in Austria. There were many groups (tribes) of Celts, speaking a vaguely common language. The Celts were fierce warriors from central Europe. Celtic society and technology, although not as advanced as the Romans, was far from being primitive for its time. Local trade was largely in the form of barter, but as with most tribal societies they probably had a reciprocal economy in which goods and other services are not exchanged, but are given on the basis of mutual relationships and the obligations of kinship. She also seems to have existed from the early era. He is party to Dagda of Ireland, and was worshipped over an enormous area, including by non-Celtic peoples such as the Lusitani. The Iron Age Celts lived here 750 years before Jesus was born. There is no proof of this. They wear their hair long, and have every part of their body shaved except their head and upper lip. " The Celts' gods were often named after natural things. The offender, if found guilty, would be taken to the temple of Essus and killed. The Celts were made up of many different tribes, but their way of life was very similar. Body hair kept dirt close to the body, and Celts were an extremely clean people, so this was unacceptable. Interesting fact "They are very tall in stature, with rippling muscles under clear white skin. They look like wood-demons, their hair thick and shaggy like a horse's mane. is known as the Iron Age. Such executions varied, depending on what god the execution was dedicated to. The main deities of Celtic religion, contrary to much misconception, were usually male. Most descriptions of Celtic societies describe them as being divided into three groups: a warrior aristocracy; an intellectual class including professions such as druid, poet, and jurist; and everyone else. Who were the Iron Age Celts? The Iron Age The Celts were a large group of Caucasian tribes in Europe. copper and tin (hence the Bronze Age). This was definitely a religious practice in origin. Several hundred years before Julius Caesar, they occupied many parts of central and western Europe, especially what are now Austria, Switzerland, southern France and Spain. Instead they lived in separate tribes, with similar languages, religion, and customs. To our understanding, Celts believed the soul resided in the head, and that capturing a head meant that one captured the soul of an opponent, and that when a Celt died, the dead whom he had collected would serve him as slaves for eternity. This page was last modified on 21 October 2020, at 21:17. Some of them are clean-shaven, but others - especially those of high rank - shave their cheeks but leave a moustache that covers the whole mouth" More reasonably, it is a byproduct of most primitive religion to worship in such a way. They were also skilled in blacksmithing, farming and diplomacy. Essus was, more or less, a benevolent law god to many Celts, particularly Gauls. The Celts lived across most of Europe during the Iron Age. Celtic traders were also in contact with the Phoenicians: gold works made in Pre-Roman Ireland have been unearthed in archeological digs in Palestine, and trade routes between Atlantic societies and Palestine date back to at least 1600 BC. The Iron Age Celts were a tribe of people who lived all over Europe about two thousand years ago. Over several years, in wave after wave, they spread outwards, taking over France and Belgium, and crossing to Britain. The Bronze Age introduced sewing implements that made it possible to tailor clothing. The Celts lived a way of life based on ethical codes and honor codes and had developed a culture of their own, full of unique drawings, sculptures, jewellery, folklore, and building designs and techniques. For example like Mediterranean cultures most early Celts worshipped in sacred groves. However, Essus worship also intoned a sense of merciless behavior toward repeated criminals. Some postulate this as religious, but was more realistically part of the Celtic propensity for cleanliness. Images for kids Territories that are still considered Celtic are Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany. The popular stereotype of non-urbanised societies settled in hillforts and duns, drawn from Britain and Ireland contrasts with the urban settlements present in the core Hallstatt and La Tene areas, with the many significant oppida of Gaul late in the first millenium BCE, and with the towns of Gallia Cisalpina. After winning a battle, the Celts would cut off the heads of their enemies and take them home. Although Celtic gods varied from region to region and tribe to tribe, the Celtic religion had some patterns. In fact the Romans called these people Britons, not Celts. To our understanding, Celts believed the soul resided in the head, and that capturing a head meant that one captured the soul of an opponent, and that when a Celt died, the dead whom he had collected would serve him as slaves for eternity. There is archeological evidence to suggest that the pre-Roman Celtic societies were tied into the network of overland trade routes that spanned Eurasia from Ireland to China. There are only very limited records from pre-Christian times written in Celtic languages. The available evidence is of a strong oral tradition, such as that preserved by bards in Ireland, and eventually recorded by monasteries. The name Celts is a 'modern' name and is used to collectively describe all the many tribes of people living during the Iron Age. Who were the Celts? Another theme with Celt gods were triple deities; not only goddesses, but numerous gods. Their druid positions vary; a druid is not always a priest. All the Britons indeed, dye themselves with woad, which occasions a bluish colour, and thereby have a more terrible appearance in fight. Julius Caesar (A Roman Emperor). Druids are any members of a Celtic society who had what we would view today as a college education. The Celts were a proud and honorable people. The Iron Age Celts were a tribe of people who lived all over Europe about two thousand years ago. Druids also carried out sacrifices of crops, animals, and during specific festivals, humans. While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest, the historical record is more of tribes using warfare to extert political control and harrass rivals, for economic advantage, and in some instances to conquor territory. Priests from this class were in charge of a great deal of religious festivals, as well as organizing the calendar; a daunting task as the Celtic calendar is incredibly accurate, but required manual correction about every 40 years, meaning lengthy mathematic discourse. For example the source of rivers would often have their own goddesses, though rarely many gods. There were many groups (tribes) of Celts, speaking a vaguely common language. The Celts did not have a single empire like the Romans. Diodorus Siculus (A Roman historian). The Wandsworth Shield-boss, in the plastic style, found in London, Expansion of the Celtic culture in the third century BC according to Francisco Villar. From around 750 BC to 12 BC, the Celts were the most powerful people in central and northern Europe. At one time, you could find tribes of Celts in modern day Spain, France, northern Italy, and as far east as Russia. He was the patron god of the Ordovices tribe of Britain, and was built up by the Arverni and their allies to replace the druidic god Cernunnos, as the Gallic druids were allies of their enemies in the rule for Gaul; the Aedui. They were highly skilled in visual arts and Celtic art produced a great deal of intricate and beautiful metalwork, examples of which have been preserved by their distinctive burial rites. Numerous temples were converted by the Romans, and with little difficulty; the design was rather similar to Roman temples, as they were both highly influenced by the Greeks, architecturally speaking. The Ogham script was mostly used in early Christian times in Ireland and Scotland, and was only used for ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions on gravestones. The Celts found out how to make iron tools and weapons. Borders of the region known as Celtica at time of the Roman conquest c. 54 BC; they soon renamed it Gallia Lugdunensis. Among the most famous is the human sacrifices practiced in the course of Essus worship. He is also known as Lugh (in Ireland), Lleu (in Wales), and Lug (among Celtiberians, who were not culturally true Celts). Early depictions of him exist as early as the Hallstatt era, suggesting him as one of the longest existing gods of Celtic religion. They were also very clean. Living through the Iron Age period, they grew from mid-Europe and slowly spread out over much of the rest of Europe. By 200 BCE their civilization stretched across much of northern and western Europe. The Celts spoke Celtic languages. First, we know that, early Britons did sow corn. During the fall of the Roman Empire most of the old Celtic land ended up being ruled by migrating Germanic tribes and they merged with Romano-Celtic stock (people with both Roman and Celtic ancestry) to eventually form several European nations of today e.g. France. They loved to boast. They were fierce warriors. Worship was, in this way, deferred to temples, when they were available. Warfare appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. ©Copyright Mandy Barrow 2013 They never built cities. Tribes had different dress standards for battle; some warriors wore chainmail and/or leather armor, some wore only clothes and some were known to fight fully naked. Triskelion and spirals on a Galician torc terminal, Museum of Castro de Santa Tegra, A Guarda, Map of the Alpine region of the Roman Empire in 14 AD, Celtic tribes in S. E. Europe, first century BC (in purple), Principal sites in Roman Britain, with indication of tribal territories, The Roman republic and its neighbours in 58 BC, Stone head from Mšecké Žehrovice, Czech Republic, wearing a torc, late La Tène culture, Reconstruction of the dress and equipment of an Iron Age Celtic warrior from Biebertal, Germany, The reverse side of a British bronze mirror, with spiral and trumpet motifs typical of La Tène Celtic art in Britain. Their culture and genes spread through much of Europe, and by the time the Greeks and later the Romans started emerging, the British Isles and parts of western, southern and eastern Europe were Celtic - the most prominent Celtic tribes were in Gaul. Similar is the horse and fertility goddess, Epona, who was also worshipped by the Romans when they came to rule Gaul. The religious connotations by that point were slim, but it does imply that taking heads had incredible cultural importance to have persisted so long after the religious background had been removed. The oldest recorded rhyming poetry in the world is of Irish origin and is a transcription of a much older epic poem, leading some scholars to claim that the Celts invented Rhyme.