hello there emperor claudius. listen to me. you think you're a big man with your
tin-plated men, with your little frilly little plumage on top. fiddling with
the kids! we know what you Romans get up to! your old boy Caesar, he put a couple of
good ones in i tell ya that, I'll give him that,
but you won't, you won't! if Mannanan let's you cross that ocean and comehere to fight
a Gael it'll be the last thing you do boy. I'll put in the underworld.
I'll send you down there! May Taranis strike me down if i tell a lie
ya dirty Italian weasel ye. you can't fight None of youse can fight. you come here and fight
me like a man. A Gael will fight you like a man with
his own hands, that's what he'll do boy. I'll smash you in with these two hands, I will.
you cross that ocean, my cousin finn, he'll blow the carnyx and that'll be the last
noise you hear, I don't mind telling you. then I'll come at you with my fists, and
i'll send you to the underworld, boy.
the Celts are usually associated with the British Isles, bagpipes, tartan, ginger
hair and myths about fairies and monsters from classical times right into
the early modern era it was believed that they were the original indigenous
peoples of Europe although the ancient Celts themselves never made that claim
more so than any other ethnic group in Europe the truth of the Celts through a
combination of their mystical folklore the popularity of romanticism in Britain
in the 19th century and the need among regional nationalists to define
themselves in opposition to the dominant culture of Britain has been grossly
distorted the author of Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien wrote Celtic is a
magic bag into which anything maybe put and out of which almost anything may
come anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic Twilight which is not so
much a twilight of the Gods as of the reason the problem stems in large part
from the fact that Celt sometimes refers to indigenous Northwest Europeans we
informally spoke or do now speak insula Celtic languages while also referring to
an historical ethno-linguistic culture on the continent which encompassed many
diverse peoples sometimes people get these two things confused
modern genetic science has proven that the Celtic language speakers were not a
prehistoric people nor were they a homogenous racial group rather Celtic
culture originated in Central Europe where its language and art spread out
over the Iron Age and was adopted by diverse races from Anatolia to Ireland
even the insular Celts of Britain and Ireland do not constitute a homogeneous
genetic group which makes sense historically since the insular Celtic
nations were constantly at war with each other for example the Irish took Cornish
slaves and invaded Scotland the old dichotomy of Germanic versus Celtic
blood doesn't make much sense when you consider that the land now known as
Germany was in fact a heartland for Celtic culture long before it arrived in
Britain what most people call Celtic blood is really British and Irish blood
and if we are to speak of Germanic blood it ought really to refer to Nordic not
German since Germanic languages come from Denmark when Germany was largely
Celtic confused yet archaeologists of the 19th century figured out that
Austria had the oldest identifiably Celtic types of art and subsequent
discoveries have proven that Austria Switzerland Czechia and Germany were the
oldest homelands of the Celts but where did they come from the dominant regional
culture of the Bronze Age was the Unetice culture an indo-european culture with
Barrow graves which grew powerful due to the rich copper and salt mines of the
region a complicated process of cultural fusion occurred there with the eastern
Belle Beaker culture which was also indo European
by the middle Bronze Age the unitice culture was followed by the tumulus
culture which preserved the ancient indo-european tradition of burial mounds
and probably spoke a language ancestral to both Celtic and Latin this in turn
was replaced in the late bronze age by the urnfield culture in which burials
in barrows went out of fashion and people started burning their dead and
putting them in urns a tradition which may derive from surviving pre
indo-european rites like those among the Romanian cucuteni
trypilia culture it is likely that people in the urnfield culture was still
culturally indo-european in most respects and that they spoke proto
Celtic the first truly Celtic language this in turn developed into the Halstatt
culture over the Iron Age which itself becomes the la tene culture named
after a site in Switzerland where thousands of objects had been deposited
in the Lake, presumably in a ritual fashion as was the custom for Celts in Britain
also. while hallstatt material culture still resembles earlier Bronze Age art
the La Tene style art is clearly the basis for later art of the iron age
Celts in Gaul and Britain
the narrative I have just presented is not new but has often been contested
with some even claiming a British origin for the Celts
however with recent advances in genetic science in the last 10 years we no
longer have to rely on the vague suggestions of art and haplogroups but
can look at genome-wide analysis of ancient DNA from Celtic skeletons
although a thorough new study on the spread of the Celtic people in Europe
hasn't been done yet the DNA from Iron Age and Bronze Age Britons has been made
public and we can see there is a shift over time caused by approximately 10
percent admixture from a Central European source related to house that
people the two black stars on this pca chart represent two skeletons from the
hallstatt culture and it can clearly be seen that one plots among modern Dutch
people and one among modern northern French people but neither plots among
modern British Celtic areas however the purple Iron Age British Celts on the
chart are between the older Bronze Age British samples and the house that
samples indicating there was an invasion of continental celts to britain who were
related to these house net samples and that these people changed the DNA of
britain and ireland furthermore a 2018 paper by damgaard
and colleagues titled the first horse herders and the impact of early Bronze
Age steppe expansions into Asia which wasn't about Celts at all included a lot
of ancient DNA samples one of which labelled MA2197
came from iron age Anatolia during the Hellenistic period ma2197 appears
to be a mixed individual with half of his ancestry coming from local Greco
Anatolian stock and the other half from an invading Central European person
like the Celtic speaking health that people in Czechia that is not at all
shocking if you know that there were Celts in Anatolia at that time called
Galatians the ninth book of the New Testament of the Christian Bible is
addressed specifically to the Galatians some of whom had already converted to
Christianity within living memory of the death of Christ and who st. Paul said
should not observe the Jewish customs such as circumcision that Christians had
formerly observed first Galatians entered Anatolia via Thrace into seven
8pc led by Leotarios and Leonorios they remained pagan for
over 300 years they're worshiping Celtic gods alongside Greek ones and mingling
with Hellenic and luwian peoples of Anatolia over the Iron Age
however if Celts had originated in Britain then we would see British DNA
coming into the region but we don't we see halstatt related DNA thus
reinforcing the fairy that central Europe not Britain is the original
Celtic homeland Celtic culture did not expand as an
empire like that of the Romans there was no centralised government or Celtic
capital city rather many regional indo-european tribes traded with the
wealthy Celts of Central Europe intermarried with them and adopted their
language and aspects of their culture such as their art and their gods
but why was their culture so popular their success must be partly due to
their military and technological prowess Celtic developments in metalworking were
highly advanced for their time and it is telling that the proto-germanic word for
iron isarna is actually a loanword from proto celtic isarnom meaning
bloody and red even the supposedly more advanced cultures of the Mediterranean
learned from the Celts the Etruscans and then the Romans learned about advanced
weaponry from the Celts who invaded Italy dr. P F stary says their
weapons helmets shields and tactics owed much to the Celtic innovations
emphasizing that Celtic weapons were a major influence on the Etruscan and
Roman military systems the Celts brought the iron knob helmet with a round cap
and neck and cheek guards to Italy we're at risk ins and Romans copied it
the Celts also originally had larger and better shields in the Romans who first
used small shields the odorous siculus wrote they have man-sized shields
decorated in a manner peculiar to them some of these have projecting figures in
bronze skill for award not only for decoration but for protection the Romans
copied these and started to make larger shields called in Latin Scouten which
may also be a Celtic loan word from the same root which gives us the Irish word
ski earth meaning both shield and shoulder the Roman word for a light
spear lancia which is related to the English word Lance is also of Celtic
origin as is mattress which means pike while chariots of war had fallen out of
use in most parts of the world by the Iron Age the Celts had preserved this
Bronze Age technology and upgraded it they invented iron rims for the wheels
the Latin word for a traveling cart comes from a Celtic word
for war chariot Caesar related how the British used chariots to great
effect against his legions and archaeology shows they were also in
use among the Irish this oak statue of a celtic warrior was found in the harbour
of Geneva Lake in 1898 it belongs to the la tene culture and wears a tunic it was
dated by means of three Celtic silver coins of the second century BC which
were in oficio in the statue and is thought to depict a Celtic deity who may
have been associated with Lake Geneva the museum emphasizes the association
with human sacrifice like all in the European pagans the Celts believed in
many gods like kindess Celts believed in dual and triune deities and these are
sometimes represented in the idols for example this stone head from Wilshire
has two faces
much like this two-headed God is from the Celtic sanctuary of rock Baptists in
France and is dated to the 3rd century BC this Celtic sword from 60 BC has been
beautifully decorated with a face perhaps of a warrior or a God we will
never know but such faces are a common feature of Celtic art gold was also
important as the odorous siculus relates they amass a great amount of gold which
is used for ornament not only by the women but also by the men for around
their wrists and arms they wear bracelets around their necks heavy
necklaces of solid gold and huge rings they wear as well and even course lots
of gold and a peculiar and striking practice is found among the upper Celts
in connection with the sacred precincts of the gods as for in the temples and
precincts might consecrate in their land a great amount of gold has been
deposited as a dedication to the gods and not a native or the country ever
touches it because of religious scruple over the Celts are an exceedingly
covetous people
this first century BC bucket is one of the best examples of Celtic art from
Britain large buckets like this one were used
for serving beverages at feasting occasions the elaborate decorations of
mythical animals and human heads distinguish it from your everyday
buckets the market is a symbol of status and power discovered in 1807 in a Celtic
cremation burial it's and Margaret's Mead near more breh these kinds of
buckets start to appear in Britain at the same time as Gallo Belgic coinage in
the 2nd century before Christ indicating an increased cultural connection to the
continental celts at that time
this cauldron was found in Denmark but can clearly be identified as Celtic by
the art style it was most likely made by Celts in the Balkans then traded with
more northerly Celts from whom it was stolen or traded with Teutons who took
it home to Denmark druidic beliefs in reincarnation seemed to be depicted in
one scene in which a large godlike figure is dipping the fallen warriors
into the cauldron of life and restoring them to live and fight again
Julius Caesar recorded that the Druids of Gaul Britain and Ireland had met him
psychosis as one of their core doctrines the principal point of their doctrine is
that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into
another the main object of all education is in their opinion to imbue their
scholars with a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul
which according to their belief merely passes a death from one tenement to
another for by such doctrine alone they say which Rob's death of all its terrors
can the highest form of human courage be developed the odorous Siculus also
relates the importance of the druidic or philosopher's caste among the goals he
says the Druids could divine the future by observing the flights of birds and
the behavior of sacrificial animals and humans no goal could make war or
sacrifice without first consulting a druid Caesar wrote that the Gauls
adopted the practice of Druidry from Britain where the main center of druidic
learning was situated we know that druidry was also prevalent
in Ireland even as recently as a medieval era where they are recorded as
diviners this begs the question of whether druidry
itself was not really a pan Celtic cultural practice but one specific to
the British Isles and therefore possibly pre-celtic in origin. an indo-european
priestly caste native to Britain and Ireland misty my name is Tom rowsell thank
you for watching this short introduction to the Celts please click Subscribe and
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