The Coming of the Celts - European and Bronze Age Society By Mike Bond

In 1200 B.C.E., certain events radically changed the static environment that had existed in both Europe and the Mediterranean. European and Bronze Age society had been gradually improving its bronze and gold working, and warfare became more deadly with the manufacture of the much heavier bronze sword.

At this time, though, nomads from Russia took to the Mediterranean as sea-borne war bands. Following closely on the heels of their exodus from Russia, the great Hittite Empire in Anatolia crashed. Then Mycenae descended into the Greek Dark Ages, while Philistines overran Palestine. The collapse of the Hittites was particularly far reaching, because it was they who held the secrets to iron working.

The direct ancestors of the Celts were people known as the Urnfielders. They probably spoke an early form of Celtic. They were successful farmers, probably because of their crop rotation, and they were the first to build real hill forts in Europe. We see the beginnings of the Celts in what's known as Hallstatt, named after a village in the Salzkammergut in Austria, a place of substantial salt mines. Salt and iron were their currency, although salt was being utilized in this way even before 1000 B.C.E.

A very rich source of information about the Celts comes in what the archaeologists call the La Tene, named after a lake in Neuchatel, Switzerland. The name means "the Shallows", and from 1906 to 1917, many iron swords and other weapons, together with everyday iron work, woodwork, even a complete wheel and, more darkly, human skeletons were found. It was discovered that instead of the ordinary burial with the wagon, two wheel chariots accompanied the deceased, together with his weapons and armour.

The first Celts arrived in Britain around the 7th. century B.C.E., but the only signs of them of any size are around the coastal regions of England and Wales. Most people continued living their lives as they had done for centuries. The British smiths, however, did make changes, grasping eagerly for the new designs in swords.

The changes in society were not just one way, however, especially regarding pottery. From the 5th. century onwards, Halstatt and La Tene imports poured into Britain in ever increasing quantities. By the first century B.C.E., La Tene and Celtic culture was well established. It was at this point that further Celtic incursions took place, in particular the Belgae. These people were known to Caesar, since they inhabited an area just to the south of modern Belgium.

Coins first appeared, and the names of various tribes became known. This phase, around 150 B.C.E., is considered by archaeologists to be the most glorious in Celtic culture. It's the Irish who give us the fullest description of the Celts.

What was called the "Derbfine" was a family unit a lot larger than what we know as the nuclear family. This involved four generations from a common great grandfather. There was no individual land holding. All land was held collectively. There was an even larger unit, ruled over by a chief, where warriors gauged their wealth in cattle. This was know as the "Tuath", or tribe.

Beneath the warriors and nobles came the freemen, basically farmers, and paid food-rent to the king. They received cattle from the nobles for obligations. Below them came the slaves. In our next article we'll build on Celtic civilization and introduce Caesar, or at least hs writings, more fully

Again, I'm indebted to professor Lloyd Laing.

Here they come, swaggering and boastful, onto the historical stage. Half the time they were drunk, but for all their faults, the Celts brought art and metal working especially to new heights of brilliance. Diodorus Siculus, quoting fom the Greek geographer Poseidonius, tells us that the Celtic warriors on the Continent in the second century B.C.E. were "...terrifying in appearance. Deep sounding and very harsh voices. Tunics dyed and stained in various colours and trousers which they call 'bracae.' They wear striped cloaks, picked out with a small check pattern. Man size shields and bronze helmets." Certainly not people with whom to pick a fight!

Learn more about them on my site, where you'll be directed to all manner of Celtic artifacts; weapons, armour, jewelry. A wonderful place for buying gifts, especially http://www.theknightssite.com

mkbnd8@gmail.com