbia.
The
concentration of hill-forts and cemeteries shows a density of
population in the Tisza valley of modern-day Vojvodina, Serbia,
Hungary and into Romania. Expansion into Russia was however blocked
by the Scythians.
The
cousins
of the Celts as were the Cambrii, progenitors
of
the Picts who
were subjigated by the Scythians.
Further south, Celts settled in Thrace (Bulgaria), which they ruled
for over a century, and Anatolia, where they settled as the Galatians
(see also: Gallic Invasion of Greece).
Despite
their geographical isolation from the rest of the Celtic world, the
Galatians maintained their Celtic language for at least seven hundred
years. St Jerome, who visited Ancyra (modern-day Ankara) in 373 AD,
likened their language to that of the Treveri of northern Gaul.
The
Boii clan gave their name to Bohemia, Bologna and possibly Bavaria,
and Celtic artefacts and cemeteries have been discovered further east
in what is now Poland and Slovakia. A celtic coin (Biatec) from
Bratislava's mint is displayed on today's Slovak 5 crown coin.
As
there is archaeological evidence for large scale invasions in some of
the other areas, The current school of thought holds that Celtic
language and culture spread to those areas by invasion. The Celtic
invasions of Italy and the expedition in Greece and western Anatolia,
are well documented in Greek and Latin history.
There
are records of Celtic mercenaries in Egypt serving the Ptolemies.
Thousands were employed in 283-246 BC and they were also in service
around 186 BC. They attempted to overthrow Ptolemy II.c nvas
Insular
Celts
Iron
Age Britain, Gaels, Britons (historic), and Genetic history of the
British Isles Principal sites in Roman Britain, with indication of
the Celtic clan. Clans of Wales at the time of the Roman invasion.
Exact boundaries are conjectural. Some Celtic daggers and a lot
Celtic longswords were found in Britain France and Spain.
.A
large portion of the populations of Britain and Ireland today are
descended from the ancient Celts that have long inhabited these
lands, long before the coming of Rome and later Saxons and Vikings,
language and culture.
A
lot is known of their Ancestry, but remnants of the latter may remain
in the names of some geographical features, such as the rivers Clyde,
Tamar and Thames, whose etymology is unclear but possibly from a
Celtic presence (Gelling).
By
the Roman period, however, all of the inhabitants of the isles of
Ireland and Britain were speaking Goidelic or Brythonic languages,
close counterparts to the Celtic languages spoken on the European
mainland.
Historians
explained this as the result of successive invasions from the
European continent by diverse Celtic clans over the course of several
centuries, though this is now generally seen as only the elite.
The
Book of Leinster, written in the 12th century, but drawing on a much
earlier Irish oral tradition, states that the first Celts to arrive
in Ireland were from Iberia. In 1946 the Celtic scholar T. F.
O'Rahilly published his extremely influential model of the early
history of Ireland which postulated four separate waves of Celtic
invaders.
It
is still not known what spacific languages were spoken by the peoples
of Ireland and Britain before the arrival of the Romans. Later
research indicated that the culture may have developed gradually and
continuously between the Romans and the Celtic peoples of Britain and
Spain.
Similarly
in Britain archaeological evidence was found for large intrusive
groups of Celtic immigrants, suggesting to archaeologists such as
Colin Renfrew that the native late Bronze Age Celts gradually
absorbed Roman influences and language.
Julius
Caesar wrote of people in Britain who came from Belgium (the Belgae),
Archaeological evidence which was interpreted in the 1930s as
confirming this. The archaeological evidence is of substantial
cultural continuity through the first millennium BC, although with a
significant overlay of selectively-adopted elements of La Tène
culture.
There
are claims of continental-style states appearing in southern England
close to the end of the period, possibly reflecting in part
immigration by élites from various Celtic states such as those of
the Belgae. This immigration would account for the origins of other
Celtic languages.
It
is possible that Stonehenge was built by one of the four Nephilim
tribes in Britain before the coming of the Celtáe, some
Archaeologists say there was a people in Britain called the
Beaker-people because of numerous clay beakers that look as if they
were baked with yarn around the outside.
To
me this dose not make sense, the beakers are human size so it could
not have been any of the Nephilim tribes, genetics say there ar no
other peopes mixed with the Celts in this case, so who are they, my
guess is that these Beaker-People are just early Celts, if you are
always on the move you will not have time to develop art, that's just
Common-Sense.
Genetic
studies have supported the prevalence of native populations, ruling
out any model of post-Bronze Age cultural and language intrusion that
ignore a very high degree of genetic absorption.
A
study by Christian Capelli, David Goldstein and others at University
College, London showed that genetic markers associated with Gaelic
names in Ireland and Scotland are also common in certain parts of
Wales and England (in most cases, The Southeast of England with the
lowest counts of these markers) are similar to the genetic markers of
the Celtic people, who speak a non-Indo-European language.
This
similarity supported earlier findings in suggesting a large Celtic
genetic ancestry, likely going back to the Paleolithic(post-Tower of
Babel). They suggest that Celtic culture and the Celtic language may
have been imported to Britain by invasions around 600 BC.
Some
recent studies have suggested that, contrary to long-standing
beliefs, the Germanic tribes (Saxons) did not wipe out the
Romano-British of England but rather, over the course of six
centuries, conquered the native Brythonic people of what is now
England and south-east Scotland and imposed their culture and
language upon them, as much as the Gaelics may have spread over
Northern Britain.
This
view is supported by the Celtic, or at least non-Germanic, names of
some prominent early members of a number of"Saxon"
dynasties, such as Cerdic of Wessex and Penda of Mercia.
The
Pennines remained a stronghold for Brythonic culture in England, the
Cumbric language survived until the 12th century, whereas in isolated
areas of East Anglia, a Brythonic language was only recorded as late
as the Saxon period.
Parts
of the Brythonic culture still survives in the form of the
Northumbrian smallpipes and Wrestling (Lancashire and Cumbrian
wrestling). Still, others maintain that the picture is mixed and that
in some places the indigenous population was indeed wiped out while
in others it was assimilated.
According
to this school of thought the populations of Yorkshire, East Anglia,
Northumberland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands are those
populations with the fewest traces of ancient (Celtic) British
continuation, probably because these are eastern areas which were
exposed to invasion from the East by Saxons and Vikings.
The
Celtic invasion of the British Isles is difficult to document
genetically. Two published books - The Blood of the Isles by Bryan
Sykes and The Origins of the British: a Genetic Detective Story by
Stephen Oppenheimer - are based upon recent genetic studies, and show
that the vast majority of Britons have ancestors from the Iberian
Peninsula, as a result of a series of migrations that took place
during the Mesolithic and, to a lesser extent, the Neolithic eras.
Sykes
sees little genetic evidence relating to people from the heartland of
the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures. On the paternal side he finds
that the "Oisin" (R1b) clan is in the majority which has
strong affinities to Iberia, with no evidence of a large scale
arrival from Central Europe.
He
considers that the genetic structure of Britain and Ireland is
"Celtic, if by that he means descent from people who were here
before the Romans and who spoke the Celtic languages."
But
this language was the result of migration, and the vast majority of
the inhabitants of the British Isles, whether they consider
themselves to be" Saxon"or "Celt" , are descended
from the original Mesolithic(also post-Tower of Babel)
hunter-gatherers(I consider this term derogatory) who migrated north
from Iberia approximately 4.300 years ago at the end of the last ice
age.
Evidence
for Celts in England can be found in place names, such as those
including the Old English element, 'wealh', meaning 'foreigner' or
'stranger'. A smattering of villages around the Fenland town of
Wisbech hint at this.
West
Walton, Walsoken, and the Walpoles indicate the continued presence of
an indigenous population, and Wisbech, King's Lynn and Chatteris
retain proto-Celtic topographical elements.
Villages
which exhibit Tydd in their name, e.g. Tydd St. Giles may obtain that
element from the Brythonic word for "small holding".
Compare the Welsh "tyddyn". Saxon Etheldreda's 'Liber
Eliensis' documents the Fenland tribe of the Girvii (Gywre), who are
cited elsewhere as being an independent people with dark hair and
their own (Brythonic?) language.
It
is entirely possible that the Girvii were formed in part by migrating
Britons, displaced by Saxon settlers after the legions left the
Isles.
Romanisation
Under Caesar the Romans conquered Celtic Gaul, and from Claudius
onward the Roman empire absorbed parts of Britain. Roman local
government of these regions closely mirrored pre-Roman 'tribal'
boundaries, and archaeological finds suggest native involvement in
local government.
Latin
was the official language of these regions after the conquests. The
native peoples under Roman rule became Romanized and keen to adopt
Roman ways. Celtic art had already incorporated classical influences,
and surviving Gallo-Roman pieces interpret classical subjects or keep
faith with old traditions despite a Roman overlay.
The
Roman occupation of Gaul, and to a lesser extent of Britain, led to
Roman-Celtic syncretism (see Roman Gaul, Roman Britain). In the case
of the continental Celts, this eventually resulted in a language
shift to Vulgar Latin (see also Gallo-Roman culture), while the
Insular Celts retained their language.
However,
the Celts were master horsemen, which so impressed the Romans that
they adopted Epona, the Celtic horse goddess, into their pantheon.
During and after the fall of the Roman Empire many parts of France
threw out their Roman administrators.
Society
To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian
Celtic social structure based formally on class and kingship.
Relationships similar to those of Roman society are also described by
Caesar and others in the Gaul of the 1st century BC.
In
the main, the evidence is of tribes(made up of multiple Clanns) being
led by kings, although some argue that there is evidence of
oligarchical republican forms of government eventually emerging in
areas in close contact with Rome.
Most
descriptions of Celtic societies describe them as being divided into
three groups: a warrior aristocracy; an intellectual group including
professions such as druid, poet, and jurist; and everyone else.
There
are instances recorded where man and women participated both in
warfare and in kingship, They were not in the minority as first
thought. In historical times, the offices of high and low kings and
queens in Ireland and Scotland were filled by election under the
system of tanistry, which eventually came into conflict with the
feudal principle of primogeniture where the succession goes to the
first born son.
Early records show that everyone in the Early-Clans could wield a
sword, the chieftain was not so high that he did not tend his own
flocks and grow his own gardens, he was one of the clan, but he was
elected by the clan to lead them, that was the only difference, even
the chieftain’s sons and daughters worked the fields.
This Old-System of the clans was left behind with the coming of
the Feudalism
The popular stereotype of non-urbanised societies settled in
hillforts and duns, drawn from Britain and Ireland (there are about
3,000 hill forts known in Britain) contrasts with the urban
settlements present in the core Hallstatt and La Tene areas, with the
many significant oppida of Gaul late in the first millennium BC, and
with the towns of Gallia Cisalpina.
Slavery as practiced by the Celts was not likely similar to the
better documented practice in ancient Greece and Rome. Slaves were
acquired from war, raids, penal and debt servitude, however you were
not allowed to mistreat a slave because it was thought that the
slave’s predicament was just misfortune, to mistreat a slave was to
bring dishonor upon you and your family for generations, honor was at
the core of Celtic Society.
Slavery was not hereditary, although manumission was practiced.
The Old Irish word for slave, cacht, and the Welsh term caeth are
likely derived from the Latin captus, captive, suggesting that slave
trade was an early venue of contact between Latin and Celtic
societies.
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 a general unit of
value in Ireland.
There is archaeological evidence to suggest that the pre-Roman
Celtic societies were linked to the network of overland trade routes
that spanned Eurasia. Large prehistoric trackways crossing bogs in
Ireland and Germany have been found by archaeologists.
They are believed to have been created for wheeled transport as
part of an extensive roadway system that facilitated trade, because
of their substantial nature. The territory held by the Celts
contained tin, lead, iron, silver and gold.
Celtic smiths and metalworkers were the best at creating weapons
and jewelry for international trade(particularly swords 37 inches
long), particularly with the Romans. The myth that the Celtic
monetary system consisted of wholly barter is a common one, but is in
part false.
The monetary system was complex and is still not understood (much
like the late Roman coinages), and due to the absence of large
numbers of these coin items it is assumed that "proto-money"
was used, which is the collective name given to the bronze items made
from the early La Tene period onwards, and were often in the shape of
axeheads, rings and bells.
Due to the large number of these present in some burials it is
thought they had a relatively high monetary value, and could be used
for "day to day" purchases.
Low value coinages of potin, a bronze alloy with high tin
content, but also were minted in gold, silver and bronze of higher
value, suitable for use in trade, were minted in most Celtic areas of
the continent, and in South-East Britain prior to the Roman conquest
of these areas.
Gold coinage was much more common than silver coinage, despite
being worth substantially more, as there were around 100 mines in
Southern Britain and Central France, but silver was more rarely
mined, partly due to the comparative sparcity of mines and the amount
of effort needed for extraction compared to the profit gained.
Silver and bronze coinage became more common with the rise of the
Roman civilization, due to trade with them, and this coincided with a
major increase in gold production in the Celtic world to meet the
Roman demand, made by the high value Romans put on it. The large
number of gold mines in France is thought to be a major reason why
Caesar invaded.
There are limited records from pre-Christian times written in
Celtic languages. These are sometimes inscriptions in the Roman, and
sometimes Greek, alphabets.
The Ogham script, a Proto-Celtic alphabet was mostly used in
early Christian times in Ireland and Scotland (but also in Wales and
England), and was used for ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions
on gravestones, but there is also evidence of inscriptions in wood
from other writings of the time.
The available evidence is of a strong oral tradition, such as
that preserved by bards in Ireland, and eventually recorded by
monasteries. The oldest recorded rhyming poetry in the world is of
Irish origin and is a transcription of a much older epic poem,
leading some scholars to claim that the Celts invented Rhyme.
They were highly skilled in visual arts and Celtic art produced a
great deal of intricate and beautiful metalwork, examples of which
have been preserved by their distinctive burial rites. No other
culture in the world has anything similar to the knot-work and
Chi-Rho of the Celts.
In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative, for example
they still used chariots in combat long after they had been reduced
to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans, though when faced with
the Romans in Britain, their chariot tactics defeated the invasion
attempted by Julius Caesar.
The
Celts are small of body only coming to 5 feet with rippling muscles
and white of skin and their hair is blond-red, 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.
Before
the Celts 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. They shave the beard but others let
it grow a little; and they shave their cheeks but they let the
moustache grow until it covers the mouth.
-Diodorus
Siculus- Clothing During the later Iron Age the Celts generally wore
Checked long-sleeved shirts or tunics, Checked long trousers or kilts
(called braccae) by the Romans. Clothes were made of wool or linen,
with some silk being used by the rich. Cloaks were worn in winter.
Brooches and armlets were used but the most famous item of jewellery
was the torc, the Celtic crown, made from twisted Gold, Silver, and
Copper.
The
role of women According to Aristotle, most "belligerent nations"
are strongly influenced by their women, but the Celts were unusual
because of openly professing there love (Politics II 1269b). H. D.
Rankin in Celts and the Classical World notes that "Athenaeus
echoes this comment (603a) and so does Ammianus (30.9). It seems to
be the general opinion of antiquity."
In
book VIII of his Deipnosophists, the Roman Greek rhetorician and
grammarian Athenaeus, repeating assertions made by Diodorus Siculus
in the 1st century BC, wrote that Celtic women were beautiful and
fought beside there men (Diod 5:32).
Rankin
argues that there were even Druidesses among the Druid priesthood.
Under Brehon Law, which was written down in early Medieval Ireland
after conversion to Christianity, a woman had the right to divorce
her husband and gain his property if he was unable to perform his
maritial duties due to impotence, obesity, homosexual inclination or
preference for other women.
Homosexualaty
was forbidden by the early Celts, In one instance two Centurions were
found in the act, killed, and then hung in a tree by thear endtrails,
this caused a small war between the Celts and the romans.
The
Queens of the Celts were very differant from there Roman and Greek
counterparts participating in warfare and raiding. The Romans were
apauled by this, even Caeser was greatly troubled this says Livy
-Cassius
Dio- Many reliable sources exist regarding Celtic views towards
gender divisions, though some archaeological evidence does suggest
that their views towards gender roles may have been different from
those of their contemporary classical counterparts.
There
are instances recorded where women participated both in warfare and
in kingship. Plutarch reports Celtic women acting as ambassadors to
avoid a war among Celtic chiefdoms in the Po valley during the 4th
century BC.
There
are some general indications coming from Iron Age burial sites in the
Champagne and Bourgogne regions of Northeastern France suggesting
that women have had roles in combat during the earlier portions of
the La Tène period up to the wars of Scotland.
Examples
of individuals buried with both torcs (generally associated as being
female grave goods), and weaponry have been identified, and there are
some questions regarding the sexing of some skeletons that were
buried with warrior assemblages.
Among
the insular Celts, there is a greater amount of historic
documentation to suggest warrior roles for women however. In addition
to commentary by Tacitus about Boudicca(bow-dee-see-ah) (victory),
there are indications from earlier and later period histories that
also suggest a more substantial role for "women as warriors"
in symbolic if not actual roles.
Posidonius
and Strabo described an island of women where men could not venture
to for fear of death and the women ripped each other apart. Other
writers, such as Ammianus Marcellinus and Tacitus, mentioned Celtic
women inciting, participating, and leading battles.
Poseidonius'
anthropological comments on the Celts had common themes, primarily
primitivism, extreme ferocity, cruel sacrificial practices(these did
not include anyone under 20 years of age fore it was assumed that by
that time an individual had been married and had children, to the
Celts this was a full life well lived), and the strength and courage
of their men and women.
Celtic
warfare and Celtic swords.
Clan
warfare appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies.
While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on
raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest, the
historical record is more of clans 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, Livy,
Pausanias, and Florus as fighting like "wild beasts", and
as warbands. Dionysius said that their "manner of fighting,
being in large measure that of wild beasts and frenzied, was an
erratic procedure, quite lacking in military science.
Thus,
at one moment they would raise their swords aloft and smite after the
manner of wild boars, throwing the whole weight of their bodies into
the blow like hewers of wood or men digging with mattocks, and again
they would deliver crosswise blows aimed at no target, as if they
intended to cut to pieces the entire bodies of their adversaries,
protective
armour and all", then on sudden impulse would make peace and go
raiding ether Greece or Rome, and if wile they were gone and others
arrived at ungarded towns would ask where the warriors have gone, the
clan tells them where and the new arrivals would tell othere clans
and they would go raiding as well.
Such
descriptions have been challenged by contemporary historians. Druids
were constantly seen giving a powder to the naked Berserker warriors.
Polybius
(2.33) indicates that the principal Celtic weapon was a long bladed
sword which was used for hacking edgewise rather than stabbing.
Celtic warriors are described by Polybius and Plutarch as frequently
having to cease fighting in order to straighten their sword blades.
This
claim has been questioned by some archaeologists, who note that
Celtic Nordic steel, steel produced in Celtic Noricum, was famous in
the Roman Empire period and was used to equip the Roman military
because of its strength.
Radomir
Pleiner, in The Celtic Sword (1993) argues that "the
metallographic evidence shows that Polybius was wrong, as around one
third of surviving swords from the period might not have behaved as
he describes. Polybius also asserts that some Celts typically fought
naked, "The appearance of these naked warriors was a terrifying
spectacle, for they were all men and women of splendid physique and
in the prime of life.
According
to Livy this was also true of the Celts of Asia Minor. The bow wich
the celts used was the Celtic war bow not to be confused with the
western longbow of the Romans or the English Longbow.
This
bow ( Celtic Longbow ) was feared by the Romans becase its range far
exceeds every other bow in all Europe , but it was only used by the
celts of Britan and Ierland. This bow was to become the Welsh Longbow
in later generations and would be a nusince to the English.
Head
hunting
Celts
had a reputation as head hunters. According to Paul Jacobsthal,
"Amongst the Celts the human head was venerated above all else,
since the head was to the Celt the soul, 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, and the
surviving Celtic mythology, which is full of stories of the severed
heads of heroes and the saints who carry their decapitated heads,
right down to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where the Green Knight
picks up his own severed head after Gawain has struck it off, just as
St. Denis carried his head to the top of Montmartre.
A
further example of this regeneration after beheading lies in the
tales of Connemara's St. Feichin, who after being beheaded by Viking
pirates carried his head to the Holy Well on Omey Island and on
dipping the head into the well placed it back upon his neck and was
restored to full health.
Diodorus
Siculus, in his 1st century History had this to say about Celtic
head-hunting: They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and
attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils
they hand over to their attendants and striking up a paean and
singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon
their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain
kinds of hunting. They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most
distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and
display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one
of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the
offer of a large sum of money.
They
say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head
in gold In Gods and Fighting Men, Lady Gregory's Celtic Revival
translation of Irish mythology, heads of men killed in battle are
described in the beginning of the story The Fight With The Fir Bolgs
as pleasing to Macha, one aspect of the war goddess Morrigu.
However,
some suggest that the practice for head-hunting started with 2
warriors who were boasting about all the adversaries they had killed,
one would say he killed this many and the other would say that he
killed that many, in the end one of the warriors placed all the heads
of his adversaries upon the table as proof that he had killed the men
he claimed he had, and the other on had nothing to show for all his
boasting.
Celtic
polytheism
The
Celts had an indigenous polytheistic religion and culture. Many
Celtic gods are known from texts and inscriptions from the Roman
period, such as Aquae Sulis, while others have been inferred from
place names such as Lugdunum (stronghold of Lug).
Rites
and sacrifices were carried out by priests, known as Druids and
Druidesses. The Celts did not see their gods as having a human shape
until late in the Iron Age. Celtic shrines were situated in remote
areas such as hilltops, groves, and lakes.
Celtic
religious patterns were regionally variable; however, some patterns
of deity forms, and ways of worshiping these deities, appear over a
wide geographical and temporal range. The Celts worshipped both gods
and goddesses.
In
general, the gods were deities of particular skills, such as the
many-skilled Lugh and Dagda, and the goddesses were associated with
natural features, particularly rivers (such as Boann, goddess of the
River Boyne).
This
was not universal, however, as goddesses such as Brighid and The
Morrígan were associated with both natural features (holy wells and
the River Unius) and skills such as blacksmithing and healing.
Triplicity
is a common theme in Celtic cosmology, and a number of deities were
seen as threefold. The Three Mothers was a group of goddesses
worshiped by many Celtic clans (with regional variations) that
exhibited this trait.
The
Celts had literally hundreds of deities, some unknown outside of a
single family or clan, while others were popular enough to have a
following that crossed boundaries of language and culture.
For
instance, the Irish god Lugh, associated with storms, lightning, and
culture, is seen in similar forms as Lugos in Gaul and Lleu in Wales.
Similar patterns are also seen with the continental Celtic horse
goddess Epona, and what may well be her Irish and Welsh counterparts,
Macha and Rhiannon, respectively. Roman reports of the druids mention
ceremonies being held in sacred groves.
La
Tène Celts built temples of varying size and shape, though they also
maintained shrines at sacred trees and votive pools. Druids fulfilled
a variety of roles in Celtic religion, as priests and religious
officiants, but also as judges, sacrificers, teachers, and
lore-keepers.
Druids
organized and ran the religious ceremonies, and they memorized and
taught the calendar. Other classes of druids performed ceremonial
sacrifices of crops and animals for the perceived benefit of the
community.
The
most horrable part of the Celtic religion were the Wickermen
sacrifices, huge men made of wicker were built and then stuffed with
drugged adults who knew not what they were doing, after which the
Wickermen were set alight, those inside were burned alive.
It
is safe to say that outside influences may have led to the oddities
of the Celtic religion, for if you look at the Lébor Gabála Érinn
you will find that the God of the Bible is mentioned as their God,
this was all before the taking of Britain.
The
Coligny calendar,
The
Coligny calendar, which was found in 1897 in Coligny, the calendar
was engraved on a bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments, that
originally was 1.48 m wide and 0.9 m high (Lambert p. 111).
Based
on the style of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably
dates to the end of the 2nd century. It is written in Latin
inscriptional capitals, and is in the Gallic language.
The
restored tablet contains sixteen vertical columns, with sixty-two
months distributed over five years. The French archaeologist J.
Monard speculated that it was recorded by druids wishing to preserve
their tradition of timekeeping in a time when the Julian calendar was
imposed throughout the Roman Empire.
However,
the general form of the calendar suggests the public peg calendars
(or parapegmata) found throughout the Greek and Roman world. There
were four major festivals in the Gallic Calendar:
"Imbolc"
on 1 February, possibly linked to the lactation of the ewes and
sacred to the Irish Goddess Brigid.
"Beltaine"
on 1 May, connected to fertility and warmth, possibly linked to the
Sun God Belenos.
"
Lúnasa" on 1 August, connected with the harvest and associated
with the God Lugh. And finally
"Samhain"
on 1 November, possibly the start of the year.
Two
of these festivals, Beltaine and Lúnasa are shown on the Coligny
Calendar by sigils, and it is not too much of a stretch of the
imagination to match the first month on the Calendar (Samonios) to
Samhain. Imbolc does not seem to be shown at all however.
Gallo-Roman
culture
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
clans which came under the empire's control. Roman influence led to
many changes in Celtic religion, the most noticeable of which was the
weakening of the Druid class, especially religiously.
The
Druids were to eventually disappear altogether. Romano-Celtic deities
also began to appear: these deities often had both Roman and Celtic
attributes and combined the names of Roman and Celtic deities.
Other
changes included the adaptation of the Jupiter Pole, a sacred pole
which was used throughout Celtic regions of the empire, primarily in
the north.
Another
major change in religious practice was the use of stone monuments to
represent gods and goddesses. The Celts had only created wooden idols
(including monuments carved into trees, which were known as sacred
poles) previously to Roman conquest.
Celtic
Christianity A Celtic cross.
While
the regions under Roman rule adopted Christianity along with the rest
of the Roman empire, unconquered areas of Ireland and Scotland moved
from Celtic polytheism to Celtic Christianity in the 5th century AD.
Ireland
was converted under missionaries from Britain, such as Patrick. Later
missionaries from Ireland were a major source of missionary work in
Scotland, Saxon parts of Britain, and central Europe (see
Hiberno-Scottish mission).
The
development of Christianity in Ireland and Britain brought an early
medieval renaissance of Celtic art between 390 and 1200 AD,
developing many of the styles now thought of as typically Celtic, and
found throughout much of Ireland and Britain, including the northeast
and far north of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland.
This
Celtic renaissance was ended by the Norman Conquest of Ireland in the
late 12th century. Notable works produced during this period include
the Book of Kells and the Ardagh Chalice. Antiquarian interest from
the 17th century led to the term Celt being extended, and rising
nationalism brought Celtic revivals from the 19th century.
Celtic
Christianity gave Love and kindness to all equally, were as the
Catholic religion gave Law and demanded absolute and unquestioning
obedience, this is why the Celts disliked the Roman church so much.
The
Catholic church tried to control the Celtic church and finally
succeeded in crushing the Celtic church in 1343. Sadly there was no
one left to revive it.
Cleanliness
There
are few instances of cleanliness among the Celts but in britan a lard
soap block(8 feet by 5 feet)was found in the grave of a queen dating
to 430 B.C. Livy says one of these blocks would serve the whole clan
for months. the Celts also limed their hair to protect against mites,
but all this did in the end was cause baldness to set in.
other
Tidbits of Celtáe history
sources used in the building of this
unconventional, non mainstream, original history
the Bible N/A
the book of Jasher(the book of the
upright, righteous)3,800 BC-3,000 BC
the book of Jubilees?
the book of Enoch(Hebrew version
with a large grain of salt) 3,800 BC-3,000 BC
Jewish Legends?
the ancient stories of the
Celts(aka the Celtic histories or Celtic Legends) 3,000 BC- 1,000 BC
Lébor
Gabála Érinn(the
book of the taking of Ireland) 3,800BC- 3,400 BC
Chronicles of the Picts and Scots
Chronicum Scotorum
Scotti Chronicon
Auraicept na nÉces
Oidheadh Cloinne Tuireann
the writings of Ephirus 300-289 BC
the writings of Josephus 50 AD- 80
AD
the writings of Pliny the elder 100
BC
the writings of Livy(with a large
grain of salt) 300 BC
the writings of Bede 700 AD
the writings of Nennius, History of
Britain 600 AD
Ceaser’s Commentary
Ceaser’s Gallic Wars
~*~
Noah and wife Naamah are mentioned in
the Celtic histories, they are called Dwyvan and Dwyvach or Noe and
Coba.
the Hebrew name Eber(one who crosses
over/ a nomad/ a traveler) appears 9 times in Celtic Genealogies.
Eber Scot(hord/ great family){ born
before Scota 2nd, Princess of Egypt}
Eber Boamain
Eber Agnomain
Eber Glunfhind
Febri(Eber) Glas
Ercha(Eber)
Eber Dub
Eber Glas
Eber
Erech(Eber) Febria(Eber)
Eber Finn(white/ fair/ pure)
Eber Donn(brown/ mud)
in Hebrew and Celtic legends Gomer is
said to have lived to be 1,000 years old.
Ógmá is said to have created the
writing system Ogham for the Celts.
The first in the line of Celts was
Riphath Scot Ben Gomer, there are several Scots and Scota mentioned
in the Genealogies of the Celts.
Riphath Scot(2nd of the 3 sons of
Gomer, son of Japheth, one of 72 Lords of Nations, one of 6 or 8
principle chieftains).
Scota the 1st, princess
of Egypt, wife to Finn Gaedil, mother of Gaedil Glas(in the old
legends it says she was called Scota by the Rhibii people= early
Celts, aka Beaker People).
Eber Scot(great grandfather of Tat
who was father of Agnomain who contested kingship in scythia,
grandfather of Eber Dub)
Scota the 2nd, princess
of Egypt, wife to Sur(Rá?)
Scota the 3rd, Egyptian
Noblewoman, wife of Mil
Gaedil, started a school of languages
after the tower of Babel to learn all72 languages.
Feinus Farsaid, one of 16 learned men
at the tower of Babel, learned all 72 languages, the Language of
Riphath Scot was called the Scotic language.
Gaedil glas was fostered under Feinus
Farsaid, king of Scythia.
Agnomain, son of Paim, son of Tat.
The Celts beleaved that the age of
maturity was between the ages 13 and 17, under Celtic law no one
could be sacrificed if they were 20 years and under, this was the
reason why the Celts were always at war with the Romans, it was
because Rome practiced child sacrifice, in the Celtic world the word
for “Children” was Sawn-úw(saw-noo),
the literal translation for this word is “gift, treasure or
happiness, or the Gift of Treasured Happiness”, for that is what
children were seen as, the essence of happiness.
3 is the number of purity.
In pre roman times the chieftains of
the Celtic clans owned and worked their own land along with their
sons and daughters.
The name Scotland comes from the
Celtic word Scota which means”land of hords or great families, huge
clans”
The name Alba comes from the word
Banba, which means “end of the world or Land ends”.
The name Ireland comes from the word
Eriu which means “land of abundance”.
Pictland’s original name was Folta
which comes from the word Fohla which means”stone of sovereignty”.
The Celts had names for God as well
such as Dia(bright or white one/ God), Ollathair(the all Father) and
Ánon(God).
Lucifer also has a name as well, he
is called “Torpen”
The Tree of the Knowledge of good an
evil also had a name among the Celts, they called it Dhanvantari or
Din-Cecht(both mean the tree of knowledge).
Ireland also bore the ancient name
“Inisfail”(island of destiny).
Britain also had an old name as well,
she was called Ynys Prydein(island of the mighty), possaly in
reference to the tribes of giants that inhabited the islands, formost
among them the Fomorians(under sea dwellers), the De-Danaan (ever
living ones), and the Domnu(children of Darkness and evil).
The name Skye comes from the word
‘Scathach’(shadowy ones).
The name Islay comes fro the ancient
Gaelic name “Ilé”(island/queen/queen
of the islands).
The
name “Ieithoedd” means “one who knows all languages”.
The
Celts developed the very first Threshing Machine in 750 BC.
To
this day the Celtic language is the oldest Vernacular Language in
all of Europe, in 222 BC Rehea-Slilvia, chieftain of the Insúbres
Clann attacked the roman town of Telamon and then was beaten back,
one of the prisoners captured was Caecilius-Statius, he became a
slave for a few years and after learning the Latin Language he became
a Comic Dramatist, after finding
out that the romans did not have an Alphabet or Writing System of
their own he created one for them, he wrote down 42 Plays that are
still in use to this day, the 1st
ones ever recorded in history, later he became one of the Prominent
Roman Writers in the Classical World.
Of
the 300+ legions lost in the roman Empire, 53 were lost in Celtic
territories.
In the Celtic world colors have
meaning behind them.
Green is the color of Love,
Loyalty, Honor, and family.
Yellow is the color of Joy,
Happiness, and Cheerfulness.
Red is the color of Righteous Anger
and Strength.
Blue is the color of New
Beginnings.
Purple is the color of True
Nobility.
Brown
is the color of Stubbornness,
Steadfastness, Ardent.
Gray
is the color of Seeking Truth.
Black
is the color of Defiance
and Resolute.
White
is the color of Purity and First
Beginnings.
the
Celts also had an advanced Calendar that also served as a Calculator,
it had 24 months of 14-15 days apiece, if a month was short a day
they could move day from one month to another.
Of
the 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence, 9 were Scottish, 8
were Irish, 16 were Welsh, 10 were Manx, and the last 13 were made up
of English and Dutch.
The Celts of Galatia were possibly
the first non Jews to accept Christianity.
The daughter of Angus Óg was called
Maga(blood relation), she was the wife of Ross the Red.
The
Celts also had words for Heaven and Hell, Heaven was Á-Valon(land of
the dead/ land where the dead go/ Paradise), and Hell was
Annẃn(abyss/chaos).
