Celtic Studies Assignment

What were the main characteristics of Celtic culture during the period c500 BCE to c500 CE?

During this time period, Celtic people were spread over a wide area of western Europe and into
Britain and Ireland. Recent work has established that there is really little evidence of a genetic
Celtic identity but there are sufficient characteristics shared by all these cultures that can
identify them as being part of a shared Celtic culture.

CELTIC SOCIETY
LANGUAGE
The last remnants of the Celtic group of languages now only survive on the Western Atlantic
Fringe in the form of Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Welsh and Breton (and until relatively recently Manx
and Cornish). But at this period, Celtic languages were spoken thoughout the Celtic territories on
the continent and within Ireland and the British Isles. Evidence of these languages comes from
inscriptions, coins, place names and personal names mentioned in the works of classical writers
such as Caesar. This does not mean that the different Celtic languages spoken at that time,
although would share characteristics that we identify today as “Celtic”, would necessarily be
mutually intelligible. But we can see common roots in placenames - an example of this being
where several town names can be seen to be derived from Celtic *brigant- 'high, lofty, elevated'
(or even divine name, Brigantia) - The town of Bregenz in Austria1, retains the older name of
Brigantion. The ancient name of Bragança in Trás-os-Montes, Portugal, was Brigantia. and in Italy
there is Brianza, Lombardy, formerly the Latin Brigantia.2 The Coligny Calender also provides
evidence of the Gaulish language (one of the main continental Celtic languages). Dating from
circa 2 CE this calendar is written in the Gaulish language but using Latin scripts. As well as giving
us an insight into the Celtic calendrical system and religious practises, it also demonstrates the
language connection between Roman occupied Gaul at this time and in Mediaeval Ireland. The
month called “Giamonios” derived from the Common Celtic root *giįamo-"winter", Old
Irish gaim meaning "winter", Gamain "month of November" (Delamarre 2003).The month
Edrinios/Aedrinios has been compared with Old Irish aed "fire", "heat". Similarly Ogronios has
been linked to the Common Celtic root *ougros "cold" Old Irish úar, Welsh oer.

NETWORKS
The various Celtic communities were not isolated from each other, nor were they in some sort of
cultural back-water cut-off from other territories. Evidence indicates that they were using not
only the Atlantic seaways but the Atlantic flowing rivers that originate deep in central Europe to
build networks of communication, exchange and trade. These networks facilitated the flows of
ideas and material. Of the early Celts, Roberts says “these people were not just eking our an
existence in small villages across a landscape. They were trading across Europe, picking up ideas
from distant cultures, and building cities.” 3 Although objects discovered by archaeologists have
been found at great distances from where they were originally manufactured, this does not
mean that they were imported there in a single vast journey. Rather, the objects would have
passed through many different hands as a result of the Celtic practise of exchanging gifts to forge
and honour ties between communities.
1
Lisa Bitel (2001) St. Brigit of Ireland: From Virgin Saint to Fertility Goddess
https://web.archive.org/web/20060217084703/http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/commentaria/article.php?
textId=6#_ftn8
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigantia_(goddess)
3
The Celts – the Search for a Civilisation, 2015, p60 – Alice Roberts

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POLITICS
Our main source of information comes again from classical writers and so we have to be
cautious as their comments and observations have been filtered through their own agendas and
cultural beliefs. However, evidence indicates that Celtic society was not homogenous but
hierachical with evidence for a warrior aristocracy – as found in high status burials/grave goods.
We can also gain insight into the structure of their society by looking at instances of shared
terminology in Gaulish, Old Gaelic and Old Welsh. For instance “Independent adult males who
have inherited and become the heads of households are referred to in Proto-Celtic as *wiros
(Gaulish uiros, Old Gaelic fer, Old Welsh gŵr), and are in distinction to the junior men or vassals
who are dependent upon them, Gaulish mapon os (or uasseli tus), Old Gaelic mac (or foss), Old
Welsh mab (or gwas).” 4

Also the Brehon Laws are another source. From what these sources tell we can infer that celtic
society was patrilinear and (as in most societies) kinship was important and your position in a kin
group determined to a large extent how you lived your life, who you mixed with, who you
married, what privileges were open to you as well as your responsibilties.

Most descriptions of Celtic societies portray them as being divided into three groups - a warrior
aristocracy, an intellectual class including professions such as druid, poet, and jurist, and then
everyone else. The historian, Fustel de Coulanges described the structure of Celtic society thus
“A great number of peasants and a tiny urban class, many men attached to the soil and few
landowners; many servants and few masters; a plebeian class lacking utterly in status and
importance and a very powerful warrior aristocracy.”5

There is evidence that some women were in high-status positions within Celtic society. For
instance, until recently it had been assumed that high-status warrior burials were solely the
preserve of men. But osteological analysis has shown that some of these, albeit very few, are
actually females eg. the Vix grave from 6th C BCE, the Waldalgesheim grave from 4th C BCE. From
the Irish tales, we see Medb, an Celtic Irish Queen, with more powers than her husband. Celtic
women do appear to have more rights than their contemporaries in Mediterranean societies.
For instance, Caesar writes that the tribes of Gaul made dowry arrangements that gave married
women the same property rights as their husbands. It also seems that Celtic women had more
freedom over their sexual relationships. So although its clear that Celtic women could achieve
high-ranking roles – there is no indication that this is the norm and would likely only be possible
for women from high-ranking families.

ART

Celtic art is one of the characteristics of Celtic society that is still instantly recognisable today.
The art is noted for its stylised and abstract nature, with gometric patterns as well as circular,
winding patterns and incorporating stylised representations of humans, beasts and foliage-like
patterns. We see it on a wide range of objects – jewellery, mirrors, weapons, drinking vessels,
cauldrons, belts and more. This huge variety of objects have been categorised into 5 different
“spheres” – warfare, eating and drinking, personal appearance, horse and chariot gear, and
religion.
Metal is the material most commonly used as the medium for their art, but it is also found
4
http://exploringcelticciv.web.unc.edu/early-celtic-social-structures/
5
Quoted from “The World of the Celts”. G Dottin( https://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2016/11/celtic-
government-and-society.html)

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occasionally on objects made from bone, wood and pottery.6 It was in direct contrast to the art
being developed around the same time, for instance, in Greece where the emphasis was on
realistic representations of nature. Although there woud have undoubtedly have been some
geographical variation, the art appearing in all the areas inhabited by the Celtic people, both
Contintental and Insular, all shared the same visual language. For instance similarites in designs
used on urn from Saint-Pol-de-Lèon in Finistère with decorated metalwork found further east eg.
decorated disc from Auvers-sur-Oise7.
Celic art was more than purely decorative – as in other cultures, it was undoubtedly used to
assert status, impress and influence. An example of this is the Great Torc from Snettisham8, a
technical masterpiece created from just over 1 kg of gold-silver alloy. We can also see their art
using a shared symbolism – for instance boar symbols have been found on military objects right
across Europe as well as in Britain9. Although we can guess the meaning of such a symbol, its
meaning would have been clear to all the Celtic people of the time.
Celtic art can also be seen to have a more mysterious and magical meaning and indeed have
layers of meaning where at first glance an object appears to be one thing but on closer
inspection reveals something else.10 For instance what appears first as a typical Celtic swirling
patterns but on closer inspection reveals hidden human heads or animals within the design.

RELIGION/MYTHOLOGY
Evidence for religion/mythology – the Celts did not write anything about their religion and so we
have to rely on other sources – writings from early Christian sources and from Greek and Roman
observers as well as archaeology eg. sculptures, stone inscriptions and reliefs depiciting gods,
votive offerings to gods, grave goods
As most religions of that time, the Celts were polytheistic and worshipped a pantheon of gods
and goddesses (Cunliffe has estimated that there were more than 200 Celtic deities 11) linked to
the natural world all around them. Although some of their gods/goddesses were specifically
connected to a particular tribe or area others can be found right across the celtic world at that
time, for example Lugh and Bride.
Evidence that they had their own religious beliefs, festivals and holy days quite separate from
the ever-encroaching Roman culture comes from the previously mentioned Coligny calendar. It
would have displayed a lunisolar calendar, which follows both moon phases and the time of
solar year. French archaeologist, J. Monard, has speculated that the druids created the calendar
as a means of preserving the druid tradition of timekeeping at a time when the Julian calendar
was being heavily promoted throughout the Roman Empire.

LITERATURE
We are fortunate today to still have access to a body of ancient Celtic literature from the Welsh
and Irish such as the Mabinogion and the Tain (part of the Ulster Cycle). The earliest of these
tales were not written down until, at the earliest, 7th century but there is evidence that these
stories go back to a pre-christian, pre-literate time. Cunliffe states “The social system embedded
within the Ulster Cycle tales bears remarkable similarities with that of Gaulish society described
by Poseidonius at the beginning of the 5th century BCE and to a lesser extent by Caesar fifty years
6
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/complete_projects/
technologies_of_enchantment.aspx
7
The Celts – Barry Cunliffe p 71
8
Celts: Art & Identity (London: British Museum press, 2015)
9
The Celts – Barry Cunliffe p 67
10
Celts: Art & Identity (London Museum Press 2015) p39
11
Cunliffe, Barry (1997). The Ancient Celts. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 184.*

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later.” 12
And so these tales can give us a valuable insight as to how Celtic society operated and what the
Celts themselves considered important. If we look at the Tain, for instance, we can see that it
takes place in a hierarchical society ruled over by kings (and queens). It is a society where
warriors and their deeds are of great importance and although negotiation can be used as a
means of forgoing violence to further your aims, this is a violent society and fighting is never far
away.
It also tells us about the Celts’ belief in the magical and supernatural, indeed there appears to be
no separation between the “real” and the “magical” worlds. And so we see the Men of Ulster
stricken by a magical illness and the hero Cú Chulainn encountering supernatural figures, one of
whom turns out to be his father – the Celtic god Lugh. The bulls at the centre of the dispute
could possibly be echoes of a bull cult. It is interesting to draw parallels with representations of
bulls found through the ancient celtic world, particularly associated with military paraphernalia.

Document Analysis - The Mabinogion

The Mabinogion was compiled from texts found in two late-medieval manuscripts – the Red
Book of Hergest and the White Book of Rhydderch. It consists of a collection of eleven tales of
early Welsh literature and draws upon the mystical world of the Celtic people’s myths, folklore,
tradition and history. The four ‘mabinogi’ tales, from which the Mabinogion takes its name, are
thought to be the earliest dating from the 11th century. dated sometime between ca. 1382 and
1403, but fragments of individual tales also appear in earlier manuscripts. However, these are
themselves believed to refer back to tales from a much older pre-Christian oral tradition. It is
not known who exactly first wrote them down – some maintain they are the work of a single
author and some, even more specifically, that the author of the Four Branches was a monk from
North Wales. Although caution must be taken in relating them directly to the world of the Celts,
they can give us an insight into their society.
Comng from a pre-literate society, they reflect the importance of storytelling in that culture as it
relied on a strong oral tradition to pass on its laws, myths, religion, traditions, customs,
genealogy and history from generation to generation. The stories would have originally been
crafted and told by the Cyvarwyddon, the Welsh storyteller. The derivation of this word is
interesting as it means one who knows or understands, indicating the importance of this role.
Obviously one of the functions of the tales would simply have been for entertainment. In and of
themselves the tale are very exciting and full of human interest and drama. The stories’ themes
include fall and redemption, loyalty, marriage, love and fidelity. Not only that, the stories take
place in a weird and magical landscape that can still be identified today as belonging to the
western coast of north and south Wales13.
Being the closest thing we have to the original voice of the Celts, these magical stories can help
to shed light not only on the everyday nuts and bolts of their lives but also their spiritual beliefs
and indeed something of their inner lives. They tell us about their belief in a pantheon of gods
and magical beings. Their gods appear to be just as imperfect as mortals, sharing the same petty
jealousies, harbouring of grudges and desire for retribution. This is very different to the beliefs of
the Christian culture that ultimately commited the stories to paper, with its one perfect god and
panoply of virtuous saints and heavenly angels. The gods and magical creatures in these tales
link directly back to the evidence we already have about continental celtic culture through
archaeology and writers of that time.

12
ibid
13
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/myths_mabinogion.shtml

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It also tells us about the importance of kin and kinship in Celtic culture, whether through blood
or the ancient practise of fosterage. The idea of honour and friendship is very important in the
Mabinogion, but this is a pagan not christian view of moral behaviour. For example if you insult
someone, then reparation would have to be made.

Although undoubtedly of ancient Celtic origin, we must acknowledge that these tales are also
the product of the mediaeval age in which they were first written down. They also reflect the
geo-political events of that time, where Wales had been left ravaged after repeated battles with
England and it has been suggested that committing the tales to paper was an attempt at cultural
preservation. 14

14
Radio 4, “The Mabinogion”, In Our Time (BBC iPlayer)

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Differences and Similarities between Wales and Ireland in the 1st millenium CE

There is much that is similar between Wales and Ireland in the 1st millenium CE. In both we can
see succession struggles within extended kin networks, resulting in the merging of smaller
kingdoms and territories into larger, more powerful ones. There is also the continuation of
Bardic traditions and ceremonies in both countries, such as story-telling as evidenced by the rich
body of literature left by them eg. The Mabinogion, The Tain. Both countries suffered from
incursions from and put up resistance to foreign forces – first in the form of the Viking raids
along their coastal regions and then by repeated encroachement by the English.

Both countries pagan cultures are ultimately eroded by the arrival of christianity, with the
development of powerful monastic networks which eventually absorbed the native royal
dynasties. Viking raids and incursions along their coastal.

There were geographical differences between the two countries. Wales, which consisted large of
high plateaux and the population concentrated in the limited zones of good, workable land.
Ireland was very different in that it had much less upland than Wales with substantial areas of
high-quality arable land. However, despite these differences the economic base in both these
Celtic countries was still one of mixed farming, supplemented by hunting and gathering where
appropriate. Because of its geographic position, Ireland was largely unaffected by migration.=
and in this way there wasn’t the same dilution of native, ancient lore.

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Bibliography
Green, M. J. (Ed.). (2007). The Celtic world. London: Routledge.

Cunliffe, B. (2010). The Celts: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Roberts, D. A. (2016). Celts. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Radio 4, “The Mabinogion - A Literary Treasure of the Medieval World”, The Secret Life of Books
(BBC iPlayer). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b1p5k7

Radio 4, “The Mabinogion”, In Our Time (BBC iPlayer). Retrieved from

Radio 3, “An Introduction to the Mabinogion” The Essay – The Mabinogion Revisited (BBC iPlayer).
Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082kd7n

Harding, D. W. (2007). The archaeology of Celtic art. Retrieved October 25, 2018, from
http://www.archaeology.ru/Download/Harding/Harding_2007_The_Archaeology.pdf

Thomas, Neil L. The Coligny Moon Calendar. Retrieved from

Coligny Calendar. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coligny_calendar

Vix Grave. (2018, August 18). Retrieved from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vix_Grave

Kinsella, Thomas (1970). The Tain. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Celtic Toponymy. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_toponymy

Brigantia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigantia_(goddess)

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