Celts territory. The entry of the Celts into the historical arena

In speaking of the nature of ancient Celtic society, we are immediately confronted with a problem which differs in two essential respects from the problems connected with the definition and description of the society of many other ancient peoples. To begin with, the Celts did not have a great material civilization that could suddenly be discovered, such as the civilization of ancient Babylonia and Assyria. The refined world of the ancient Egyptians or the refined cities of the Mediterranean had little in common with the simple farmsteads of the mobile, almost nomadic Celts. In fact, they left very few permanent buildings, and the Celtic fortresses and burials, sanctuaries and chattels, scattered throughout Europe and the British Isles, cover entire centuries in both temporal and social aspects. There were no significant population centers in Celtic society. Moreover, unlike the creators of the great civilizations of the ancient world, the Celts were practically illiterate (in their own languages): most of what we know about their early forms of speech and their spiritual culture came from very limited and often hostile sources: for example, in the stories of ancient authors about the Celts, there are names of tribes, localities and the names of leaders. The names of the places speak for themselves - they are motionless and constant. The names of leaders and tribes appear on many Celtic coins and speak a lot about trade, economics and politics; the epigraphy gives the ancient forms of the Celtic names of the gods and the names of the donors. In addition to these linguistic fragments, only a small number of Celtic phrases have come down to us, which appear in the inscriptions (Fig. 1). However, for the early period of Celtic history, there are no long lists of kings, no mythological legends before those recorded by Irish Christian scribes; there are no intricate poems in praise of kings and leaders, which, as we know, were performed in the dwellings of aristocrats; there are no lists of the names of the gods, no instructions to the priests on how to fulfill their duties and control the correctness of the ritual. So the first aspect of the problem is that we are dealing with a scattered, barbarian society, and not with the great urban civilization of antiquity. And although we know that the Celts were educated, cultured people (or at least capable of easily absorbing cultural influences), it is clear that education among the Celts did not much resemble education in our sense of the word. The culture of the Celts was also by no means conspicuous: it could only be discovered and appreciated using the most diverse and dissimilar methods.

Rice. one. Celtic inscription: "Korisios" (Korysius) in Greek letters on a sword found along with other weapons in an old riverbed in Porto (in ancient times, Petineska), Switzerland.

The world of the Celts differs from that of other ancient civilizations in that the Celts survived: it cannot be said that in some limited geographical areas Celtic society in a certain recognizable form ever ceased to exist at a certain period of antiquity. The ancient Celtic languages continue to be spoken in parts of the British Isles and Brittany, and in some places in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Brittany they are still living languages. Much of the social structure and organization of the Celts has survived, as well as their oral literary tradition, their tales and popular superstitions. Sometimes, in some places, individual features of this ancient way of life can be traced to this day, for example, among the peasants of the western coast of Scotland and Ireland. In Wales, where the Celtic language now retains its strongest position, things are somewhat different, and the story of this is already beyond the scope of our book. The fact that some aspects of Celtic society have survived to this day is in itself remarkable, and it will help us to more meaningfully approach the difficult task of telling the daily life of the pagan Celts in Europe and the British Isles.

Since we must somehow limit the scope of our study, it seems reasonable to accept 500 AD. e. as its upper bound. By this time, Christianity was already fully established in Ireland and the rest of the Celtic world. However, it should be remembered that a significant part of the literary data, from which we draw a lot of information about the Celtic past, were recorded in Ireland after the pagan period and under the auspices of the Christian church. Many aspects of Celtic society were characterized by impressive continuity and longevity, and therefore, although such a time line is convenient, in fact it is artificial.

Celtic peoples

So who are the Celts, whose daily life we intend to tell here? For different people, the word "Celt" has very different meanings.

For a linguist, the Celts are a people who spoke (and still continue to speak) very ancient Indo-European languages. From the original common Celtic language came two different groups of Celtic dialects; when this division took place, we do not know. Philologists call one of these groups Q-Celtic or Goidelic because the original Indo-European qv was preserved in it as q (later it began to sound like k, but was written c). The Celtic language belonging to this branch was spoken and written in Ireland. The language was later brought to Scotland by Irish settlers from the kingdom of Dal Riada at the end of the 5th century AD. e. The same language was spoken on the Isle of Man; some of its remnants are still preserved. There are some traces of q-Celtic languages on the continent, but little is known about their distribution there.

The second group is called p-Celtic or "Brythonic". In it, the original Indo-European qv became p; thus, in the Goidel group, the word for "head" sounds like "cenn", in the British - like "penn". This branch of the Celtic languages was common on the continent, where the languages related to it are called Gaulish or Gallo-Brythonic. It was this language that Iron Age settlers brought from the continent to Britain (the Celtic language of Britain is called "Brythonic"). This language was spoken in Britain during the period of Roman domination. Later, it split into Cornish (already extinct as a spoken language, although there is now an active struggle for its revival), Welsh and Breton.

For archaeologists, the Celts are people who can be identified as a group on the basis of their distinctive material culture and who can be identified as Celts on the basis of evidence from authors who did not belong to their own society. The word "Celts" has a completely different meaning for modern Celtic nationalists, but this is no longer relevant to our topic.

First of all, we will try to find out how to recognize this people, which was formed on such a large territory and existed for such a long time (albeit in a limited space). Since the Celts did not leave any pre-Christian written historical records or legends that would tell about the most ancient period of their history, we will be forced to use data obtained by inference. The earliest and perhaps most reliable (though very limited) source of information is archeology. The later historical writings of the Greeks and Romans, which deal with the manners and customs of the Celts, combined with what can be gleaned from the early Irish literary tradition, give us additional details and help to “enliven” the somewhat sketchy picture that we have painted with the help of archeology.

The militancy of these peoples was clearly manifested in their relations with the Romans, who considered the Belgae the most stubborn and uncompromising of all the Celts of Britain and Gaul. Apparently, it was the Belgae who brought the plow to Britain, as well as the enamel technique and their own version of La Tène art. Belga pottery is also very peculiar. In addition, the Belgae were the first to mint their own coin in Britain. These tribes created urban settlements - in fact, real cities, such as St. Albans (Verulamius), Silchester (Calleva), Winchester (Venta) and Colchester (Camulodunum).

The resettlement of the Celts in Ireland presents even more problems. This is partly due to the fact that all the wealth of ancient narrative literature is practically not reflected in archeology. However, this seems to be due to the fact that comparatively little truly scientific archaeological research has been carried out in Ireland until recently. Many careless excavations only complicate the interpretation of the data obtained. But now the Irish archaeologists are doing a great job, and the results obtained allow us to hope that in the future we will get closer to solving the problem.

As we have seen, Q-Celtic or Goidelic was spoken in Ireland, Gaelic Scotland and, until recently, among the natives of the Isle of Man. For Celtologists, this language presents a problem in itself. So far, we do not know who and from where brought the Q-Celtic language to Ireland, and we are not even sure that this issue will be resolved at all. Now we can say one thing: the British speech of the aristocrats of Yorkshire and the southwestern Scottish colonists of Ulster was completely absorbed by the Goidelic language, which we can assume was spoken there. Scientists have put forward many different theories, both archaeological and linguistic, but so far no sufficiently convincing assumptions have been made. It can be assumed that the Goidelic (or Q-Celtic) form of the Celtic language is more ancient, and perhaps even the language of the Hallstatt Celts was Goidelic. In this case, the early colonists brought it with them to Ireland around the 6th century BC. e. The question arises: was the Goidelic language elsewhere absorbed by the language of immigrants who had higher technology and fighting techniques and spoke British? We cannot yet answer this question, but the Goidelic language continued to dominate Ireland in spite of all the British immigration into Ulster that we know took place during several centuries before the beginning of our era. Only the combined efforts of archaeologists and philologists can help answer these questions. So far, the amazing phenomenon of the Q-Celtic language remains an inexplicable mystery for us.

The Hallstatt colonization of Ireland could partly come from Britain, but there is evidence that it took place directly from the continent and the Celts came to Ireland through northeastern Scotland. The available evidence for the introduction of the La Tène culture into Ireland shows that there could be two main sources of immigration: one, already mentioned by us, through Britain around the 1st century BC. e. with the main concentration in the northeast, and another, earlier movement directly from the continent, which dates from about the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. It was a migration to western Ireland. Such an assumption is based not only on archaeological material, but also on the early literary tradition, where we see the primordial rivalry between Connacht in the west and Ulster in the northeast. The tradition recorded in the texts reinforces the archaeological data and illuminates certain features of the daily life of at least some of the ancient Celtic peoples.

Ancient writers about the Celtic peoples

We must now consider another source of data on the ancient Celts, namely the writings of ancient authors. Some of their accounts of the migrations and settlements of the Celts are very fragmentary, some are more detailed. All this evidence must be used with caution, but in general they convey information that we must consider authentic - of course, taking into account the author's emotions and his political biases.

The first two authors who mentioned the Celts are the Greeks Hecataeus, who wrote around the second half of the 6th century BC. e., and Herodotus, who wrote a little later, in the 5th century BC. e. Hecataeus mentioned the foundation of a Greek trading colony in Massilia (Marseilles), which was located on the territory of the Ligurians, next to the land of the Celts. Herodotus also mentions the Celts and claims that the source of the Danube River is located in the Celtic lands. It testifies to the wide settlement of the Celts in Spain and Portugal, where the merging of the cultures of the two peoples led to the fact that these tribes began to be called the Celtiberians. Although Herodotus was wrong about the geographical location of the Danube, believing that it was on the Iberian Peninsula, his statement may be explained by some tradition about the connection of the Celts with the sources of this river. 4th century BC author e. Ephor considered the Celts one of the four great barbarian peoples; others are Persians, Scythians and Libyans. This suggests that the Celts, as before, were considered a separate people. Although they had practically no political unity, the Celts had a common language, a peculiar material culture and similar religious ideas. All these features differ from the inevitable local cultural traditions that emerged from the fusion of the traditions of the Celts with the traditions of the peoples among whom they settled in the vast territory of Europe (Fig. 2).

The basic social unit of the Celts was the tribe. Each tribe had its own name, while the common name for the whole people was "Celts" (Celtae). The name Celtici continued to exist in southwestern Spain until Roman times. However, it is now believed that the creators of this name were the Romans themselves, who, being familiar with the Gauls, were able to recognize the Celts in Spain, and therefore called them Celtici. We have no evidence of the use of this term in relation to the Celts who lived in ancient times in the British Isles; there is no evidence that the Celtic inhabitants of these areas called themselves by a common name, although it could be so. The Greek form of the word "Keltoi" comes from the oral tradition of the Celts themselves.

There are two other names for the Celts: the Gauls (Galli) - the Romans called the Celts - and the Galatians (Galatae) - a word that was often used by Greek authors. Thus we have two Greek forms, Keltoi and Galatae, and their Roman equivalents, Celtae and Galli. Indeed, Caesar writes that the Gauls call themselves "Celts", and it seems obvious that, in addition to their separate tribal names, this is how they called themselves.

The Romans called the region south of the Alps Cisalpine Gaul and the area beyond the Alps Transalpine Gaul. Approximately around 400 BC. e. Celtic tribes from Switzerland and southern Germany, led by the Insubres, invaded northern Italy. They captured Etruria and marched across the Italian peninsula as far as Mediolan (Milan). Other tribes followed suit. There was a large-scale settlement. Warriors who went on a campaign of conquest were accompanied by their families, servants and belongings in heavy and uncomfortable carts. This is also evidenced by one interesting place in the Irish epic “The Abduction of the Bull from Kualnge”: “And again the army set off on a campaign. It was not an easy path for the warriors, for many people, families and relatives moved with them so that they would not have to part and everyone could see their relatives, friends and loved ones.

Using the conquered lands as a base, detachments of skilled warriors raided vast territories. In 390 BC. e. they successfully attacked Rome. In 279, the Galatians, led by a leader (although most likely a Celtic deity) named Brennus, attacked Delphi. Even the Galatians, led by Brennus and Bolgius, penetrated into Macedonia (most likely, both of them were not leaders, but gods) and tried to settle there. The Greeks stubbornly resisted. After the attack on Delphi, the Celts were defeated; nevertheless they remained in the Balkans. Three tribes moved to Asia Minor and after several skirmishes settled in northern Phrygia, which became known as Galatia. Here they had a sanctuary called Drunemeton, "oak grove." The Galatians also had their own fortresses, and they retained their national identity for a long time. The epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians is well known. If the archeology of Galatia ever becomes a separate, well-developed discipline, then we will have another interesting panorama of local civilization within the vast world of the Celts.

When we think of the Celts today, we usually think of peoples who spoke Celtic languages on the periphery of the western regions of Europe: in Brittany, Wales, Ireland and Gaelic Scotland, as well as their last representatives on the Isle of Man. However, it should always be borne in mind that for archaeologists, the Celts are a people whose culture covers vast territories and long periods of time. For the archaeologists of Eastern Europe, the Celts who lived further to the East are just as important and interesting as the Celts of the West, better known to us. Much more archaeological and linguistic research will be needed in all Celtic areas, with onomastics (the study of place names) being especially important, before we can draw a more or less complete picture.

But let us return to the early history of the Celts, as it was seen by ancient writers. Already by 225, the Celts began to lose control of Cisalpine Gaul: this process began with the crushing defeat that the Romans inflicted on the huge Celtic army at Telamon. Among the troops of the Celts were the famous Gezata - "spearmen", spectacular Gallic mercenaries who entered the service of any tribe or alliance of tribes that needed their help. These units are somewhat reminiscent of the Irish Fenians (Fiana), units of warriors who lived outside the tribal system and roamed the country, fighting and hunting, led by their legendary leader, Finn McCumal. Speaking of the battle of Telamon, the Roman author Polybius vividly describes the Gezata. His remarks on the appearance of the Celts in general will be discussed in detail in chapter 2. Polybius relates that the Celtic tribes who took part in the battle - the Insubres and the Boii - wore pants and cloaks, but the Gezat fought naked. The Roman consul Guy died at the very beginning of the battle and, according to the Celtic custom, was beheaded. But then the Romans succeeded in trapping the Celts between two Roman armies, and for all their suicidal courage and endurance, they were utterly defeated. Thus began the departure of the Celts from Cisalpine Gaul. In 192, the Romans, having defeated the Boii in their very stronghold - the present Bologna - finally achieved dominance over the whole of Cisalpine Gaul. From that moment on, the same thing began to happen everywhere: the territory of the independent Celts was gradually shrinking, and the Roman Empire was advancing and growing. By the 1st century BC. e. Gaul, which at that time remained the only independent Celtic country on the continent, became part of the Roman Empire after the final defeat that Julius Caesar inflicted on the Gauls in the war that began in 58. It took Caesar about seven years to complete the conquest of Gaul, and after that the rapid Romanization of the country began.

Celtic speech and religious traditions continued to live under the auspices of Rome, and they had to change and adapt to Roman ideology. Latin was widely used among the privileged classes. Celtic priests - the Druids - were officially banned, but the reason for this was not only their cruel religious rites, which allegedly offended the sensitivity of the Romans (in the Roman world, human sacrifice had long ceased), but also because they threatened Roman political domination. Much of the information we have about Celtic life and religion in both Gaul and Britain has to be literally plucked out from under the Roman lacquer. Local religious cults also need to be separated from ancient layers, although sometimes this is not easy, and sometimes almost impossible. Nevertheless, we have enough information and comparative material to draw a fairly convincing picture of the life of the Celts in Roman Gaul and Britain. The arrival of Christianity also brought significant changes with it, as did the eventual conquest of the Roman Empire by barbarian hordes from Northern Europe. After this, the Celtic world, with the exception of Ireland, dies, and in those areas that after this period retained the Celtic language, it became a relic of the past, and this is already beyond the scope of our book.

Let's go back to the British Isles. We know little of the local history of the Celts from written sources—much less, in fact, than we know of the Celts in Europe. Caesar's account of the Belgae's migration to southeast Britain is the first truly historical account of the Celtic migration to the British Isles, but apart from the archaeological evidence we have one or two more pieces of information. In the poem "Sea Route" ("Ora maritima"), written in the 4th century by Rufus Festus Avien, fragments of a lost manual for sailors, compiled in Massilia and called the "Massaliot periplus", have been preserved. It has been dated to around 600 BC. e. and was a story about a journey that began in Massilia (Marseille); then the route continues along the eastern coast of Spain to the city of Tartessus, which, apparently, was located near the mouth of the Guadalquivir. In this story there was a mention of the inhabitants of two large islands - Ierna and Albion, that is, Ireland and Britain, who were said to trade with the inhabitants of Estrimnides, the inhabitants of present-day Brittany. These names are the Greek form of the names that survived among the Celts who spoke the Goy-Del languages. We are talking about the Old Irish names "Eriu" (Eriu) and "Albu" (Albu). These are words of Indo-European, most likely, Celtic origin.

In addition, we have stories about the journey of Pytheas from Massilia, which took place around 325 BC. e. Here Britain and Ireland are called pretannikae, "The Pretan Islands," apparently also a Celtic word. The inhabitants of these islands were to be called "Pritani" or "Priteni" (Priteni). The name "Prytany" is preserved in the Welsh word "Prydain" and apparently meant Britain. This word has been misunderstood and appears in Caesar's account as "Britannia" and "British".

Rome and the advent of Christianity

After several waves of Celtic migrations to the British Isles, of which we have already spoken, the next major event in the history of ancient Britain was, of course, its entry into the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar arrived in Britain in 55 and then in 54 BC. e. Emperor Claudius began the final subjugation of the south of the island in 43 AD. e. The era of Roman expansion, military conquest and Roman civil rule began, when the most prominent local princes were Romanized. In a word, the same thing happened here as in Gaul, but the process was less complex and large-scale; local languages survived, although the aristocracy used Latin, as in Gaul. In Britain, they adopted Roman customs, built cities in the Mediterranean style and erected stone temples according to classical models, where the British and ancient gods were revered side by side. Gradually, local elements began to come to the fore, and by the 4th century AD. e. we see a revival of interest in local religious worship; one or two impressive temples dedicated to Celtic deities were built, such as the Temple of Nodont in Lydney Park at the Severn Estuary and the temple of an unknown deity with a bronze image of a bull with three goddesses on his back at Maiden Castle, Dorset. Each of these temples stood on the site of an Iron Age hill fort. Christianity also appeared, which brought with it its own changes and influenced the local society.

We examined the background against which the daily life of the Celts took place. As we have already seen, we are talking about a very extensive time and geographical framework - from about 700 BC to 700 BC. e. before 500 AD e. We have learned that in the period between the age of Herodotus and the age of Julius Caesar, fate carried the Celts to dizzying heights from which they fell just as dramatically. The Celtic language (with its two main branches) was, in one form or another, common to the entire Celtic world, and the religious beliefs of the Celts were also common. Because of this individuality, or "nationality," if the word can be applied to a people who did not have a strong central political power, the more developed and educated neighbors distinguished and recognized the Celts. It is partly the observations of these neighbors that tell us about the Celtic way of life that distinguishes the Celts as a separate people, and other data about the early Celts help us to penetrate deeper into this problem. Now we must try to learn more about the domestic, private side of the life of the pagan Celtic peoples; we want to know about how they expressed themselves in literature, about their religious beliefs, about the laws that governed their daily lives. We will find out what the structure of their society was like, how they looked and how they dressed - in a word, about what, in the eyes of ancient writers, distinguished them from other tribes. Ancient authors said that the Celts were one of the four barbarian peoples of the inhabited world. What did they mean by that? How can we check this? How reliable are these sources? Later in this book, we will try to answer at least some of these questions.

Indo-European origin, in ancient times at the turn of the eras, they occupied a vast territory in Western and Central Europe.

origin of name

The appearance of the word "Celtic" in the English language occurred in the 17th century. The Oxford-based Welsh linguist Edward Lluyd drew attention to the similarities inherent in the languages spoken in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. He called these languages "Celtic" - and the name stuck. The word "Celtic" is also used to describe a specific and highly recognizable ornamental style with a complex hierarchical structure of elements of various scales: spirals, woven ribbons, human figures and fantastic animals. Of particular interest are fractal constructions, unique in the world history of ornamentation. However, there is no evidence that such a design was created by an ethnically homogeneous group of people.

Story

Internecine wars, weakening the Celts, contributed to the invasion of the Germans from the east and the Romans from the south. The Germans pushed back part of the Celts in the 1st century BC. e. for the Rhine. Julius Caesar in 58 BC e. - 51 BC e. conquered all of Gaul. Under Augustus, the Romans conquered the regions along the upper Danube, northern Spain, Galatia, and under Claudius (mid-1st century AD) - a significant part of Britain. The Celts, who wished to remain in the territory of the Roman Empire, underwent strong Romanization.

Contacts with ancient civilizations

The Celts were one of the most warlike peoples in Europe. To intimidate the enemy before the battle, the Celts uttered deafening cries and blew into battle pipes - carnyxes, the bells of which were made in the form of animal heads. In the 1st millennium BC. e. Celts to increase the strength of the wheels of their chariots began to use a metal rim. The wheel is an attribute of Taranis, the Celtic god of thunder.

The Eastern Celts, settled along the Danube valley, penetrated far to the east in 281 BC. e. to Thrace in northern Greece, the Greeks called them Galatians.

Settling, the Celts mixed with local tribes: Iberians, Ligurians, Illyrians, Thracians, but some of them managed to maintain their identity for a long time (Lingons, Boii), which was one of the reasons for their small number. So, for example, in 58 BC. e. , according to Julius Caesar, there were 263,000 Helvetians and only 32,000 boii (here the argument is controversial, since the Dacian king Burebista mercilessly dealt with the boi around 60 BC). The Celts of southern France developed in conditions of active interaction with the ancient city-states and therefore were distinguished by the highest level of culture. Displaced by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. e. from the north of Italy (from the so-called Cisalpine Gaul), the Celts settled in central and northwestern Bohemia (these were the Boii tribes, from which the territory received the name Boiohaemum - the birthplace of the Boii - Bohemia).

The most numerous tribes of the Celts were the Helvetians, Belgis, Arverns.

It should also be noted that the Celtic origin of the Arverni is still in question, and most of the tribal union of the Belgae had Germanic roots; in any case, most specialists consider their tribes as having, probably, a mixed, Germano-Celtic origin. The Biturigs and Volci were also not originally Celtic tribes. However, the very formulation of the question of origin needs to be clarified, formulating which scientists come to the conclusion that during the migrations of the Bronze and Iron Ages, the newcomers (in different historical periods it could be the Celts, Germans and others) did not so much displace (or exterminate) the defeated autochthonous population , how many were included with them in the process of mutual assimilation, the result of which was the formation of new ethnic groups that retained one of the former ethnonyms.

Celtic beliefs

Irish Law

The original national law that had been in force in Ireland since ancient times was abolished by the English government at the beginning of the 17th century and doomed to oblivion, like everything that could remind the Irish of their former national existence. But in 1852, the British government commissioned Irish scientists to find and publish monuments of ancient Irish law.

It is believed that the rules contained in Great Book of Ancient Law, were formed under the influence of the Bregons, approximately in the 1st century AD, and the legal treatises, which serve as the basis of the collection and the subject of the later gloss, were compiled in the era of the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, that is, in the first half of the 5th century, then for several centuries were preserved by oral tradition , and in the VIII century were recorded. The oldest manuscript that has come down to us dates back to the 14th century. For the study of the original foundations and evolution of primitive Indo-European law, there is no other source - except perhaps the laws of Manu - that would surpass in importance the ancient Irish laws. Senhus-Mor consists of 5 books, of which the first two are about legal proceedings, the last three are about the upbringing of children, about various forms of rent, and about the relationship of different people to each other, as well as to the church.

The material for the book of Aicillus, another source of information about Celtic law, was two works, of which one belongs to King Cormac (about 250 AD), and the other to Cennfelads, who lived four centuries later; its manuscripts are not older than the 15th century, but the book itself was compiled much earlier, and the institutions described in it belong to the remotest antiquity.

In addition to these two main sources, other monuments of ancient Irish literature can serve, especially church texts - the confession of St. Patrick, Collatio canonum hibernica, etc.

All these monuments find the people in a state of tribal life, the highest manifestation of which was the clan. Along with tribal relations, and sometimes in addition to them, a dependence similar to the vassal relations of the feudal system was established by renting land. The basis of the lease, which, however, could also be free, that is, not to establish dependent relations between the tenant and the owner, was the actual return for use not of land, but of livestock (the so-called shetel, cheptel, from the Celts. chatal or chetal - livestock) .

The owner by name was in reality only the manager of the common family estate, burdened with duties in favor of the family. Marriage was concluded through the purchase of wives, and before the introduction of Christianity, apparently, could be made for one year. The ransom for the daughter went in favor of the father, but in subsequent marriages a certain part of it, which gradually increased with each new marriage (the law provides for 21 marriages), turned in favor of the daughter. When a father was replaced by a brother, he received half of what was due to his father. When the spouses were equal both in social status and in the contributions they made to the compilation of the common property fund, the wife enjoyed the same rights with her husband and one without the other could not enter into transactions; in the case of an unequal marriage, priority in domestic affairs belongs to the spouse who made the contribution. Along with these cases, Senchus-Mor provides for 7 more forms of marital relations, reminiscent of the wrong marital unions, which are mentioned in the laws of Manu. When the spouses are separated, each takes his contribution in full, while the acquired property is distributed between them on the basis of special rules that provide for the smallest details.

There was a very complex system of kinship relations that applied not only to the distribution of hereditary property, but also to the distribution of monetary fines that took the place of blood feuds: relatives were called upon to pay and receive these fines in the same manner as for inheritance. The reward for killing a free person (the price of blood, eric) was determined at 7 slaves (a slave is a common unit of value among the Celts) or 21 dairy cows. In addition, there was also the price of honor (enechlann), the size of which depended on the state and social position of the victim. It depended on the relatives of the criminal either to pay for him, or to abandon him and doom him to exile. Accidental killing did not exempt from the payment of remuneration; killing secretly or from an ambush entailed a double fine. There was a rate of fines for injuries and beatings. The amount of compensation for damages was in direct relation to the rank of the victim and inversely to the rank of the harmer. The initial stage of the process was the arrest, which was imposed by the plaintiff on the property (livestock) of the defendant and at the same time served as a security for the claim. If the defendant did not have any property, then he was subjected to personal detention and taken to the plaintiff with chains on his legs and a chain around his neck; the plaintiff was obliged to give him only a cup of broth a day. If the plaintiff and the defendant belonged to different tribes and the seizure of the latter's property was inconvenient, then the plaintiff could detain any person from the defendant's tribe. The hostage paid for his compatriot and had the right to claim back from him. If it was impossible to induce the defendant to appear in court by arresting property, then the case ended in a duel, the conditions of which were established by custom, and which, in any case, took place in the presence of witnesses.

The court belonged to the head of the clan or the people's assembly, but generally had the character of an arbitrator. In making his decision, he was guided by the opinion bregons(actually brithem, then brehon - judge), which in the pagan era belonged to the number fillet(filé - clairvoyant, prophet) - to the category of priests who directly followed the druids; in the Middle Ages they became a hereditary corporation. The Bregons are the broadcasters of law, the custodians of the formulas and rather complex rites of the process, which was distinguished by the formalism common in antiquity; in their conclusions, they do not create law, but only reveal and formulate those legal norms that lie in the legal consciousness of the people. The Bregons were also poets and were at the head of schools in which law was studied by oral transmission along with the rules of poetic creativity. In the pagan era, the belonging of the Bregons to the number of priests informed the conclusions of their religious authority, especially since supernatural power was attributed to the fillet, the ability to bring down all sorts of troubles on the recalcitrant. Then at the head of the estate of the fillet was the so-called ollaw (ollaw), corresponding in his position to the supreme druid of the Gauls. And after the introduction of Christianity, the conclusions of the Bregons did not lose their mystical connotation: various magical actions of Oregon were performed at the trial, which were supposed to cause supernatural revelations. Then the judicial duel, the oath, the ordeals, the support of the jurors served as evidence.

Celtic names in modern Europe

Amiens - on behalf of the Gallic tribe of the Ambians;
Belgium - on behalf of the Belgian tribe;
Belfast - in Celtic "bel fersde" - "sandbank ford";
Bohemia (an obsolete name for the historical region of the Czech Republic) - on behalf of the Boii tribe;
Brittany (region in France) - named after the tribe of Britons;
Britain is the same
Bourges - on behalf of the Biturigi tribe;
Galatia (historical region on the territory of modern Turkey) - from the Greek name of the Celts "Galatians";
Galicia (province in Spain);
Galicia (historical region on the territory of Ukraine);
Gaul - (a historical region on the territory of modern France, Belgium, parts of Switzerland, Germany and Northern Italy);
Dublin - in Irish "black lake";
Kemper - in Breton "confluence of rivers";
The Cambrian Mountains - from the ancient self-name of the Welsh "Cimry";
Langr - from the name of the Gallic tribe of the Lingons;
Lyon - "Lug Fortress", from the ancient name "Lugdunum" (Lug - the Gallic god of the Sun, Gall. "dun" - a fortress, a hill);
Nantes - on behalf of the Namnet tribe;
Auvergne - on behalf of the Arvern tribe;
Paris - from the name of the Celtic tribe Parisii;
Perigord is a historical region in France;
Poitiers - from the name of the tribe of Pictons (Pictaves);
Seine (river in France), from Gaulish Sequana;
Tur - on behalf of the Turon tribe;
Trois - on behalf of the Tricas tribe.

Modern Celtic peoples

Irish (self-name - Irish Muintir na hÉireann or Irish na hÉireannaigh, singular - Éireannach, name of the language - An Ghaeilge, name of the state - Poblacht na hÉireann (Republic of Ireland))
Welsh (self-name - Wall. Cymry, singular - Cymro, name of the language - Cymraeg, name of the country - Cymru, name of the administrative-territorial entity - Tywysogaeth Cymru (Principality of Wales))
Scots (self-name - Gaelic Albannaich, language name - Gàidhlig, country name - Alba, name of the administrative-territorial entity - Rìoghachd na h-Alba (Kingdom of Scotland))
Bretons (self-name - Bret. Brezhoned, language name - Brezhoneg, province name - Breizh)
Kornians (self-name - Kernowyon, name of the language - Kernowek, name of the county - Kernow (

origin of name

The appearance of the word "Celtic" in the English language occurred in the 17th century. The Oxford-based Welsh linguist Edward Lluyd drew attention to the similarities inherent in the languages spoken in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. He called these languages "Celtic" - and the name stuck. The word "Celtic" is also used to describe the "curl" style of various decorations sold in souvenir shops in Ireland. However, there is no evidence that such a design was created by an ethnically homogeneous group of people.

Story

Contacts with ancient civilizations

Roman name galls it was used to a greater extent in relation to the tribes that lived north of Massalia, near the Ocean and at the Herkin Mountains. Gauls(from lat. Gallus - “rooster”) - the name given by the Romans to a group of Celtic tribes, mostly living in the territory of modern France. This etymology is due to the fact that the battle helmets of the ancient Gauls were decorated with cock feathers, since the first acquaintance of the Romans with the Gauls took place initially, mainly on the battlefields.

The Eastern Celts, settled along the Danube valley, penetrated far to the east in 281 BC. e. to Thrace in northern Greece, the Greeks called them Galatians.

Settling, the Celts mixed with local tribes: Iberians, Illyrians, Thracians, but for a long time some of them managed to maintain the “purity” of the race (Lingons, Boii), which was one of the reasons for their small number. For example, in 58 A.D. e. there were 263,000 Helvetians and only 32,000 fights [here the argument is debatable, because after the death of Julius Caesar, the Dacian king Burebista mercilessly dealt with the fights]. The Celts of southern France developed in conditions of active interaction with the ancient city-states and therefore were distinguished by the highest level of culture. Displaced by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. e. from the north of Italy (from the so-called Cisalpine Gaul), the Celts settled in central and northwestern Bohemia (these were the Boii tribes, from which the territory received the name Boiohaemum - the birthplace of the Boii - Bohemia).

According to DNA genealogist B. Sykes, the Celts of the British Isles are genetically related not to the Celts of mainland Europe, but to more ancient newcomers from Iberia, who brought agriculture to Britain in the early Neolithic.

The most numerous tribes of the Celts were the Helvetians, Belgis, Arverns

It should also be noted that the Celtic origin of the Arverns is still in question, and most of the tribal union of the Belgae had Germanic roots. The Biturigs and Volci were also not originally Celtic tribes.

Celtic beliefs

Irish Law

It is believed that the rules contained in Great Book of Ancient Law, were formed under the influence of the Bregons, approximately in the 1st century AD, and the legal treatises that serve as the basis of the collection and the subject of a later gloss were compiled in the era of the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, that is, in the first half of the 5th century, then for several centuries were preserved by oral tradition , and in the VIII century were recorded. The oldest manuscript that has come down to us dates back to the 14th century. For the study of the original foundations and evolution of primitive Indo-European law, there is no other source - except perhaps the laws of Manu - that would surpass in importance the ancient Irish laws. Senhus-Mor consists of 5 books, of which the first two are about legal proceedings, the last three are about the upbringing of children, about various forms of rent, and about the relationship of different people to each other, as well as to the church.

In addition to these two main sources, other monuments of ancient Irish literature can serve, especially church texts - the confession of St. Patrick, Collatio canonum hibernica, etc.

There was a very complex system of kinship relations that applied not only to the distribution of hereditary property, but also to the distribution of monetary fines that took the place of blood feuds: relatives were called upon to pay and receive these fines in the same manner as for inheritance. The reward for killing a free person (the price of blood, eric) was determined at 7 slaves (a slave is a common unit of value among the Celts) or 21 cash cows. In addition, there was also the price of honor (enechlann), the size of which depended on the state and social position of the victim. It depended on the relatives of the criminal either to pay for him, or to abandon him and doom him to exile. Accidental killing did not exempt from the payment of remuneration; killing secretly or from an ambush entailed a double fine. There was a rate of fines for injuries and beatings. The amount of compensation for damages was in direct relation to the rank of the victim and inversely to the rank of the harmer. The initial stage of the process was the arrest, which was imposed by the plaintiff on the property (livestock) of the defendant and at the same time served as a security for the claim. If the defendant did not have any property, then he was subjected to personal detention and taken to the plaintiff with chains on his legs and a chain around his neck; the plaintiff was obliged to give him only a cup of broth a day. If the plaintiff and the defendant belonged to different tribes and the seizure of the latter's property was inconvenient, then the plaintiff could detain any person from the defendant's tribe. The hostage paid for his compatriot and had the right to claim back from him. If it was impossible to induce the defendant to appear in court by arresting property, then the case ended in a duel, the conditions of which were established by custom, and which, in any case, took place in the presence of witnesses.

The court belonged to the head of the clan or the people's assembly, but generally had the character of an arbitrator. In making his decision, he was guided by the opinion bregons(actually brithem, then brehon - judge), who in the pagan era belonged to the number of fillets (filé - clairvoyant, prophet) - the category of priests who directly followed the druids; in the Middle Ages they became a hereditary corporation. The Bregons are the broadcasters of law, the custodians of the formulas and rather complex rites of the process, which was distinguished by the formalism common in antiquity; in their conclusions, they do not create law, but only reveal and formulate those legal norms that lie in the legal consciousness of the people. The Bregons were also poets and were at the head of schools in which law was studied by oral transmission along with the rules of poetic creativity. In the pagan era, the belonging of the Bregons to the number of priests informed the conclusions of their religious authority, especially since supernatural power was attributed to the fillet, the ability to bring down all sorts of troubles on the recalcitrant. Then at the head of the estate of the fillet was the so-called ollaw (ollaw), corresponding in his position to the supreme druid of the Gauls. And after the introduction of Christianity, the conclusions of the Bregons did not lose their mystical connotation: various magical actions of Oregon were performed at the trial, which were supposed to cause supernatural revelations. Then the judicial duel, the oath, the ordeals, the support of the jurors served as evidence.

War among the Celts

The ancient Celts were terrible in battle - they did not wear any clothes and painted blue. The spectacle of a crowd of naked blue warriors in itself horrified the enemy, as even Julius Caesar wrote about. In addition to everything, they covered their hair with white lime and their bodies with tattoos.

Celtic names in modern Europe

Amiens - on behalf of the Gallic tribe of the Ambians;
Belgium - on behalf of the Belgian tribe;
Belfast - in Celtic "bel fersde" - "sandbank ford";
Bohemia (an obsolete name for the historical region of the Czech Republic) - on behalf of the Boii tribe;
Brittany (region in France) - named after the tribe of Britons;
Britain - the same;
Bourges - on behalf of the Biturigi tribe;
Galatia (a historical region on the territory of modern Turkey) - from the name of the Celts by the Greeks "Galatians";
Galicia (province in Spain), Galicia, Gaul - the same;
Dublin - in Irish "black lake";
Kemper - in Breton "confluence of rivers";
The Cambrian Mountains - from the ancient self-name of the Welsh, Cymry;
Langr - from the name of the Gallic tribe of the Lingons;
Lyon - "Lug Fortress", from the ancient name "Lugdunum" (Lug - the Gallic god of the Sun, Gall. "dun" - a fortress, a hill);
Nantes - on behalf of the Namnet tribe;
Auvergne - on behalf of the Arvern tribe;
Paris - from the name of the Celtic tribe Parisii;
Poitiers - from the name of the tribe of Pictons (Pictaves);
Seine (river in France), from Gaulish Sequana;
Tur - on behalf of the Turon tribe;
Trois - on behalf of the Tricas tribe.

Modern Celtic peoples

Irish (self-name - Irish Muintir na hÉireann or Irish na hÉireannaigh, singular - Éireannach, name of the language - An Ghaeilge, name of the state - Poblacht na hÉireann (Republic of Ireland))
Welsh (self-name - Wall. Cymry, singular - Cymro, name of the language - Cymraeg, name of the country - Cymru, name of the administrative-territorial entity - Tywysogaeth Cymru (Principality of Wales))
Scots (self-name - Gaelic Albannaich, language name - Gàidhlig, country name - Alba, name of the administrative-territorial entity - Rìoghachd na h-Alba (Kingdom of Scotland))
Bretons (self-name - Bret. Brezhoned, language name - Brezhoneg, province name - Breizh)
Cornish (self-name - Kernowyon, name of the language - Kernowek, name of the county - Kernow (Cornwall))

Literature

//
// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
Shirokova N. S. Celtic Druids and the book of Francoise Leroux // Leroux Francoise. Druids. SPb., 2003, p. 7-23
D. Collis. Celts: origins, history, myth. - M .: Veche, 2007. - 288 p. - ISBN 978-5-9533-1855-6

Links

The Gospel of Kells - a masterpiece of 9th century Celtic miniature

Celts
ancient celts

Hello, friends!

Welcome to the World of the Celts. My name is Suren Israelyan, I am from Bulgaria and I am the chairman of the Bulgarian Society „ Celtic Legacy”.

The main goal of the Society– to acquaint our audience with the thousand-year-old Celtic customs and holidays. Why not celebrate them with you?

You may not know that on the territory of today's Bulgaria there was a Celtic Kingdom „ THIELE” in the III century BC. We want to recreate the celebration of the Eight Celtic Holidays, realize the idea, and also popularize Celtic Food and Music.

History of the Celts

Celts is probably one of the oldest pan-European civilizations, and Celtic customs and deities had a significant influence on early Christianity.

It is customary to date the appearance of the Celts VIII-VII centuries BC, but there is evidence of their earlier presence in Europe. There is even archaeological evidence of a Celtic presence in what is today France and western Germany around 1200 BC, but most archaeologists believe that the "first Celts" were found during excavations at Hallstatt in Austria.

The Romans called the Celts Gauls”, Greeks - „ Keltoi”, but in both languages it is translated as“ barbarians ”. In the V-III centuries BC. The Celts are invincible, they conquer most of Europe, especially the northern part (over the Alps), and in the III century BC. heading south.

Around 281 BC The Celtic army reaches the lands of today's Bulgaria and founds the Kingdom, which is called Thiele(Thile), then they continue their march to the south and in the lands of today's Turkey, in Anadol, they establish the southernmost Kingdom - Galatia(Galatia). Galatia existed for more than 300 years (according to some sources, even longer), but Thiele clearly interfered greatly with the Thracians and they destroyed this Celtic Kingdom around 218 BC.

Influence and power on the Celts is shown on this map from the 3rd century BC:

yellow: Greece and the Greek colonies.
dark green In: Hellenistic Cultures.
green: Etruscans.
Bordeaux: Early Roman Empire.

It is believed that the Celts appeared in the British Isles around the 5th-4th century BC. At this time, the bulk of the Celts lived on the mainland, but with the rise of Rome and the military campaigns of the Roman legions, the British Isles and the province of Brittany in France remained the safest places. The Romans attacked the islands several times and when England (England) was conquered, the Celtic clans moved to areas "on the periphery" - to Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

In these lands, the Celtic influence was almost never interrupted, so today most of the Irish believe that they have Celtic roots. Many modern inhabitants of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Brittany (France) speak Celtic dialects.

Celtic languages

Celtic languages included to the Indo-European group and are currently used in the territory of the so-called "Six Celtic Nations".

According to the Celtic League, about 3 million people understand or speak Celtic dialects. These facts clearly prove that the Celtic languages and culture are not dead, but are quite active factors that are developing, albeit on a regional scale.

Where do the descendants of the Celts live today?

In modern times, people who consider themselves descendants of the Celts live in the following regions:

Republic of Ireland(Ireland), in Celtic - "Eire".
Isle of Man(Isle of Man) - an independent community within the UK.
County of Cornwall(Cornwall), Southern England. In Cornish (Celtic dialect) - Kernow.
Scotland(Scotland), in Scottish Celtic - Alba.
Wales(Wales), in Welsh (Celtic dialect) - Cymri (Cymru).
Province of Brittany(Brittany), France, in Breton (Celtic dialect) - Breizh.

What did the Celts leave to Europe and the world?

Love for Mother Nature

Each of the Eight Celtic Feasts (Imbolg, Ostara, Belten, Lita, Lunasach, Lamas, Meybon, Sauin and Yul) contains rites of reverence for "Mother Nature". At the Belten festival, God Bel is dressed in a tunic with green leaves and is called "Green Jack" (Green Jack).

Even the horoscope of the Celts is associated with trees: the signs of the zodiac are named after different names of trees and change every 10 days.

Equality of men and women

According to Celtic mythology, life is led by "Triple Deity": Girl, Mother and Grandmother who are symbols Life, Death and Rebirth. For this reason, probably, the Celts observed the first equality of the sexes in Europe.

Contemporaries of the Celts are surprised to describe the Celtic female commanders, female merchants and property owners, even female druids.

iron objects

Plow. When the Celts were not at war, they were good farmers, so good that they could have up to 8 oxen in the field at the same time. So they invented the metal plow, which, when combined with a team of oxen, was much more efficient.

Sword, chain mail. In Kirkboom (Kirkburn - East Yorkshire) a sword was found, which is assembled from 70 different parts (probably the reason is the clandestine transportation of the sword). The sword and scabbard are assembled from 70 separate parts, which speaks of the high skill of the Celtic gunsmiths.

And here is an even more impressive fact - around the III century. BC Celtic craftsmen invented chain mail (Chain Mail), which is known to this day. Roman contemporaries write that the Empire copied chain mail from the bodies of the slain Celts and, thus, this attribute spread throughout Europe.

Druids

Druids were the most respected people in Celtic society. They were healers, preachers, judges, scientists and teachers. In certain cases (for example, during a sudden enemy attack), they had more rights than even the king. In practice, they linked the Celtic clans into one community. Druidry has excited people at all times, even in the 17th century it was revived as a tradition (Druid Revival). The influence of the Druids on the Celtic society was so strong that the Romans, when attacking the Celtic settlements, first of all killed the Druid.

Here is one of the interpretations of the Philosophy of the Druids - the so-called Seven Talents of Druidry:

First Talent- a philosophy that asserts that life is a holy gift and emphasizes the role of man in its creation.
Second Talent- closeness with Nature, synchronization of our life with the natural cycles of Nature, and from there the development of a sense of community with all living beings.
Third Talent- Healing through experiences that aid healing and rejuvenation along with mental and physical methods of health and longevity.
Fourth Talent- the perception of our life as a journey through adolescence, marriage and death in the name of our children.
Fifth Talent- opening of New realities, New consciousness, New World, which will be built on Celtic and Druidic images and traditions.
Sixth Talent- the development of our capabilities as a way to self-improvement, the disclosure of our creative forces, mental qualities and intuition, the development of intellectual and spiritual forces.
Seventh Talent- Magic that teaches how ideas become reality, how to discover, develop and use the power of the spiritual impulse, which the Druids call Awen (enlightenment, inspiration).

Celtic Holidays - Wheel of the Year

Wheel of the Year is the Celtic concept of the cycle of the seasons of life. All holidays are strongly connected with natural cycles - solstice, equinox, "quarters" (dates in the middle between solstice and equinox).

Each of these holidays has its own energy and at the same time is connected with the other, and together they form an eternal cycle of life.

The Celtic Wheel introduces us to the cycles of growth, harvest, rest and renewal. Each cycle is important and cannot exist without the other.

The Celts lived and worked according to these cycles of life, so that there would be more “mutual understanding and success”. They believed that if they mark the cycles of the seasons and are guided by them, they can reveal many secrets of life, earth and magic.

Celtic holidays:

The dates of the Celtic holidays are not fixed, because each Celtic community celebrated them, according to various sources, from several days to 2 weeks.

♦ Heading: .

G. ALEKSANDROVSKY. According to the materials of the magazine "Der Spiegel".

Tribes close in language and culture, known in history under the name of the Celts (this name comes from the ancient Greeks, the Romans called them Gauls), about three thousand years ago settled almost throughout Europe. Their stay on the continent was marked by many successes in the field of material culture, which were also enjoyed by their neighbors. Early European literature, or rather folklore, learned a lot from the monuments of the creativity of this ancient people. The heroes of many medieval tales - Tristan and Isolde, Prince Eisenhertz (Iron Heart) and the magician Merlin - all of them were born by the fantasy of the Celts. In their heroic sagas, written down in the 8th century by Irish monks, the fabulous knights of the Grail, such as Percifal and Lancelot, appear. Today, little is written about the life of the Celts and the role they played in the history of Europe. They were more fortunate in modern entertainment literature, mainly in French comics. The Celts, like the Vikings, are portrayed as barbarians in horned helmets, lovers of drinking and feasting on wild boar. Let this image of a rude, albeit cheerful, carefree savage remain on the conscience of the creators of today's tabloid literature. A contemporary of the Celts, Aristotle, called them "wise and skillful."

Ritual feast of the modern followers of the Druids.

A Celtic warrior fighting an Etruscan horseman (c. 400 BC).

Bronze image of a chariot filled with people doomed to sacrifice to the gods. 7th century BC

Reconstruction of an altar dating back to the 2nd century BC.

The figurine of the 1st century BC depicts a druid - a Celtic priest.

Bronze jug. 4th century BC

A jug with a double handle is an example of typical ceramics from one of the periods of Celtic history.

The painting, painted in 1899, depicts the capture of the Celtic leader Fercingetorix by Julius Caesar. Two million Celts were killed and taken into slavery as a result of Caesar's campaign in Gaul.

This is how historians imagine a Celtic settlement. This reconstruction was carried out on the site where the capital of the Celts, Manching, once stood.

Statue discovered near Frankfurt. This sandstone sculpture made it possible to understand a lot about the life of the Celts.

Items found by archaeologists studying the history of the Celts: a vessel, a boar figurine, a richly decorated helmet, a hairpin (fibula) for clothes, a round buckle, amber jewelry, a bronze head of a man.

Wise and skillful

The skill of the Celts is confirmed today by archaeological finds. As early as 1853 a harness was found in Switzerland; the art with which its details were made made scientists doubt: was it really made in ancient times by the Celts or is it a modern fake? However, the skeptical voices have long been silenced. According to modern researchers, the Celtic masters were capable of the finest execution of magnificent artistic ideas.

The German researcher Helmut Birkhan, in his book on Celtic culture, speaks of the genius of the then technicians who invented the carpentry workbench. But they also own a much more important matter - they were the first to lay salt mines and the first to learn how to get iron and steel from iron ore, and this determined the beginning of the end of the Bronze Age in Europe. About 800 B.C. bronze in Central and Western Europe is being replaced by iron.

Birkhan, studying and analyzing the latest trophies of archeology, comes to the conclusion that the Celts, who first settled in the center of Europe, in the Alps generous with fossils, quickly accumulated wealth, created well-armed detachments that influenced politics in the ancient world, developed crafts, and their masters possessed high technologies for that time.

Here is a list of production peaks that were available only to Celtic craftsmen.

They were the only people among other peoples who made bracelets from molten glass that did not have seams.

The Celts received copper, tin, lead, mercury from deep deposits.

Their horse-drawn carts were the best in Europe.

The Celts-metallurgists were the first to learn how to obtain iron and steel.

Celtic blacksmiths were the first to forge steel swords, helmets and chain mail - the best weapons in Europe at that time.

They mastered the laundering of gold on the Alpine rivers, the extraction of which was measured in tons.

On the territory of modern Bavaria, the Celts erected 250 religious temples and built 8 large cities. For example, the city of Kelheim occupied 650 hectares, another city, Heidengraben, was two and a half times larger - 1600 hectares, Ingolstadt was spread over the same area (here are the modern names of German cities that arose on the sites of the Celtic). It is known how the main city of the Celts, on the site of which Ingolstadt grew up, was called - Manching. It was surrounded by a rampart seven kilometers long. This ring was perfect in terms of geometry. For the sake of the accuracy of the circular line, ancient builders changed the course of several streams.

The Celts are a numerous people. In the first millennium BC, he occupied the territory from the Czech Republic (according to the modern map) to Ireland. Turin, Budapest and Paris (then called Lutetia) were founded by the Celts.

Inside the Celtic cities there was a revival. Professional acrobats and strongmen entertained the townspeople on the streets. Roman authors speak of the Celts as born horsemen, and all emphasize the panache of their women. They shaved off their eyebrows, wore narrow sashes that accentuated their thin waists, adorned their faces with headbands, and nearly all wore amber beads. Massive bracelets and neck rings made of gold rang at the slightest movement. Hairstyles resembled towers - for this, the hair was moistened with lime water. Fashion in clothes - bright and colorful in an oriental way - often changed. Men all wore mustaches and gold rings around their necks, women - bracelets on their legs, which were shackled as early as a girl's age.

The Celts had a law - you have to be thin, and therefore many went in for sports. Whoever did not fit the "standard" belt was fined.

Morals in everyday life were peculiar. In military campaigns, homosexuality was the norm. The woman enjoyed great freedom, it was easy for her to get a divorce and take back the dowry she brought with her. Each tribal prince kept his squad, which defended his interests. A frequent reason for fights could be even such a small reason - which of the elders would get the first, best piece of deer or wild boar. For the Celts, this was a matter of honor. Such strife is reflected in many Irish sagas.

The Celts could not be called one nation, they remained fragmented into separate tribes, despite the common territory (more than one million square kilometers), a common language, a single religion, trade interests. Tribes numbering about 80,000 people acted separately.

Journey into the past

Imagine that in a helmet equipped with a miner's lamp, you are descending down an inclined working deep into the mountain, into a mine where, from time immemorial, the Celts mined salt in the eastern Alps. The journey into the past has begun.

A quarter of an hour later, a transverse working is encountered, it, like the drift along which we walked, is trapezoidal in cross section, but all four sides of it are five times smaller, only a child can crawl into this hole. And once there was a full-length adult. The rock in the salt mines is very plastic and, over time, seems to heal the wounds inflicted on it by people.

Now salt is not mined in the mine, the mine has been turned into a museum where you can see and learn how once people got the much-needed salt here. Archaeologists are working nearby, they are separated from the sightseers by an iron grate with the inscription: "Attention! Research is in progress." The lamp illuminates the sloping wooden tray that goes down, along which you can sit down to the next drift.

The mine is located a few kilometers from Salzburg (translated as Salt Fortress). The city's history museum is overflowing with finds from the mines scattered around the area called the Salzkammergut. Salt from this region of the Alps was delivered to all corners of Europe thousands of years ago. The pedlars carried it on their backs in the form of 8-10-kilogram cylinders lined with wooden slats and tied with ropes. In exchange for salt, valuables from all over Europe flocked to Salzburg (in the museum you can see a stone knife made in Scandinavia - the mineral composition proves this - or jewelry made from Baltic amber). This is probably why the city in the eastern foothills of the Alps has been famous for its wealth, fairs and holidays since ancient times. They still exist - the whole world knows the annual Salzburg festivals, which every theater, every orchestra dreams of visiting.

Findings in salt mines step by step reveal to us a distant and in many ways mysterious world. Wooden spades, but at the same time iron picks, leg wraps, the remains of woolen sweaters and fur caps - all this was found by archaeologists in long-abandoned adits. An environment containing an excess of salt prevents the decomposition of organic materials. Therefore, scientists were able to see the cut ends of the sausage, boiled beans and fossilized waste products of digestion. Beds say that people did not leave the mine for a long time, they slept next to the face. According to rough estimates, about 200 people worked in the mine at the same time. In the dim light of the torches, people sooty with soot cut down blocks of salt, which were then pulled to the surface on sleds. The sleigh glided along the damp wood tracks.

The drifts cut by people connect the shapeless caves created by nature itself. According to rough estimates, people walked more than 5,500 meters of drifts and other workings in the mountain.

Among the finds made by modern archaeologists in the mines, there are no human remains. Only chronicles dating back to 1573 and 1616 say that two corpses were found in the caves, their tissues, like those of mummies, were almost petrified.

Well, those finds that now fall to archaeologists often make you rack your brains. For example, the exhibit under the code "B 480" resembles a fingertip made from a pig's bladder. The open end of this little pouch could be tightened with a cord attached. What is it - scientists guess - is it protection for a wounded finger or a small purse for valuables?

Sacred plant - mistletoe

"In the study of the history of the Celts," says the historian Otto-Hermann Frey of Marburg, "surprises pour in like raindrops." A monkey skull was found in the Irish cult site "Emain Maha". How did he get there and what role did he play? In 1983, a board with text fell into the hands of archaeologists. It was partially deciphered and understood to be a dispute between two groups of rival witches.

Another sensational discovery made in recent months has added to the speculation about what the spiritual culture of the Celts is. A stylized figure of a man above life size, made of sandstone, was discovered 30 kilometers from Frankfurt. In the left hand is a shield, the right is pressed to the chest, a ring is visible on one of the fingers. His costume is complemented by neck ornaments. On the head - something like a turban in the form of a mistletoe leaf - a plant sacred to the Celts. The weight of this figure is 230 kilograms. What does she represent? So far, experts have two opinions: either this is a figure of some kind of deity, or it is a prince, also invested with religious duties, perhaps the main priest - a druid, as the Celtic clergy are called.

It must be said that there is no other European people that would deserve such gloomy assessments when it comes to the druids, their magic and commitment to human sacrifice. They killed prisoners and fellow criminals, they were also judges, they were engaged in healing, taught children. They also played an important role as predictors of the future. Together with the tribal nobility, the druids made up the upper stratum of society. The Roman emperors, after defeating the Celts, made them their tributaries, forbade human sacrifices, took away many privileges from the Druids, and they lost that halo of significance that surrounded them. True, for a long time they still existed as wandering soothsayers. And now in Western Europe you can meet people who claim that they have inherited the wisdom of the druids. Books like "The Teachings of Merlin - 21 Lectures on the Practical Magic of the Druids" or "The Celtic Tree Horoscope" are published. Winston Churchill joined the Druid circle in 1908.

Not a single grave of a druid has yet been met by archaeologists, so information about the religion of the Celts is extremely scarce. It is understandable, therefore, with what interest historians study a figure found near Frankfurt in the hope that science will advance in this area.

The statue with a turban, apparently, stood in the center of the funeral complex, which is an earthen hill, a 350-meter alley led to it, along the edges of which there were deep ditches. In the depths of the hill, the remains of a man about 30 years old were found. The burial took place 2500 years ago. Four restorers carefully freed the skeleton from the soil and moved it to the laboratory, where they gradually remove the remaining soil and the remains of clothing. One can understand the impatience of scientists when they saw the complete coincidence of the equipment of the deceased with the one depicted on the statue: the same neck decoration, the same shield and the same ring on the finger. It can be thought that the ancient sculptor repeated the appearance of the deceased, as he was on the day of the funeral.

Workshop of Europe and dark rituals

Elizabeth Knoll, a historian of the prehistory of Europe, highly appreciates the level of development of the Celts: "They did not know writing, they did not know an all-encompassing state organization, but nevertheless they already stood on the threshold of high culture."

At least in technical and economic terms, they were far superior to their northern neighbors - the Germanic tribes, who occupied the marshy right bank of the Rhine and partially populated the south of Scandinavia. Only thanks to the neighborhood with the Celts, these tribes, who did not know either the account of time or fortified cities, were mentioned in history shortly before the birth of Christ. And the Celts in these times just reached the zenith of their power. To the south of the Main, trading life was in full swing, large cities for that time were erected, in which forges rang, circles of potters spun, and money flowed from buyers to sellers. This was a level that the then Germans did not know.

The Celts raised their ritual temple in the Carinthian Alps near Magdalensberg by 1000 meters. In the neighborhood of the temple, even now you can find slag heaps two hundred meters long, three meters wide - these are the remains of iron ore processing. There were also blast furnaces in which ore was turned into metal, there were also forges where shapeless castings, the so-called "crits" - a mixture of metal and liquid slag - became steel swords, spearheads, helmets or tools. No one in the Western world did this then. Steel products enriched the Celts.

An experimental reproduction of Celtic metallurgy by the Austrian scientist Harold Straube showed that these early furnaces could be heated up to 1400 degrees. By controlling the temperature and skillfully handling molten ore and coal, the ancient craftsmen obtained either soft iron or hard steel at will. Straube's publication of the "Ferrum Noricum" (of the "Northern iron") prompted further research into Celtic metallurgy. The inscriptions discovered by the archaeologist Gernot Riccochini speak of a brisk steel trade with Rome, which bought steel in bulk in the form of ingots resembling bricks or strips, and through the hands of Roman merchants this metal went to the armory workshops of the eternal city.

All the more monstrous against the backdrop of brilliant achievements in the field of technology seems to be the almost manic passion of the Celts to sacrifice human lives. This theme runs like a red thread in many writings of the time of the Caesars. But who knows, maybe the Romans deliberately focus on this in order to obscure their own crimes in the wars they waged in Europe, for example, in Gallic?

Caesar describes the group burnings used by the Druids. The already mentioned researcher Birkhan reports the custom of drinking wine from a goblet made from the skull of an enemy. There are documents that say that the druids guessed the future by the sight of blood flowing from a person's stomach after being stabbed with a dagger. The same priests instilled in the people the fear of ghosts, the transmigration of souls, the resurrection of dead enemies. And in order to prevent the arrival of a defeated enemy, the Celt decapitated his corpse or cut it into pieces.

The Celts treated dead relatives with the same distrust and tried to ensure that the deceased did not return. In the Ardennes, graves were found in which 89 people were buried, but 32 skulls are missing. A Celtic burial was found in Durrenberg, in which the deceased was completely "dismantled": the sawn-off pelvis lies on the chest, the head is separated and stands next to the skeleton, the left hand is completely missing.

In 1984, excavations in England brought scientists evidence of how the ritual murder took place. Archaeologists are lucky. The victim lay in the soil saturated with water, and therefore the soft tissues did not decompose. The dead man's cheeks were clean-shaven, his nails well-groomed, his teeth too. The date of this man's death is about 300 BC. After examining the corpse, it was possible to restore the circumstances of this ritual murder. First, the victim was hit in the skull with an axe, then he was strangled with a noose, and finally his throat was cut. Mistletoe pollen was found in the unfortunate stomach - this suggests that the druids were involved in the sacrifice.

The English archaeologist Barry Gunlife notes that all sorts of prohibitions and taboos played an exorbitant role in the life of the Celts. The Irish Celts, for example, did not eat crane meat, the British Celts did not eat hares, chickens and geese, and certain things could only be done with the left hand.

Each curse, and even a wish, according to the Celts, had magical powers and therefore instilled fear. They were also afraid of curses, as if uttered by the deceased. This also led to the separation of the head from the body. The skulls of enemies or their embalmed heads adorned temples, displayed as trophies for veterans, or kept in their chests.

Irish sagas, ancient Greek and Roman sources speak of ritual cannibalism. The ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo writes that the sons ate the meat of the deceased father.

An ominous contrast is archaic religiosity and high technical skill for those times. "Such a diabolical synthesis," concludes Huffer, a researcher of the morals of ancient people, "we still meet only among the Mayans and Aztecs."

Where did they come from?

Who were the Celts? Scientists learn a lot about the life of ancient people by studying their funeral ritual. Approximately 800 years ago BC, the inhabitants of the northern Alps burned their dead and buried them in urns. Most researchers agree that the ritual of burial in urns among the Celts slowly changed to the burial not of ashes, but of bodies, however, as already mentioned, mutilated. Oriental motifs can be seen in the clothes of the buried: pointed shoes, the nobility wore trousers. We must also add round conical hats, which are still worn by Vietnamese peasants. The art is dominated by an ornament of animal figures and grotesque decorations. According to the German historian Otto-Hermann Frey, there is an undoubted Persian influence in the clothing and art of the Celts. There are other signs pointing to the East, as the homeland of the ancestors of the Celts. The teachings of the Druids about the rebirth of the dead are reminiscent of Hinduism.

Whether or not the Celts were born horsemen is an ongoing debate among modern scholars. Proponents of an affirmative answer to the question turn their attention to the inhabitants of the European steppes - the Scythians - these hunters and born riders - did the ancestors of the Celts come from there? One of the authors of this point of view, Gerhard Herm, commented on it with such a playful question: "Are we all Russians?" - meaning by this the hypothesis according to which the settlement of the Indo-European peoples came from the center of Eastern Europe.

The first material signal of their presence in Europe was given by the Celts in 550 B.C. hills for the repose of their princes. The hills were up to 60 meters high, which allowed them to survive to our times. The burial chambers were full of rare items: Etruscan castanets, bronze beds, ivory furniture. In one of the graves they found the largest (for ancient times) bronze vessel. It belonged to Prince Fix and held 1100 liters of wine. The prince's body was wrapped in a thin red cloth. Threads with a thickness of 0.2 millimeters are comparable to the thickness of a horsehair. Nearby stood a bronze vessel with 400 liters of honey and a wagon assembled from 1450 parts.

The remains of this prince were transferred to the Stuttgart Museum. The 40-year-old ancient leader was 1.87 meters tall, the bones of his skeleton are striking, they are extremely massive. By order of the museum, the Skoda factory undertook to make a copy of a bronze vessel in which honey was poured. The thickness of its walls is 2.5 mm. However, the secret of the ancient metallurgists was never discovered: the bronze of modern masters was constantly torn when making a vessel.

trade routes

The skillful Celts were of interest to the Greeks as trading partners. Ancient Greece by that time had colonized the mouth of the Rhone and named the port of Massilia (now Marseille) founded here. Around the VI century BC. the Greeks began to climb up the Rhone, trading in luxury goods and wine.

What could the Celts offer them in return? Blonde slaves, metal and fine fabrics were the hot commodity. Moreover, on the path of the Greeks, the Celts created, as they would now say, "specialized markets." At Manching, Greek goods could be exchanged for metal products made of iron and steel. In Hochdorf, the Celts textile workers offered their goods. Magdalensberg not only produced steel, but also traded alpine stones - rock crystal and other rare wonders of nature.

Greek merchants paid special attention to Celtic tin, an indispensable element in the smelting of bronze. Tin mines were only in Cornwall (England). The entire Mediterranean world bought this metal here.

In the VI century BC, the brave Phoenicians reached the shores of Britain across the Atlantic, overcoming six thousand kilometers of the sea route. The Greeks got to the "tin islands" in a different way, as England was then called. They moved north along the Rhone, then crossed into the Seine. In Lutetia (in Paris) they paid tribute for passage through the Celtic territory.

Arrows with three points, like a fork or a trident, found on the banks of the Rhone serve as confirmation of such distant trade contacts. This weapon is typical of the Scythians. Maybe they accompanied the merchant ships as a guard? And in ancient Athens, the Scythians served as hired law enforcement officers.

Industry and trade highly, by the standards of that time, raised the economy of the Celts. The princes of the tribes oriented the population towards the production of products that had a market. Those who could not master the craft, just like the slaves, performed auxiliary and hard work. The mentioned salt mine in Hollein is an example of the conditions in which people were doomed to slave labor.

A joint expedition of four German universities explored finds in salt mines, where the lower strata of Celtic society worked. These are her conclusions. The remains of fires in the workings speak of a "big open fire". Thus, the movement of air in the mine was excited, and people could breathe. The fire was bred in a mine specially dug for this purpose.

Found underground toilets say that the salt miners had a constant indigestion.

It was mostly children who worked in the mines. The shoes found there speak of the age of their owners - even six-year-olds worked here.

South Invasion

Such conditions could not but give rise to discontent. Researchers are convinced that serious riots shook the Druid empire from time to time. Archaeologist Wolfgang Kittig believes that it all started with the demand of the peasants to give them freedom. And around the 4th century BC. the tradition of magnificent funerals disappears, and the entire Celtic culture undergoes radical changes - the big difference between the standard of living of the poor and the rich has disappeared. The dead were again burned.

At the same time, there was a rapid expansion of the territory occupied by the Celtic tribes, who moved to the south and southeast of Europe. In the IV century BC. they crossed the Alps from the north, and before them appeared the heavenly beauties of South Tyrol and the fertile valley of the Po River. These were the lands of the Etruscans, but the Celts had military superiority, thousands of their two-wheeled carts stormed the Brenner Pass. The cavalry used a special technique: one horse carried two riders. One controlled the horse, the other threw spears. In close combat, both dismounted and fought with lances with helical points, so that the wounds were large and torn, as a rule, leading the enemy out of the fight.

In 387 B.C. the colorfully dressed tribes of the Celts, led by Brennius, began to march on the capital of the Roman Empire. The siege of the city lasted seven months, after which Rome surrendered. 1000 pounds of gold tribute was paid by the inhabitants of the capital. "Woe to the vanquished!" cried Brennius, throwing his sword into the scales measuring the precious metal. "It was the deepest humiliation that Rome suffered in its entire history," historian Gerhard Herm assessed the victory of the Celts.

The booty disappeared in the temples of the victors: according to the laws of the Celts, a tenth of all military booty was supposed to be given to the druids. Over the centuries that have passed since the Celts appeared in Europe, tons of precious metal have accumulated in the temples.

In geopolitical and military terms, the Celts had reached the pinnacle of their power by this time. From Spain to Scotland, from Tuscany to the Danube, their tribes dominated. Some of them reached Asia Minor and founded the city of Ankara there - the current capital of Turkey.

Returning to long-established areas, the druids renovated their temples or built new, more ornate ones. In the Bavarian-Czech space, more than 300 cult, sacrificial places were erected in the third century BC. All records in this sense were broken by the funerary temple in Ribemont, it was considered the central place of worship and occupied an area of 150 by 180 meters. There was a small area (10 by 6 meters) where archaeologists found more than 10,000 human bones. Archaeologists believe that this is evidence of a one-time sacrifice of about a hundred people. The Druids of Ribemont built monstrous towers from the bones of the human body - from legs, arms, etc.

Not far from the current Heidelberg, archaeologists discovered "sacrificial mines". A man tied to a log was thrown down. The found mine had a depth of 78 meters. Archaeologist Rudolf Reiser called the Druid fanaticism "the most terrible monuments in history."

And yet, despite these inhuman customs, in the second and first centuries BC, the Celtic world flourished again. North of the Alps they built great cities. Each such fortified settlement could accommodate up to ten thousand inhabitants. Money appeared - coins made according to the Greek model. Many families were well off. At the head of the tribes was a man chosen for a year from the local nobility. The English researcher Cunleaf thinks that the entry of the oligarchy into government "was one of the important steps on the road to civilization."

In 120 B.C. the first harbinger of misfortune appeared. Hordes of barbarians - Cimbri and Teutons - from the north crossed the border along the Main and invaded the lands of the Celts. The Celts hastily built earthen ramparts and other defensive structures to shelter people and livestock. But the onslaught from the north was remarkable for its incredible force. Trade routes passing through the Alpine valleys were cut by advancing from the north, the Germans ruthlessly plundered villages and cities. The Celts retreated to the southern Alps, but this again threatened the strong Rome.

Rome's rival

As already mentioned, the Celts did not know writing. Maybe the druids are to blame. They claimed that letters destroy the sanctity of spells. However, when it was necessary to consolidate an agreement between the Celtic tribes or with other states, the Greek alphabet was used.

The Druid caste, despite the fragmentation of the people - in Gaul alone there were more than a hundred tribes - acted in concert. Once a year, the druids gathered together to discuss topical issues that concerned not only the religious sphere. The assembly had high authority in secular affairs as well. For example, the druids could stop the war. Very little is known about the structure of the religion of the Celts, as already noted. But there are suggestions that the supreme deity was a woman, that the people worshiped the forces of nature and believed in the afterlife and even in the return to life, but in a different way.

Roman writers left impressions of contacts with the Druids in their memoirs. These testimonies are mixed respect for the knowledge of the priests and disgust for the bloodthirsty essence of Celtic magic. For 60 years BC, the arch druid Diviciacus peacefully conducted conversations with the Roman philosopher-historian Cicero. And his contemporary Julius Caesar two years later went to war against the Celts, capturing Gaul and the territory of present-day Belgium, Holland and partly Switzerland, later he conquered part of Britain.

Caesar's legions destroyed 800 cities, according to the latest estimates of French scientists, the legionnaires exterminated or enslaved about two million people. The Celtic tribes in the west of Europe have left the historical scene.

Already at the beginning of the war, when attacking the Celtic tribes, the number of victims among them struck even the Romans: out of 360,000 people, only 110,000 survived. In the Senate of Rome, Caesar was even accused of destroying the people. But all this criticism was drowned in the flow of gold that poured from the fronts to Rome. Legions plundered treasures accumulated in places of worship. For his legionnaires, Caesar doubled the salary for life, and the citizens of Rome built an arena for gladiator fights for 100 million sesterces. Archaeologist Haffner writes: "Before the military campaign, Caesar himself was in debt, after the campaign he became one of the richest citizens of Rome."

For six years the Celts resisted Roman aggression, but the last leader of the Gallic Celts fell, and the finale of this shameful war of ancient Rome was the collapse of the Celtic world. The discipline of the Roman legionnaires, coming from the south, and the pressure from the north of the Germanic barbarians, ground the culture of metallurgists and miners - salt miners. In the territories of Spain, England and France, the Celts lost their independence. Only in the far corners of Europe - in Brittany, on the English peninsula of Cornwall and in part of Ireland, did Celtic tribes survive, escaping from assimilation. But then they adopted the language and culture of the coming Anglo-Saxons. Nevertheless, the Celtic dialect and myths about the heroes of this people have survived to this day.

True, even in the 1st century AD, wandering druids, carriers of the Celtic spirit and the idea of \u200b\u200bresistance, were persecuted by the Roman state for "political reasons".

In the writings of the Roman authors Polybius and Diodorus, the Roman Empire is glorified as the initiator of civilization, and the Celts are assigned the role of stupid people, who know nothing but war and arable farming. Later authors echo the Roman chronicles: the Celts are invariably gloomy, clumsy and superstitious. And only modern archeology has refuted these ideas. It was not the miserable inhabitants of the huts that Caesar defeated, but the political and economic competitors, who, several centuries before, were far ahead of Rome in technical terms.

However, the panorama of Celtic life today is far from fully open, it still has many white spots. Many places where the Celtic culture once flourished have not yet been explored by archaeologists.

Celts territory. The entry of the Celts into the historical arena

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