Celts

The term Celt, normally pronounced /kɛlt/ (see article on pronunciation), now refers primarily to a member of any of a number of peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages, which form a branch of the Indo-European languages. It can refer in a wider sense to a user of celtic culture. However, in ancient times the term 'celt' was used either to refer generally to barbarians in north-western Europe or to specific groups of tribes in the Iberian Peninsula and Gaul. The focus of this article is the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe, for the Celts of the present day see Modern Celts.

Although today restricted to the Atlantic coast of Western Europe, the so-called "Celtic fringe," Celtic languages were once predominant over much of Europe, from Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to northern Italy and Serbia in the east. Archaeological and historical sources show that at their maximum extent in the third century B.C.E., Celtic peoples were also present in areas of Eastern Europe and Asia Minor.

Overview

The term Celt has been adopted as a label of self-identity for a variety of peoples at different times. However, it does not seem to have been used to refer to Celtic language speakers as a whole before the 18th century. In ancient times it was primarily used by Greeks and Romans as a label for groups of people who were distinguished from others by cultural characteristics.

Celticity refers to the concept which links these peoples. Historically, theories were developed that similar language, material artifacts, social organisation and mythological factors were indicative of a common racial origin, but later theories of culture spreading to differing indigenous peoples have discredited these theories.^{[citation needed]} The current concept of a common cultural heritage has recently been supported by some genetic studies which show that populations consist of people with many origins.^{[citation needed]} The Celtic culture seems to have had numerous diverse characteristics, thus the only commonality between these diverse peoples was the use of one of the Celtic languages.

The term Celtic as a noun means the family of languages but as an adjective it has the meaning "of the Celts" or "in the style of the Celts." The article on Celtic links to a number of applications of this term. It has also been used to refer to several archaeological cultures, defined by unique sets of artifacts. The link between language and artifacts is nothing more than assumption unless inscriptions are present. Thus the term Celtic is reserved by linguists for the language family but is commonly used to denote both linguistic and cultural groups.

The Celts themselves had an intricate, indigenous polytheistic religion and distinctive material and social culture. In the Iron Age they were spread from the Iberian Peninsula to Turkey and ancient Iberia at Caucasus, but their urheimat is a matter of controversy. Traditionally, scholars have placed the Celtic homeland in what is now southern Germany and Austria, associating the earliest Celtic peoples with the Hallstatt culture. However, modern linguistic studies seem to point to a north Balkan origin. The expansion of the Roman Empire from the south and the Germanic tribes from the north and east spelt the end of Celtic culture on the European mainland where Brittany alone maintained its Celtic language and identity, probably due to later immigrants from Great Britain. Julius Caesar described the term "Celt" as the word used by the people of central France (only) to refer to themselves, the Roman name being Gauls.^{[citation needed]} The known names of Celtic peoples are given in the list of Celtic tribes.

The eventual development of Celtic Christianity in Ireland and Britain brought an early medieval renaissance of Celtic art between 400 and 1200, only 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 in areas where the use of Celtic languages had continued.

Today, the term Celtic is often used to describe the languages and respective cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany, regions where four Celtic languages are still spoken by minorities today 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). It is also used for other regions from the Continental Europe of Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language has survived, which include the northern Iberian Peninsula (northern Portugal, and the Spanish historical regions of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria), and in a lesser degree, France. (see the Modern Celts article)

The term Continental Celt refers to the celtic speaking people of mainland Europe, excluding Brittany which is a special case. The term insular celt refers to the people of Britain and Ireland.

The term Atlantic Celt had been introduced to refer to people in Iberia, France, Ireland and Britain with a celtic heritage. However, it has been asserted that since the assumption that there is a genetic link between Atlantic and Continental Celts.

In the last two decades of the twentieth century, multidisciplinary studies were brought to bear on the history of the Celts. Disciplines such as ancient history, palaeolinguistics, historical linguistics, archaeology, history of art, anthropology, population genetics, history of religion, ethnology, mythology and folklore studies all had an influence on celtic studies.

Development of the term "Celt"

Ancient uses

The first literary reference to the Celtic people, as Κελτοί (Κeltoi) is by the Greek historian Hecataeus in 517 B.C.E.; he locates the Keltoi tribe in Rhenania (West/Southwest Germany). The next Greek reference to the Keltoi is by Herodotus in the mid 5th century. He says that "the river Ister [Danube] begins from the Keltoi and the city of Pyrene and so runs that it divides Europe in the midst (now the Keltoi are outside the Pillars of Heracles and border upon the Kynesians, who dwell furthest towards the sunset of all those who have their dwelling in Europe)." This confused passage was generally later interpreted as implying that the homeland of the Celts was at the source of the Danube not in Spain/France. However, this was mainly because of the association of the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures with the Celts.

According to Greek mythology, Κελτός (Celtus) was the son of Heracles and Κελτίνη (Keltine), the daughter of Βρεττανός (Bretannus). Celtus became the eponymous ancestor of Celts. In Latin Celta came in turn from Herodotus' word for the Gauls, Keltoi. The Romans used Celtae to refer to continental Gauls, but apparently not to Insular Celts. The latter were long divided linguistically into Goidhels and Brythons (see Insular Celtic languages), although other research provides a more complex picture (see below under "Classification").

The term in English

The English word 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. In the 18th century the interest in "primitivism" which led to the idea of the "noble savage" brought a wave of enthusiasm for all things "Celtic." The antiquarian William Stukeley pictured a race of "Ancient Britons" putting up the "Temples of the Ancient Celts" such as Stonehenge before he decided in 1733 to recast the Celts in his book as Druids. The Ossian fables written by James Macpherson and portrayed as ancient Scottish Gaelic language poems added to this romantic enthusiasm. The "Irish revival" came after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 as a conscious attempt to demonstrate an Irish national identity, and with its counterpart in other countries subsequently became the "Celtic revival".

Nowadays "Celt" and "Celtic" are usually pronounced /kɛlt/ and /kɛltɪk/, derived from a Greek root keltoi, when referring to the ethnic group and its languages. The pronunciation /'sɛltɪk/, derived from the French celtique, is mainly used for the names of sports teams (for example the NBA team, Boston Celtics and the SPL side, Celtic F.C. in Glasgow.

Modern uses

In a historical context, the terms "Celt" and "Celtic" can be used in several senses: they can denote peoples speaking Celtic languages; the peoples of prehistoric and early historic Europe who shared common cultural traits which are thought to have originated in the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures; or the peoples known to the Greeks as Keltoi, to the Romans as Celtae and to either by cognate terms such as Gallae or Galatae. The extent to which each of these meanings refers to the same group of people is a matter of debate.

Brittany

Cornwall

Ireland

Isle of Man

Scotland

Wales

In a modern context, the term "Celt" or "Celtic" can be used to denote areas where Celtic languages are spoken—this is the criterion employed by the Celtic League and the Celtic Congress. In this sense, there are six modern nations that can be defined as Celtic: Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales. Only four, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Brittany have native speakers of Celtic languages and in none of them is it the language of the majority. However, all six have significant traces of a Celtic language in personal and place names, and in culture and traditions.

Some people in Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria, in north-western Spain, and Minho, Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in northern Portugal wish to be considered Celtic because of the strong Celtic cultural identity and acknowledgement of their Celtic past. The Celtic element is seen as the key differentiator of the Galician-Portuguese identity from the Mediterranean Iberian, Roman or Moorish influences of southern and eastern Spain, and southern Portugal.

Regions of England such as Cumbria and Devon likewise retain some Celtic influences, yet haven't retained a Celtic language (even Cornwall became fully English-speaking during the 18th century) and are therefore not categorised as Celtic regions or nations. Cornish aside, the last attested Celtic language native to England was Cumbric, spoken in Cumbria and southern Scotland and which may have survived until the 13th century, but was most likely dead by the eleventh. As in the case of Cornish, there have been recent attempts to recreate it, based on medieval miracle plays and other surviving sources.^{[citation needed]}

Another area of Europe associated with the Celts is France, which traces its roots to the Gauls. In Scotland, the Gaelic language traces at least some of its roots to migration and settlement by the Irish Dál Riata/Scotti. The settlement of Germanic immigrants in the lowlands—among other things—reduced the spread of the Gaelic language which was supplanting Brythonic in Scotland; this has meant that Scots-Gaelic-speaking communities survive chiefly in the country's northern and western fringes.

Use of the term for pre-Roman peoples of Britain and Ireland

After its introduction by Edward Lluyd in 1707, the use of the word "Celtic" as an umbrella term for the pre-Roman peoples of Britain gained considerable popularity in the nineteenth century, and remains in common usage. However its historical basis is now seen as dubious by many historians and archaeologists, and this usage has been called into question.

Simon James, formerly of the British Museum, in his book The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention? makes the point that the Romans never used the term "Celtic" (or, rather, a cognate in Latin) in reference to the peoples of Britain and Ireland, and points out that the modern term "Celt" was coined as a useful umbrella term in the early 18th century to distinguish the non-English inhabitants of the archipelago when England united with Scotland in 1707 to create the Kingdom of Great Britain and the later union of Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom in 1800. Nationalists in Scotland, Ireland and Wales looked for a way to differentiate themselves from England and assert their right to independence. James then argues that, despite the obvious linguistic connections, archaeology does not suggest a united Celtic culture and that the term is misleading, no more (or less) meaningful than "Western."

Miranda Green, author of Celtic Goddesses, describes archaeologists as finding "a certain homogeneity" in the traditions in the area of Celtic habitation including Britain and Ireland — she sees the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland as having become thoroughly Celticized by the time of the Roman arrival, mainly through spread of culture rather than a movement of people.

In his book Iron Age Britain, Barry Cunliffe concludes that "...there is no evidence in the British Isles to suggest that a population group of any size migrated from the continent in the first millennium BC...." Modern archaeological thought tends to disparage the idea of large population movements without facts to back them up, a caution which appears to be vindicated by some genetic studies. In other words, Celtic culture in the Atlantic Archipelago and continental Europe could have emerged through the peaceful convergence of local tribal cultures bound together by networks of trade and kinship — not by war and conquest. This type of peaceful convergence and cooperation is actually relatively common among tribal peoples; other well known examples of the phenomenon include the Six Nations of the Iroquois League and the Nuer of East Africa. He argues that the ancient Celts are thus best depicted as a loose and highly diverse collection of indigenous tribal societies bound together by trade, a common druidic religion, related languages, and similar political institutions — but each having its own local traditions.

Michael Morse in the conclusion of his book How the Celts came to Britain concedes that the concepts of a broad Celtic linguistic area and recognizably Celtic art have their uses, but argues that the term implies a greater unity than existed. Despite such problems he suggests that the term Celt is probably too deep-rooted to be replaced and — what is more important — it has the definition that we choose to give it. The problem is that the wider public reads into the term quite anachronistic concepts of ethnic unity that no one on either side in the academic debate holds.

Origins and geographical distribution

The green area suggests a possible extent of (proto-)Celtic influence around 1000 B.C.E. The yellow area shows the region of birth of the La Tène style. The orange area indicates an idea of the possible region of Celtic influence around 400 B.C.E.

The Celts in Europe, past and present:
██ present-day Celtic-speaking areas ██ other parts of the six most commonly recognized 'Celtic nations' and where a Celtic language is spoken but not the dominating language ██ other parts of Europe once peopled by Celts; modern-day inhabitants of many of these areas often claim a Celtic heritage and/or culture

Genetic Evidence

Most of our genes are inherited as a mixture of genetic material from both of our parents, but there are two exceptions. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from our mothers unchanged and so can be traced back from daughter to mother. Similarly all boys inherit their Y chromosome from their father, since women do not have a Y chromosome, and so this can be traced back from son to father. Population genetics studies the patterns in the minor variations in this DNA to obtain information on the movement of populations.

In his book Neanderthal, archaeologist Douglas Palmer refers to genetic research conducted across Europe, then states the original modern genetic group in Europe arrived between 9,000 and 5,000 years ago with the spread of farming, displacing the earlier hunter gatherer populations. Such displacement coincided with a population explosion, since farming is capable of supporting up to sixty times greater population than the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the same area:

None of Europe's subsequent historic upheavals - even catastrophic wars and famines - has seriously dented the old pattern set by the influx of farmers. The Goths, Huns and Romans have come and gone without any significant impact on the ancient gene map of Europe.(Douglas Palmer)

However, modern genetic studies have shown that the original spread of modern man across Europe took place more than 20,000 years ago and re-expanded from refuges after the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago. It now seems likely that the farmers from the Middle East did not generally displace the hunter-gatherers but that farming was slowly adopted by the latter. However, the association of the Indo-European language family with farming remains unproven.

The Y-chromosomes of populations of the Atlantic Celtic countries have been found in several studies to belong primarily to haplogroup R1b, which implies that they are descendants of the first people to migrate into north-western Europe after the last major ice age. According to the most recently published studies of European haplogroups, around half of the current male population of that portion of Eurasia is a descendant of the R1b haplogroup(subgroup of Central Asian haplogroup K). Haplotype R1b exceeds 90% of Y-chromosomes in parts of Wales, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

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 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 says that the maternal and paternal origin of the British and Irish are different, with the former going back to Palaeolithic and Mesolithic times. He identifies close matches between the maternal clans of Iberia and those of the western half of the Isles. Once in the Isles the maternal lines mutated and diversified. He 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 this we mean descent from people who were here before the Romans and who spoke a Celtic language.(Bryan Sykes)

Oppenheimer's theory is that the modern day people of Wales, Ireland and Cornwall are mainly descended from Iberians who did not speak a Celtic language. In Origins of the British (2006), Stephen Oppenheimer states (pages 375 and 378):

By far the majority of male gene types in Britain and Ireland derive from Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales and 93% Castlerea, Ireland. On average only 30% of gene types in England derive from north-west Europe. Even without dating the earlier waves of north-west European immigration, this invalidates the Anglo-Saxon wipeout theory... ...75-95% of Britain and Ireland (genetic) matches derive from Iberia...Ireland, coastal Wales, and central and west-coast Scotland are almost entirely made up from Iberian founders, while the rest of the non-English parts of Britain and Ireland have similarly high rates. England has rather lower rates of Iberian types with marked heterogeneity, but no English sample has less than 58% of Iberian samples...(Stephen Oppenheimer)

Linguistic evidence

There are few written records of the ancient Celtic languages produced by the Celts themselves. Generally these are names on coins and stone inscriptions. Mostly the evidence is of personal names and place names in works by Greek and Roman authors. The date at which the proto-Celtic language split from Indo-European is disputed but may be as early as 6000 B.C.E., with it reaching Britain and Ireland by 3200 B.C.E., according to Forster and Toth. However, generally a later date is considered more likely by most scholars. Gray and Atkinson put the splitting off of Celtic languages at around 5000 B.C.E. In both cases there is a large estimating uncertainty.

Several studies have been carried out of the Celtic place names of Europe. A recent one is that by Sims-Williams. The map of this data in Oppenheimer shows that the remaining placenames are mainly in Britain and northern France but extend from Iberia to the Danube.

A direct clue that the different names used by the Greek (who normally called any Celts Κελται or Γαλαται) and the Latin authors (preferring Galli) actually referred to speakers of the same or similar languages is given by the Christian author Hieronymos (AD 342-419). In his commentary on St Paul's epistle to the Galatians, he notes that the language of the Anatolian Galatians in his day was still very similar to the language of the Treveri. St Jerome probably had first-hand knowledge of these Celtic languages, as he had both visited Augusta Treverorum and Galatia.

Archaeological evidence

The only direct archaeological evidence for Celtic speaking peoples comes from coins and inscriptions. However it has been assumed that the Hallstatt (c. 1200-475 B.C.E.) and La Tene (c. 500-50 B.C.E.) cultures are associated with the Celts. Only in the final phase of La Tene are coins found. It has been suggested that the Hallstatt culture may have been adopted by speakers of different languages whereas the La Tene culture is more definitely associated with the Celts.

Historical evidence

Polybius published a history of Rome about 150 B.C.E. in which he describes the Gauls of Italy and their conflict with Rome. Pausianias in the second century B.C.E. 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 B.C.E. Though his original work is lost it was used by later writers such as Strabo. The later, writing in the early first century AD, deals with Britain and Gaul as well as Spain, Italy and Galatia. Caesar wrote extensively about his Gallic Wars in 58-51 B.C.E. Diodorus Siculus wrote about the Celts of Gaul and Britain in his first century History.

Homeland

The question of the original homeland of the Celts has caused much controversy, with at least six competing theories.

1) The Celtic language family is a branch of the larger Indo-European family, which leads some scholars to a hypothesis that the original speakers of the Celtic proto-language may have arisen in the Pontic-Caspian steppes (see Kurgan). It is not generally accepted, however, that Celtic became differentiated from other branches of Indo-European at such an early stage. By the time speakers of Celtic languages enter history around 600 B.C.E., they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of Central Europe, the Iberian peninsula, Ireland and Britain.

2) Some scholars think that the Urnfield culture of northern Germany and the Netherlands represents an origin for the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European family. This culture was preeminent in central Europe during the late Bronze Age, from ca. 1200 B.C.E. until 700 B.C.E., itself following the Unetice and Tumulus cultures. The Urnfield period saw a dramatic increase in population in the region, probably due to innovations in technology and agricultural practices. The Greek historian Ephoros of Cyme in Asia Minor, writing in the fourth century B.C.E., believed that the Celts came from the islands off the mouth of the Rhine who were "driven from their homes by the frequency of wars and the violent rising of the sea."

The spread of iron-working led to the development of the Hallstatt culture directly from the Urnfield (c. 700 to 500 B.C.E.). Proto-Celtic, the latest common ancestor of all known Celtic languages, is considered by this school of thought to have been spoken at the time of the late Urnfield or early Hallstatt cultures, in the early first millennium B.C.E..

The spread of the Celtic languages to Iberia, Ireland and Britain would have occurred during the first half of the 1st millennium, the earliest chariot burials in Britain dating to ca. 500 B.C.E. Over the centuries they developed into the separate Celtiberian, Goidelic and Brythonic languages. Whether Goidelic and Brythonic are descended from a common Insular-Celtic language, or reflect two separate waves of migration, is disputed.

3) 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. Others however believe that the fact that the La Tène culture is too late to explain the original Celtic homeland; rather its extent demonstrates the subsequent spread of a pre-existing Celtic culture throughout Switzerland, Austria, southern and central Germany, northern regions of Italy, eastern France, Bohemia, Moravia, Portugal, Slovakia and parts of Hungary and Ukraine. The technologies, decorative practices and metal-working styles of the La Tène were certainly influential on the continental Celts, but they were highly derivative from the Greek, Etruscan and Scythian decorative styles with whom the La Tène settlers frequently traded.

4) Today's Celtic nations are of course clustered along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Genetic studies now suggest (see above) that certain Celtic-speaking peoples share genetic ancestry with the Basque people on the Atlantic coast of Spain and France. J. F. del Giorgio in The Oldest Europeans mentions that mythologists like Robert Graves reached a similar conclusion through comparative mythology and the study of Celtic customs. Celtic scholars however believe that such similarities reflect an earlier common heritage of the indigenous populations of the Atlantic fringe, long before the arrival of the Celts.

5) Diodorus Siculus and Strabo both suggest that the Celtic heartland was in southern France. The former says that the Gauls were to the north of the Celts but that the Romans referred to both as Gauls. Before the discoveries at Hallstatt and La Tene, it was generlly considered that the Celtic heartland was southern France, see Encyclopedia Brittannica for 1813.

6) At odds with all the above theories is the assertion of Pliny the Elder that Celtica (the country of origin of the Celts) was in the delta of the river Guadalquivir in the south of Portugal and Spain: "praeter haec in Celtica Acinippo, Arunda, Arunci, Turobriga, Lastigi, Salpesa, Saepone, Serippo. altera Baeturia, quam diximus Turdulorum et conventus Cordubensis, habet oppida non ignobilia Arsam, Mellariam, Mirobrigam Reginam, Sosintigi, Sisaponem." This view is not shared by modern Celtic scholars, although the recent genetic research discussed above seem to support the Iberian origins of the peoples that were later called Celts.

Celts in Britain and Ireland

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

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

The indigenous populations of Britain and Ireland today may be primarily descended from the ancient peoples that have long inhabited these lands, before the coming of Celtic and later Germanic peoples, language and culture. Little is known of their original culture and language, but remnants may remain in the names of some geographical features, such as the rivers Clyde, Tamar and Thames, whose etymology is unclear but almost certainly derive from a pre-Celtic substrate.^{[citation needed]} By the Roman period, however, most of the inhabitants of the isles of Ireland and Britain were speaking Goidelic or Brythonic languages, close counterparts to Gallic languages spoken on the European mainland.

Historians explained this as the result of successive invasions from the European continent by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over the course of several centuries. The Book of Leinster, written in the twelfth century, but drawing on a much earlier Irish oral tradition, states that the first Celts to arrive in Ireland were from Spain. In 1946 the Celtic scholar T. F. O'Rahilly published his extremely influential model of the early history of Ireland which postulated four separate waves of Celtic invaders. It is still not known what languages were spoken by the peoples of Ireland and Britain before the arrival of the Celts.

Celtic dagger found in Britain.

Later research indicated that the culture had developed gradually and continuously.^{[citation needed]} In Ireland little archaeological evidence was found for large intrusive groups of Celtic immigrants, suggesting to historians such as Colin Renfrew that the native late Bronze Age inhabitants gradually absorbed European Celtic influences and language. The very few continental La Tène culture style objects which had been found in Ireland could have been imports, the possessions of a few rich immigrants, or the result of selectively absorbing cultural influences from outside elites, further supporting this theory of cultural exchange rather than migration.^{[citation needed]}

Julius Caesar wrote of people in Britain who came from Belgium (the Belgae), but archaeological evidence which was interpreted in the 1930s as confirming this was contradicted by later interpretations.^{[citation needed]} The archaeological evidence is of substantial cultural continuity through the first millennium B.C.E., although with a significant overlay of selectively-adopted elements of La Tène culture. There is numismatic and other evidence of continental-style states appearing in southern England close to the end of the period, possibly reflecting in part immigration by élites from various Gallic states such as those of the Belgae.^{[citation needed]} However, this immigration would be far too late to account for the origins of Insular Celtic languages. In the 1970s the continuity model was taken to an extreme, popularised by Colin Burgess in his book The Age of Stonehenge which theorised that Celtic culture in Great Britain "emerged" rather than resulted from invasion and that the Celts were not invading aliens, but the descendants of the people of Stonehenge. The existence of Celtic language elsewhere in Europe, however, and the dating of the Proto-Celtic culture and language to the Bronze Age, makes the most extreme claims of continuity impossible.

More recently a number of genetic studies have also supported this model of culture and language being absorbed by native populations. A study by Cristian Capelli, David Goldstein and others at University College, London showed that genes associated with Gaelic names in Ireland and Scotland are also common in certain parts of Wales and are similar to the genes of the Basque people, who speak a non-Indo-European language. This similarity supported earlier findings in suggesting a largely pre-Celtic genetic ancestry, possibly going back to the Paleolithic. They suggest that 'Celtic' culture and the Celtic language may have been imported to Britain by cultural contact, not mass invasions around 600 B.C.E. A different possibility is that the Celtic language should differentiated from the Celtic culture.

Some recent studies have suggested that, contrary to long-standing beliefs, the Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons) did not wipe out the Romano-British of England but rather, over the course of six centuries, conquered the native Brythonic people of what is now England and south-east Scotland and imposed their culture and language upon them, much as the Irish may have spread over the west of Scotland. 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.

Celts in Gaul

Repartition of Gaul ca. 54 B.C.E.

At the dawn of history in Europe, the Celts in present-day France were known as Gauls to the Romans. Gaul probably included Belgium and Switzerland. Their descendants were described by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars. Eastern Gaul was the centre of the western La Tene culture. In later Iron Age Gaul the social organisation was similar to that of the Romans, with large towns. From the third century B.C.E. the Gauls adopted coinage and texts with Greek characters are known in southern Gaul from the second century.

Greek traders founded Massalia in about 600B.C.E. with exchange up the Rhone valley. But trade was disrupted soon after 500B.C.E. and re-oriented over the Alps to the Po valley in Italy. The Romans arrived in the Rhone valley in the second century B.C.E. and found that a large part of Gaul was Celtic speaking. Rome needed land communications with its Spanish provinces and fought a major battle with the Saluvii at Entremont in 124-123 B.C.E. Gradually Roman control extended, the Roman Province of Gallia Transalpina being along the Mediterranean coast. The remainder was known as Gallia Comata "Hairy Gaul."

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

Following the Gallic Wars of 58-51 B.C.E., Celticia formed the main part of Roman Gaul. Place name analysis shows that Celtic was used east of the Garonne river and south of the Seine-Marne. However, the Celtic language did not survive, being replaced by a Romance language, French.

Celts in Iberia

Main language areas in Iberia, showing Celtic and Proto-Celtic languages in green, and Iberian languages in purple, circa 250 B.C.E.

File:ESPAÑAANTESDELAPRIMERAGUERRAPUNICAT.GIF

Main language areas in Iberia circa 200 B.C.E. showing Celtic and Proto-Celtic languages in green.

Traditional 18th/19th centuries scholarship surrounding the Celts virtually ignored the Iberian Peninsula, since material culture relatable to the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures that have defined Iron Age Celts was rare in Iberia, and did not provide a cultural scenario that could easily be linked to that of Central Europe.

Modern scholarship, however, has proven that Celtic presence and influences were very substantial in Iberia. The Celts in Iberia were divided in two main archaeological and cultural groups, even if the divide is not very clear:

• One group, from Galicia and along the Iberian Atlantic shores. They were made up of the Lusitanians (in Portugal and the Celtic region that Strabo called Celtica in the southwest including the Algarve, inhabited by the Celtici), the Vettones and Vacceani peoples (of central west Spain and Portugal), and the Gallaecian, Astures and Cantabrian peoples of the Castro culture of north and northwest Spain and Portugal).
• The Celtiberian group of central Spain and the upper Ebro valley, which both present special, local features. The group originated when Celts migrated from what is now France and integrated with the local Iberian people.

The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to unlocking the Celticization process in the rest of the Peninsula. The process of celticization of the SW by the Keltoi and NW is however not a simple celtiberian question. Recent investigation about the Callaici Bracari in NW Portugal is bringing new approaches to understand celtic culture evidences (language, art and religion) in western Iberia.

Celts in Italy

There was an early Celtic presence in northern Italy since inscriptions dated to the sixth century B.C.E. have been found there. In 391B.C.E. Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps streamed through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the Appeninne mountains and the Alps" according to Diodorus Siculus. The Po Valley and the rest of northern Italy (known to the Romans as Cisalpine Gaul) was inhabited by Celtic-speakers who founded cities such as Milan. Later the Roman army was routed at the battle of Allia and Rome was sacked in 390B.C.E.

At the battle of Telemon in 225 B.C.E. 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 B.C.E. that the Roman armies conquered the last remaining independent Celtic kingdoms in Italy.

The Celts settled much further south of the Po River than many 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 B.C.E.

Celts in other regions

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

Further south, Celts settled in Thrace (Bulgaria), which they ruled for over a century, and Anatolia, where they settled as the Galatians. 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 373C.E., likened their language to that of the Treveri of northern Gaul.

The Boii tribe gave their name to Bohemia (Czech Republic) and Celtic artefacts and cemeteries have been discovered further east in both Poland and Slovakia. A celtic coin (Biatec) from Bratislava's mint is displayed on today's Slovak 5 crown coin.

As there is no archaeological evidence for large scale invasions in some of the other areas, one current school of thought holds that Celtic language and culture spread to those areas by contact rather than invasion. However, the Celtic invasions of Italy, Greece, and western Anatolia are well documented in Greek and Latin history. Examine the Map of Celtic Lands for more information.

There are records of Celtic mercenaries in Egypt serving the Ptolomies. Thousands were employed in 283-246 B.C.E. and they were also in service around 186 B.C.E. They attempted to overthrow Ptolomy II.

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 Gaul, this eventually resulted in a language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin (see also Gallo-Roman culture). However, the Celts were master horsemen,^{[citation needed]} which so impressed the Romans^{[citation needed]} that they adopted Epona, the Celtic horse goddess, into their pantheon. During and after the fall of the Roman Empire many parts of France threw out their Roman administrators.

A Celtic cross.

Celtic social system and arts

To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian Celtic social structure based formally on class and kinship. Patron-client relationships similar to those of Roman society are also described by Caesar and others in the Gaul of the first century B.C.E..

In the main, the evidence is of tribes being led by kings, although some argue that there is evidence of oligarchical republican forms of government eventually emerging in areas in close contact with Rome. Most descriptions of Celtic societies describe them as being divided into three groups: a warrior aristocracy; an intellectual class including professions such as druid, poet, and jurist; and everyone else. There are instances recorded where women participated both in warfare and in kingship, although they were in the minority in these areas. In historical times, the offices of high and low kings in Ireland and Scotland were filled by election under the system of tanistry, which eventually came into conflict with the feudal principle of primogeniture where the succession goes to the first born son.

Archaeological discoveries at the Vix Burial indicate that women could achieve high status and power within at least one Celtic society. As Celtic history was only carried forward by oral tradition, it has been advanced that the traditions finally recorded in the seventh century can be projected back through Celtic history. If this is so then, according to the Cáin Lánamna, a woman had the right to demand divorce, take back whatever property she brought into the marriage and be free to remarry. If later Celtic tradition can be projected back, and from Ireland to Britain and the continent, then Celtic law demanded that children, the elderly, and the mentally handicapped be looked after.

Little is known of family structure among the Celts. Athenaeus in his Deipnosophists, 13.603, claims that "the Celts, in spite of the fact that their women are the most beautiful of all the barbarian tribes, prefer boys as sexual partners. There are some of them who will regularly go to bed – on those animal skins of theirs – with a pair of lovers," implying a woman and a boy. Such reports reflect an outsiders observation of Celtic culture. It is unknown whether Athenaeus, born in Egypt of Greek origin ever visited any Celts since little is known about him beyond his surviving writings.

Patterns of settlement varied from decentralised to the urban. The popular stereotype of non-urbanised societies settled in hillforts and duns, drawn from Britain and Ireland 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 B.C.E., and with the towns of Gallia Cisalpina.

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. The territory held by the Celts contained tin, lead, iron, silver and gold. Celtic smiths and metalworkers created weapons and jewelry for international trade, particularly with the Romans. Celtic traders were also in contact with the Phoenicians: gold works made in pre-Roman Ireland have been unearthed in archaeological digs in Palestine and trade routes between Atlantic societies and Palestine dating back to at least 1600 B.C.E..

Local trade was largely in the form of barter, but as with most tribal societies they probably had a reciprocal economy in which goods and other services are not exchanged, but are given on the basis of mutual relationships and the obligations of kinship. Low value coinages of potin, silver and bronze, 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.

There are only very limited records from pre-Christian times written in Celtic languages. These are mostly inscriptions in the Roman, and sometimes Greek, alphabets. The Ogham script was mostly used in early Christian times in Ireland and Scotland (but also in Wales and England), and was only used for ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions on gravestones. The available evidence is of a strong oral tradition, such as that preserved by bards in Ireland, and eventually recorded by monasteries. The oldest recorded rhyming poetry in the world is of Irish origin and is a transcription of a much older epic poem, leading some scholars to claim that the Celts invented Rhyme. They were highly skilled in visual arts and Celtic art produced a great deal of intricate and beautiful metalwork, examples of which have been preserved by their distinctive burial rites.

In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative, for example they still used chariots in combat long after they had been reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans, though when faced with the Romans in Britain, their chariot tactics defeated the invasion attempted by Julius Caesar.

The Celtic Calendar

The Coligny Calendar, which was found in 1897 in Coligny, Ain, was engraved on a bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments, that originally was 1.48 m wide and 0.9 m high (Lambert p.111). Based on the style of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the 2nd century. It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals, and is in the Gaulish 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 Celtic Calendar: "Imbolc" on the 1st of February, possibly linked to the lactation of the ewes and sacred to the Irish Goddess Brigid. "Beltain" on the 1st of May, connected to fertility and warmth, possibly linked to the Sun God Belenos. "Lughnasa" on the 1st of August, connected with the harvest and associated with the God Lugh. And finally "Samhain" on the 1st of November, possibly the start of the year. Two of these festivals, Beltain and Lugnasa 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. Lughnasa does not seem to be shown at all however.

The Celtic Calendar seems to be based on astronomy but how any astrology system would have worked is harder to tell. We have to base our knowledge on Old Irish manuscripts, none of which have been published or fully translated. It seems to have been based on an indigenous Irish symbol system, and not that of any of the more commonly-known astrological systems such as Western, Chinese or Vedic astrology.

Celtic women

Sexual norms

There are instances recorded where women participated both in warfare and in kingship, although they were in the minority in these areas. Plutarch reports Celtic women acting as ambassadors to avoid a war amongst Celts chiefdoms on the Po valley during the fourth century B.C.E.

The sexual freedom of Celtic women was noted by Cassius Dio:

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

Celtic women as warriors

Despite the fact that Celtic Princesses and the badb were cross-dressing symbols of sex and politics, rather than historical representations of real fighting women, Posidonius and Strabo described an island of women, where men could not venture for fear of death, and women ripped each other apart. Other writers such as Ammianus Marcellinus, 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, and the strength and courage of their women. Contemporary historians ascribe this to the Romans and Greeks want for a upside-down world for the barbarians, who both frightened and fascinated them. It is interesting to note that the Celtic God of Martial Arts was, in all fact, a woman.

Notable Celtic women

• Cartimandua, (or Cartismandua, ruled ca.43 B.C.E. - 69 B.C.E.), was a queen of the Brigantes, a British Celtic tribe who lived between the rivers Tyne and Humber, that formed a large tribal agglomeration in northern England. She was the only queen in early Roman Britain, identified as regina by Tacitus.

• Camma, priestess of Brigandu, wife of Sinatos.

• Boudica, (also spelled Boudicca), and often referred to as Boadicea, outside academic circles, (d. 60/61 B.C.E.) was a queen of the Brythonic Celtic Iceni people of Norfolk in Eastern Britain who led a major but ultimately failed uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire. (See Battle of Watling Street)

• Chiomaca, wife of Ortagion, chief of the Tolistoboii of Galatia (189 B.C.E.).

• Queen Teuta, (also Queen Tefta), was an Illyrian queen and regent who reigned approximately from 231 B.C.E. to 228 B.C.E.

• Macha Mong Ruad, daughter of Áed Ruad. After the death of her husband Cimbáeth, and defeating all claimants to the throne, she became the High Queen in 337 B.C.E.

• Medb of Connacht.

• Elen Luyddog, (widely known as Helen of the Hosts or Elen) was a Romano-British princess and the wife of Magnus Clemens Maximus, Emperor in Britain, Gaul and Spain, where he died seeking imperial recognition in 388 C.E. She is also considered a founder of churches in Wales and remembered as a saint.

• Scáthach (Shadowy), a legendary Scottish warrior woman and martial arts teacher who trained the legendary Ulster hero Cúchulainn in the arts of combat. Texts describe her homeland as "Alpi," which commentators associate with Alba, the Gaelic name of Scotland, and associated with the Isle of Skye, where her residence Dún Scáith (Fort of Shadows) stands.

Celtic Men

The Dying Gaul, a Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic work of the late third century B.C.E. Capitoline Museums, Rome

According to Didorus Siculus :

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

During the later Iron Age the Gauls generally wore long-sleeved shirts of tunics and long trousers. Clothes were made of wool or linen, with some silk being used by the rich. Cloaks were worn in winter. Broaches and armlets were used but the most famous item of jewellery was the torc.

Homosexuality

Athenaeus says that :

The Celts, though they have very beautiful women, enjoy young boys more: so that some of them often have two lovers to sleep with on their beds of animal skins. This is widely debated among modern historians as historic fact. It is often claimed that Athenaesus may have misunderstood certain Celtic traditions and related them to the Greco-Roman culture more familiar to him.

Notable Celtic Men

• Bolgios Leader of the Galatii in Macedonia.
• Brennus Leader of the Celts who sacked Rome.
• Cassivellaunus Leader of Britons against Julius Caesar.
• Commius Leader of the Belgae who settled in Britain.
• Cunobelinus Leader of the Catuvellauni against Claudius.
• Vercingetorix Led revolt in Gaul against Julius Caesar.
• Verica Leader of the Atrebates whose flight to Rome was the pretext for the invasion of Britain.

Celtic warfare and weapons

Cináed mac Ailpín, king of the Picts

Tribal warfare appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest, the historical record is more of tribes using warfare to exert political control and harass rivals, for economic advantage, and in some instances to conquer territory.

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

The Celts as head-hunters

"Amongst the Celts the human head was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world." —Paul Jacobsthal, Early Celtic Art.

The Celtic cult of the severed head is documented not only in the many sculptured representations of severed heads in La Tène carvings, but in 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. Separated from the mundane body, although still alive, the animated head acquires the ability to see into the mythic realm.

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 carry off as booty, while 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."

The Celts believed that if they attached the head of their enemy to a pole or a fence near their house, the head would start crying when the enemy was near. If the head was taken from an enemy who was important enough, they would put it in a church and pray to it believing it had magic powers.

The Celtic headhunters venerated the image of the severed head as a continuing source of spiritual power. If the head is the seat of the soul, possessing the severed head of an enemy, honorably reaped in battle, added prestige to any warrior's reputation. According to tradition the buried head of a god or hero named Bran the Blessed protected Britain from invasion across the English Channel.

Celtic Gods

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, some known as Druids. The Celts did not see their gods as having a human shape until late in the Iron Age. Shrines were situated in remote areas such as hilltops, groves and lakesCeltic religious patterns.

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 associated with natural features, most 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, healing and warfare.

Triplicities are a common theme in Celtic cosmology and a number of deities were seen as threefold.

The Celts had literally hundreds of deities, some unknown outside of a single family or tribe, while others were popular enough to have a following that crossed boundaries of language and culture. For instance, the Irish god Lugh, associated with storms, lightning, and culture, is seen in a similar form 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. In general, they were the "college professors" of their time. Druids organized and ran the religious ceremonies, as well as memorizing and teaching the calendar. Though generally quite accurate, the Celtic calendar required manual correction about every 40 years, therefore knowledge of mathematics was required. Other classes of druids performed ceremonial sacrifices of crops and animals for the perceived benefit of the community.

Celtic Christianity

While the regions under Roman rule adopted Christianity along with the rest of the Roman empire, unconquered areas of Scotland and Ireland moved from Celtic polytheism to Celtic Christianity in the fifth century AD 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). This brought the early medieval renaissance of Celtic art between 390 and 1200 C.E.^{[citation needed]}, developing many of the styles now thought of as typically Celtic, and found through much of Ireland and Britain, including the north-east and far north of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland. This was brought to an end by Roman Catholic and Norman influence, though the Celtic languages, as well as some and some influences from Celtic art, continued.

Names for the Celts

The origin of the various names used since classical times for the people known today as the Celts is obscure and has been controversial. In particular, there is no record of the term "Celt" being used in connection with the inhabitants of Ireland and Britain prior to the 19th century.

The name "Gauls"

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

The English form Gaul comes from the French Gaule and Gaulois, which is the traditional rendering of Latin Gallia and Gallus, -icus respectively. However, the diphthong au points to a different origin, namely a Romance adaptation of the Germanic *Walha-. See Gaul: Name.

The word "Welsh"

The word "Welsh" is Germanic, yet it may ultimately have a Celtic source. It may be the result of an early borrowing (in the 4th century B.C.E.) of the Celtic tribal name Volcae into early Germanic (becoming the Proto-Germanic *Walh-, "foreigner of the Roman lands" and the suffixed form *-walhisk). The Volcae were one of the Celtic peoples that for two centuries barred the southward expansion of the Germanic tribes in what is now central Germany on the line of the Harz mountains and into Saxony and Silesia.

In the Middle Ages certain districts of what is now Germany were known as Welschland as opposed to Deutschland, and the word is cognate with Vlach (see: Etymology of Vlach) and Walloon as well as with the "-wall" in "Cornwall." Other examples are the surnames Wallace and Walsh. During the early Germanic period, the term seems to have been applied to the peasant population of the Roman Empire, most of whom were, in the areas immediately settled by the Germanic people, of ultimately Celtic origin.

The name "Celts"

English "Celt(s)," Latin Celtus pl. Celti (Celtae), Greek Κέλτης pl. Κέλται or Κελτός pl. Κελτοί (Keltai or Keltoi) seem to be based on a native Celtic ethnic name (singular *Celtos or *Celta with plurals *Celtoi or *Celtas), of uncertain origin. The root would seem to be a Primitive Indo-European *kel- or (s)kel-, but there are several such roots of various meanings to choose from (*kel- "to be prominent," *kel- "to drive or set in motion," *kel- "to strike or cut," etc.)^{[citation needed]}. A likely meaning would be superior, so "Celt" = "member of a superior culture." Celt should be pronounced Kelt.

Bibliography

• Alberro, Manuel and Arnold, Bettina (eds.), e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies, Volume 6: The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Center for Celtic Studies, 2005.
• Collis, John. The Celts: Origins, Myths and Inventions. Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7524-2913-2. Historiography of Celtic studies.
• Coutinhas, José Manuel. "Callaeci Bracari - aproximação à identidade etno-cultural." Porto: Universidade Portucalense. 2006.
• Cunliffe, Barry. The Ancient Celts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-815010-5.
• Cunliffe, Barry. Iron Age Britain. London: Batsford, 2004. ISBN 0-7134-8839-5
• Cunliffe, Barry. The Celts: A Very Short Introduction. 2003
• del Giorgio, J.F. The Oldest Europeans: Who are we? Where do we come from? What made European women different?. A.J.Place, 2006. ISBN 980-6898-00-1
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• Green, Miranda. Celtic Goddesses British Museum Press 1998.
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• Kruta, V., O. Frey, Barry Raftery and M. Szabo. eds. The Celts. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1991. ISBN 0-8478-2193-5. A translation of Les Celtes: Histoire et Dictionnaire 2000.
• Laing, Lloyd. The Archaeology of Late Celtic Britain and Ireland c. 400–1200 C.E. London: Methuen, 1975. ISBN 0-416-82360-2
• Laing, Lloyd and Jenifer Laing. Art of the Celts, London: Thames and Hudson, 1992 ISBN 0-500-20256-7
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• Raftery, Barry. Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994. ISBN 0-500-27983-7.
• Renfrew, Colin. Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-521-38675-6.
• Rosser, ZH et al. "Y-chromosomal diversity in Europe is clinal and influenced primarily by geography, rather than by language.," Am J Hum Genet. 2000 Dec;67(6):1376-81.
• Sykes, Bryan. The Blood of the British.
• Ward-Perkins, Bryan. "Why Did The Anglo-Saxons Not Become More British?" in English Historical Review, June 2000.
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External links

• Geneticists find Celtic links to Spain and Portugal
• Myths of British ancestry
• How did pygmy shrews colonize Ireland? Clues from a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences.
• Clonycavan Man
• http://newworldcelts.org Celts in the New World
• An interactive map showing the lands of the Celts between 800B.C.E. and 305C.E.
• On the origins of Celtic populations in Britain according to Brian Sykes
• Ancient Celtic WorldHistory, culture and archaeology of the ancient Celtic continent. Many articles and pictures
• http://www.celta.vze.com Gael Order, group of study and cultural heritage
• XIII. International Congress of Celtic Studies in Bonn
• Academic discussion with Barry Cunliffe on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, February 21, 2002 (Realplayer streaming)
• PDF
• Y Chromosome Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Mass Migration
• BBC "English and Welsh are races apart"
• BBC "Descendents of the ancient Britons in genetic survey results for Rush and Castlerea, Ireland, 2003".
• The Long Duration of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe, October 2004
• Alberto J. Lorrio and Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero, "The Celts in Iberia: An Overview" in e-Keltoi 6
  • See also other essays on Celtiberian topics in e-Keltoi 6
• How Celtic was Britain?
• Pretanic World - Celts
• Belgae DNA model, from a larger Nordic-Celtic DNA project, at YSearch.org

• Related Nordic-Celtic DNA material, at FamilyTreeDNA.com

• Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 B.C.E.), showing the Celtic territories

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