The Celts

A long time ago, in the dim past, people lived and died in central Europe, leaving little for us to know them by, but interacting with and learning from each other. The people we are interested in lived in an area of Russia where the Volga River enters the Caspian Sea. We call them the Kurgans, which is Russian for mound, the burial mounds they built for their high-ranking dead. We know them by their pots, spear points and bones, and date them at 3000 B.C.

By 2400 B.C., the Kurgans were domesticating horses and learning to make bronze weapons and jewelry of gold, silver and turquoise. They were also moving west and south. Some are now recognized as Hittites in 1600 BC, others moved into Greece and became known as Myceneans. But it is the group who moved into the lower Danube River Valley that we are interested in. By 1000 B.C. they were firmly settled in areas today known as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Britain and Bohemia. Settled as they were, in a place far from where their ancestors began, they were moved in upon themselves, by people distantly related to them, the Scythians. From this association began the Proto-Celtic addiction to fantastic stylized animal forms. They acquired new ideas in horse accouterments such as snaffles and reins. And the Proto-Celts also learned the custom of taking heads as war trophies. Lastly, they emulated Scythian grooming fashions of styling hair with lime (men), wearing mustaches (men) and flaunting about in brightly colored checkered plaids.

So, out of the tumultuous inhabitants of central Europe, moving west and south through the centuries and millenniums, a people emerged that are recognized as Celtic and have an entire culture named Hallstat, which flourished between 800 and 600 B.C.

Hallstat is a town in Austria where an especially rich archeological find was made in 1846 by an Austrian civil servant, Georg Ramsauer. Grave goods of sword hilts, fibulae (large ornately ornamented safety pins used to hold cloaks around shoulders), and bronze castings of animals were the first objects found which illustrated an art style known as Hallstat.

By 600 B.C. the next Celtic period was located south and west of Hallstat, Austria, in La Tene, Switzerland. By this time, Celtic smiths had learned to work with iron, making not only weapons but also tools.

From 400 to 200 B.C. was the greatest Celtic period when their territory stretched from northwestern Ireland to central Turkey. This included all of modern Britain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech republic, Slovenia, Hungary and considerable parts of Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and north western Turkey.

The Celts generally built their homes of wood; the structures were quite similar to early American log cabins, with several differences. Celts did not put windows in their homes and they had a central hearth rather than a fireplace and chimney.

By 600 B.C. the Celts had their own fortified towns in Europe, north of the Alps in strategic locations for controlling trade routes. These Celtic towns are noted for their size, some being as large as medieval cities. They are called oppida, from the Latin for town. This is the Celtic Empire at its height, far flung over much of Europe and rich in technology and also in trade. But it was an empire with no emperor and no central government. Their tribal leaders were elected.

The Celtic social system is usually identified as threefold: king, warrior aristocracy and freemen farmers. Bards were usually from the warrior class, as were Druids. However, there were also people in trade and manufacturers of weapons and tools and jewelry, and of course, slaves. Slaves were usually captives of tribal war or tribal members who had gotten into debt. And slaves were the ones who did most of the manual work. Weaving was quite a highly developed occupation with the Celts and a Celtic cloak or sagum was famous throughout the ancient world.

Druids were the learned men who acted on the part of humans when dealing with the otherworld. Druid means "people of true vision." Druids and poets or bards were the custodians of Celtic knowledge, traditions and beliefs. The druids had highest authority in Celtic society. In addition to advising governmental decisions and acting as judges, they were healers and diviners.

Celts are credited with being one of the first people to develop a doctrine of immortality. Death was a changing of place, from here to the Otherworld. And those who died in the Otherworld were born here.

Understanding the relation between this and the Otherworld was just the beginning for a Druid. His purpose was to maintain the balance between the two worlds.

Messages from the Otherworld were sent by disturbances of the natural order. To perceive these messages a Druid had to be knowledgeable of the natural order. So much of their learning was of the system of nature that the Greeks called natural philosophy. The Greeks and Romans were impressed no only by the extent of Druid knowledge of nature and healing, but also by the fact that a class of philosophers to such a high degree led a barbaric and uncivilized society.