The Roots of Celtic Civilisation

The Roots of Celtic CivilisationThe Prehistory of Europe

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation The old theory about the ‘invasion’ of Celtic

peoples westward across Europe. Largely rejected now. ‘Celtic’ civilisation, far from being a barbaric

culture developed in the context of the ancient and largely ‘indigenous’ peoples of neolithic Europe.

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation Today we will be travelling rapidly across

time from the remote period of c7000BC to the beginnings of the Hallstatt Culture in the period c600BC).

Halstatt is usually viewed as one of the culminations of a new wealth-based aristocratic Celtic culture.

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation By 7000BC Europe was peopled by

communities whose subsistence depended solely upon collecting food. (ie they did not farm as yet).

By 4000BC all this had changed. By then most European communities had become food producers.

.

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation Sometimes this explained in terms of the

arrival of Indo-European speakers from the Caucasus.

Farming elites came with carts (wheels), tamed horses and their language (Indo-European).

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation They cultivated crops of grain and herded

domesticated animals. This led to a sedentary mode of existence. It

created the first village communities which were occupied over many generations.

Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were replaced by Neolithic food producers.

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation In this ‘new package’ (Neolithic), we find

evidence of ground stone tools, pottery, rectangular timber buildings, sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and the cultivation of cereals.

This major change was originally explained by waves of people from Anatolia (western peninsula of Asia) or the Near East.

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation This paradigm suggests a replacement of

population, but today this change is more frequently explained as including inflow of population but also cultural change amongst the indigenous population.

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation Genetic studies have tried to understand this

problem. The mitochondrial DNA (female) shows an

inflow of females from the east in approximately 20% of the European population, but the Y chromosome DNA (male) is more complex.

The Roots of Celtic Civilisation In Greece and SE Europe 85% of the male

population appears to have come from further east (Anatolia, Black Sea areas and beyond), but this percentage becomes only 15-30% in France, Germany and NE Spain.

A new and more powerful tool is the study of ancient DNA. Early results from Germany from Neolithic burials of the 6th millennium BC suggest a population derived from indigenous hunter-gatherers.

The spread of farming In contrast to the varied farming communities

of south-eastern Europe (Balkans, Greece), the earliest farmers (c5000BC) to spread into temperate (mild temperatures) forests of Middle Europe (ranging from western Hungary to the valley of the Seine in France) display a remarkable cultural similarity.

The spread of farming This area of similarity is called the

Linearbandkeramik group. (=their pottery). Here we find the remains of long houses,

large villages. The expansion of this ‘culture’ probably owes much to a kind of ‘pioneer spirit’ as anything where a movement westwards was the main dynamic.

The spread of farming This Neolithic culture only reached northern

areas of Europe by c4000BC. The spread of neolithic farming culture to

France is still hotly debated. The arrival of the same culture in Britain and

Ireland of course requires sea-journeys on an extensive scale.

First Farmers in Britain and Ireland It is not clear if this was the result of pioneer

farmers or indigenous efforts to imitate. It may have been that mesolithic hunter-gatherers who had been to the continent brought back the ideas and the animals and grain necessary to start pilot schemes based on sedentary farming.

First Farmers in Britain and Ireland The first signs of farming in Britain are from the east

of the island for c 4300BC. It had reached Wales (western Britain) by 4000BC, and Scotland (northern Britain) by 3800BC.

Basically Britain went ‘neolithic’ in the short space of time between 4100-3800BC.

Climactic changes may well have played a part in this change: continued rise in sea-levels may have decimated traditional foraging environments.

Language As already mentioned, it is quite likely that

Indo-European (IE) accompanied the Neolithic surge, and way of life.

One branch followed the route through the Balkans across the Great Hungarian Plain reaching Middle Europe. This branch probably contained the roots of the later Germanic, Slavic, Baltic and Celtic sub-branches.

Language This of course was the language of the ‘pioneer

farmers’, but the language (or its dialects) must have become adopted by the indigenous population. This is called ‘contact-induced language shift’.

This process may have been rapid, but in any case the process would have occurred during the period 4000-2500BC.

Young men would have gained status by leading contingents into the European hinterlamd to find farming land.

Metals Although neolithic implies the continued use of

stone implements, the use of metals now began. At first copper and gold from the 5th millennium BC

onwards. This implied the ability to extract metals from ore. Also we see the beginnings of high quality ceramics and other technologies. The use of horses for mobility brought from the Steppe. Wheel vehicles (3rd millennium), woolly sheep.

The Corded Ware /Single grave Culture The megalithic tombs that are part of the

earlier neolithic culture were used for mass graves, and they give way to single-graves during this period.

This starts to take place c2900BC-2400BC.

Megalithic tomb

Bronze Age (c2800-1300BC) Over time, farming led to a a greater

sophistication of production of food. This was a society based on livestock (as

wealth), consumption of dairy products (this was the period when the European population developed lactose tolerance), the use of woollen fabrics for clothing.

Bronze Age (c2800-1300BC) The large scale slaughter of animals led to

social events such as the feast (which became central to Celtic civilisation later on).

The feast itself became the focus for gift-giving, contracts and welcoming of strangers, in fact a whole panoply of ceremonials.

Kingship develops or at least the concept of elite families and their right to control the goods.

Bronze Age (c2800-1300BC) Paramount leaders were seen as semi-

supernatural (or divine) beings, wielding secular and religious power.

Their barrows (burial sites) became ‘time-markers’, ie over generations their right to a territory, and the right of certain families to rule the roost.

All this also led to networks of exchange with the outside.

Bronze Age

Bronze Age (c2800-1300BC) Interestingly the first evidence of a bronze-

using economy comes from Britain and Ireland. 2200-2000BC.

Bronze is made from copper and tin. Tin is relatively rare, but was available in parts of the Islands, especially the SW of Britain.

By 1400-1300BC bronze was being used throughout Europe (networks and local ore extraction).

Bronze Age (c2800-1300BC) The emerging elites who controlled the production

and distribution of bronze became ambitious, and their innate aggression could easily flare up into warfare. Many weapons were made of bronze.

A wide area of western Europe now seems to conform to single kind of culture sometimes called the ‘bell-beaker’ culture. It implied a rite of single burial (the ceramic beaker and equipment), based on a set of beliefs and values that spread rapidly along networks of exchange.

Extent of beaker culture

Bronze Age (c2800-1300BC) The Bell beaker culture reached Britain at

about 2800BC, and may have implied some inflow of people as well.

During this period gold was mined and used for ornamentaion in Ireland c2600BC

The major religious site of Stonehenge also was constructed and used in this period c2600BC. (Note: Stonehedge is not a Celtic monument).

Bronze Age (c2800-1300BC) The Late Bronze Age (when it reached a peak

of perfection in artistic terms) 1300-800BC. This society across Europe focused on

weapons. The warrior had become an ever-present figure in this period (cf the Iliad). In its spiritual life, there was an uniformity of belief which could be discerned across Europe.

Bronze Age

Bronze Age (c2800-1300BC) An important development at this time was

the change from inhumation (burying the body) to cremation after 1300BC. This is called the Urnfield culture.

This must have implied a religious shift with different attitudes to the dead. Earth versus sky?

The Urnfield culture

From Urnfield to Halstatt

The Iron Age c1500BC In Europe, the use of iron is first found in

Greece. It was soon used by the Hittite civilisation (a Hittite iron dagger was found in Tutenkhamun’s tomb c1327BC).

HUB OF IRON AGE ‘CELTIC’ CIVILIZATION.

IRON AGE CELTIC LANGUAGES