The Celts: The Mysterious Dark Age Masters Of Europe | Lost Treasures | Chronicle

foreign [Music] years ago in the turbulent dawn of recorded history a new power emerged and a new civilization those who first mastered iron became the first true masters of Europe the Celts Celts were a remarkable people over time they came to dominate Northwest Europe and their influence particularly in the Arts continues to the present day yet at no time during their period of ascendancy did they ever develop a sense of national identity indeed they tended to regard each other with the same belligerence as they did Outsiders like many of the people at the edge of human history much of their story is shrouded in mystery myth masquerades as history Legend rubs shoulders with fact and often the best stories turn out to be the least reliable the Celts had no great civilization to be discovered by archaeologists unlike those of ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean peoples who left behind lofty monuments and great cities they lived a relatively simple semi-nomadic lifestyle building simple homesteads that succumbed early to the ravages of time the Celts were also illiterate in their own languages although educated and cultured in other ways but unlike other ancient civilizations the Celts have survived into modern times their archaic languages did not disappear as others did but survive as living languages in Scotland Ireland Wales and Brittany some traces of their ancient way of life have also survived for example among the crafter populations of the western seaboards of Scotland and Ireland it is because of this remarkable survival of aspects of Celtic Society that it is possible to piece together the everyday existence and lifestyle of the Celts of the ancient world [Music] thank you to linguists the Celts were people who spoke and still speak languages of great Antiquity of Indo-European origin springing from a common Celtic tongue over time two different groups of Celtic language developed one called Q Celtic or goedelic was the language spoken in Ireland and the Isle of Man and later imported into Scotland by Irish settlers in the colony at dalryda it is from this branch of Celtic but Irish and Scottish Gaelic derived the second branch of Celtic language is called P Celtic or brothonic this was widely spoken on the continent and became known as gaulish or galloprathonic introduced into Britain by Iron Age settlers it was the language of Britain at the time of the Roman invasion later it became divided into the distinct languages of Cornish Breton and Welsh and continues as a living language in Brittany and Wales well the vanity were famous for their nautical prowess they were a tribes that were concentrated in Brittany and they had a long tradition of applying traffic across the sea to Britain we know a little bit about the end result of their trade in the Iron Age because there is a site at hingisbury head in Dorset which has been extensively excavated and has produced a large amount of fines that stretching from the second century BC and which includes such things as Roman weinam3 which were presumably traded Second Hand by way of the vanity rather than directly from the Roman World they also had on that site lots of Continental coins and lots of pieces of pottery and so on that had come across from America the archaeologists have identified two main phases of ancient Celtic Society called halstadt and Latin from the areas where Celtic objects have been found the halstadt culture flourished around 700 BC nearly 2 700 years ago in this period a major change in technology occurred in Europe the use of iron instead of bronze for weapons and edged tools these iron using innovators of halstadt Mark the beginning of Celtic culture and are identified as the first of the Celtic peoples how start near Salzburg and Austria is situated in Striking mountainous country at this site an ancient salt mine and huge prehistoric Cemetery were found salt was obviously important to these people and underlay their wealth it also preserved artifacts from their culture which have enabled archaeologists to piece together something of their daily life there is some mystery about the origins of the camps but Scholars nowadays tend to think that they originated somewhere in the region of the Indian subcontinent and by a series of migrations moved across Europe through Spain up into northern Europe and also by a more Northerly route through Switzerland and into northern Europe that way the Celts are often portrayed as wild barbarians the antithesis of civilized people the problem we have here is that one of our major sources for studying the Celts is from the point of view of the Greek and Roman world looking outwards at the so-called barbarians this is a particular problem with one of our main sources which is of course Julius Caesar's own Narrative of the gallic wars it's the Greeks and the Romans who give us such words as Barbarian and civilized and it's arranged according to their cultural preoccupations and preconceptions we do have a corrective to this which is from looking at the evidence left by the Celts themselves from the excavation of their settlements their houses their burials and from the objects in them and it's quite clear from this that the Celts by the time of Caesar were an organized sophisticated Society with a very considerable technological ability and able to produce what to our eyes appear extremely beautiful objects around 500 BC a more Dynamic phase of development began called the Latin period after the discovery of an important Celtic site there Latin is a shallow area at the Northern end of lake neuenberg in Switzerland here were found great quantities of metal and other objects which had been thrown into the Waters of the lake as religious offerings these displayed features indicating a mature and distinctively Celtic culture and highlighted significant trade links with the Mediterranean peoples [Music] [Applause] periods or renewed expansion as the Celts began a series of conquests which Consolidated their hold on Europe Celtic tribes from Switzerland and Southern Germany invaded Italy penetrating as far south as Milan and famously attacking Rome itself others entered Macedonia and Greece attacking Delphi and eventually settling in parts of the Balkans and Asia Minor in Britain they moved north and west from their initial settlements into Yorkshire and parts of Scotland from Britain some moved into Northern Ireland probably through Scotland the Celts were probably the most successful peoples of later prehistoric Europe and they had a culture which was very different from that of the Greek and Romans but nonetheless it was in many ways much more sophisticated than a lot of people tend to suspect they were did not have an organization which was based on the state they had no concept of State there's no concept of of the kind of political system based on towns and so on that you find in the classical world but not despite that they had a society which was very Dynamic materially very well developed Celtic social organization was based on the tribe Each of which had its own distinctive name tribal identity had geographical and territorial meanings and Celtic tribes were jealous of their borders which defined a patchwork of petty kingdoms [Music] this persisted in many Celtic areas until relatively modern times the clan system in Scotland is certainly a Vestige of Celtic tribal organization within the tribe Celtic Society was a rigidly hierarchical caste system among the free Celts it was essentially threefold Kings Nobles and free commoners but like many ancient peoples the Celts also had an underclass of slaves and poor people at the top were the Kings although The Druids were generally afforded higher status each King was elected by the tribal aristocracy from the kin of his predecessor although he was not necessarily one of his sons the King's family was always of the noble cast later among romanized tribes the institution of kingship was replaced by one of Chief Magistrate such magistrates called Virgo bratos ruled in conjunction with the Nobles the nobility were haughty and aristocratic intended to be somewhat aloof from The Ordinary People they fell into two distinct classes Warriors and Priests history hit is an award-winning streaming platform built by history fans for history fans enjoy our Rich library of documentaries covering key events and locations of the medieval period history hits medieval offering features leading historians such as Dan Jones Elena yanega and katjarman not only that but with a rich library of audio documentaries covering every period of History through our network of podcasts sign up now for a free trial and Chronicle fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code Chronicle at checkout Celtic Society privileged and spoiled their sole purpose was fighting all Celtic social organization was geared to supporting this objective [Music] Warfare formed an essential part of Celtic everyday life and the warriors were its personification [Music] the Celts were really famous for their spectacular courage and bravado they mounted successful campaigns sacked Rome even assaulted Delphi but they never established an empire in the classic sense because they were more interested in the pursuit of War rather than the pursuit of Empire this lack of organization was reflected in the way in which they actually waged War to the Celts war was something of a cult and that cult was one of the individual Julius Caesar amongst others mentions the Celts as being particularly ferocious in battle but he also points out that they lack forward planning and organization therefore in order to defeat the celt all that another Army needs to do is to outwit them and make them angry because then they will charge straight at you and eventually if they've got enough Loot on a campaign they will go home this has certain parallels throughout the whole of Celtic history in particular the campaigns mounted with the Highlanders by Montrose during the English Civil War and also for the Scottish armies during the Jacobite rebellions in Pagan Celtic Society and down even into comparatively modern times war was considered not only normal but highly desirable fighting and success in single combat were regarded as right and proper for young Heroes [Music] the Celtic conception of fighting was based on individual prowess and courage rather than the coordinated actions of mass armies foreign [Music] Ty that was essentially heroic it was flamboyant it didn't have organized Warfare in the way that the Romans had they went in for such things as Champions who represented them and performed Feats and part of the thing was a show that you put on you didn't waste Manpower you put your Champion out in into the field to show what he could do and indeed you find when Caesar is writing in his commentary on the his invasion of Britain that he was very um puzzled and surprised by the fact that charioteers got out of rather the warrior in The Chariot got out of the The Chariot and ran along the Chariot pool and got onto the backs of the horses when the Chariot was in full Pelt and he thought this was a very Daredevil thing to do but he didn't realize is that this was one of the kinds of Feats that they did they this was to impress the enemy with their skills to the Celts it was unimportant who fought whom why they fought where or when provided some pretext could be discovered for a confrontation foreign [Music] typically a British or a Celtic Army would be a great crowd of Warriors who were competing amongst themselves for Prestige Glory and Honor this meant that Celtic armies oh they could be incredibly Brave and were often quite prepared to die to the last man were also not very cohesive and on occasions in many battles that we have accounts of panic could rapidly ensue because the soldiers really didn't trust each other they were competing the Roman army was very different the Roman army was trained to fight in teams it was used to obeying Battlefield orders even where perhaps these might seem uh to place soldiers at risk they had a very iron discipline I think the key difference differences between the two armies were especially their degree of training their response to orders and also the extent of their Weaponry that Roman soldiers did not have better weapons than the Celts many individual Celtic weapons were at least as well made as anything the Romans had but it's simply the fact that each Roman legionary was equipped like a Celtic Chieftain most of the Celtic Army consisted of unarmored spearmen and therefore they were physically much more vulnerable as well as less disciplined thank you [Music] battle could consist of a mass Skirmish with flamboyant and aggressive mustering of the hosts or single combat between two Warriors a characteristically heroic feat which the Celts particularly enjoyed this war-like stance of the Celts is well recorded and when not engaged in an actual conflict the Warriors at least seem to have had an inordinate love of games and combat by more peaceful means the Celts Were Striking in appearance tall and blonde with startling blue eyes they took pains to heighten the effects endowed by Nature both men and women wore their hair long and particularly in the case of women the quality and length of their Tresses became a main Criterion of beauty the role of women in Celtic Society was very different from that of women in the classical World Noble women in the classical world had really very restricted lives and relatively speaking very few rights women in the Celtic World however we know from archaeological as well as documentary records had very considerable rights and indeed power we have a number of Graves of very wealthy Celtic Women very very Splendid objects right the way through the Iron Age both in Continental Europe and in Britain which do a test archaeologically very directly the great power that many of them had we know nothing directly about bodicea's personality but we can infer quite a lot from her station in life as a Celtic Queen we can be pretty sure that she was not going to have been a shy retiring Wallflower she would have been somebody with immense personal pride and dignity used to giving orders to people and so will have fairly easily slipped into the role of a leader in war she also may very well indeed have been a religious leader too among her people [Music] foreign foreign [Music] s were sometimes worn by the men although most shaped them off more important was the mustache and Nobles in particular would shave their cheeks while allowing the mustache to flow freely and fully over their mouths the natural blonde of their hair was heightened by lime washes but not only bleached the hair further but thickened it considerably accounts of Celtic warriors from their enemies describe how some brushed their hair back in a sweeping Cox comb men and women were inordinately fond of breeds and both frequently platted their hair the men often affecting side plots resting on their cheeks Celtic men were also very figure conscious corpulence was regarded as a disgrace and any man whose girth exceeded the standard length of a girdle was fined the clothing worn by the Celts was quite distinctive and gaudy Celtic men tended to wear trousers except in Ireland and this greatly impressed observers from the classical world the Romans were so impressed that they borrowed the fashion for their own cavalry over the trousers the men seem to have worn a knee-length tunic often elaborately embroidered and fringed caught at the waist by a girdle girdles were also often richly decorated with gold and bronze ornaments the Celts loved ornamentation and both men and women often draped themselves with elaborate Jewels bracelets and brooches over everything was worn a Woolen cloak these were important not only for practical purposes but also as a mark of status for both men and women the length and fullness of the cloak denoted rank so prized with these garments that the Romans taxed them heavily and regarded them very highly themselves cloaks were invariably fastened with a brooch many of them find examples of Celtic metalworking skills and some taking on the status of icons for Celtic culture itself priests were always recruited from noble families like the Warriors they were privileged members of society but they had one right which was afforded to no others the priests alone were free to travel within and between the different tribal areas and kingdoms a prerogative even Kings did not enjoy there were three classes of priests best known are the mysterious and shadowy Druids but alongside these were bards and vatis despite their Renown very little is definitely known about The Druids and their practices certainly worship of gods was their concern but they also seemed to have acted as judges and arbitrators in disputes the name Druid has its roots in the verb meaning to know they had the right to decide in public and private disputes as well as past judgment and decide on rewards and penalties in criminal and murder cases no one even the king could speak before the Druid had spoken the drones of course were enormously important to the couch and their Fame has come down through history um it's surprising therefore that we don't know a great deal about them what we do know about The Druids is that they were the repositories of the law for the Celtic peoples in both centers of that word the law as in the legal system and the law as in the essential culture of the Celts Julius Caesar commenting on Celtic Society observed that the harshest penalty meted out to individuals and even whole tribes who disobeyed druidic pronouncements was a form of excommunication banishment from rituals and sacrifices this effectively rendered such people outcasts from Celtic Society the Romans regarded the britons as being rather fearsome barbarians and one of the things to which they were particularly uh maybe feared even were their Druids their Celtic priests uh who were famous for practicing human sacrifice and there is no historical reason to doubt that this was actually the case they did indeed sacrifice people to their gods so the Romans had a rather jaundice view of the ancient britons and their cousins across the water the Celtic goals but of course this was to some extent hypocritical because the Romans are quite happy to butcher people in the arena for fun whereas You could argue that human sacrifice is actually a Pious action even if we wouldn't particularly want to get involved in it today thank you the Vates had similar functions to The Druids although Druids had higher status both were held to be learned philosophers but whereas The Druids who apparently presided at sacrifices were judges in private and public disputes the vatis was Sears who foretold the future by augury and the sacrifice of victims I see back off and I see that today the name batis has roots and words connected with prophecy inspiration and poetry [Applause] the third Priestly class were the bards their name means singer of praises and this seems to have been their primary function they accompanied their songs on an instrument somewhat like a liar praising some and reviling others the Celts as a people especially the Warriors greatly feared the sarcasm of the bards and the public humiliation which it caused below the aristocrats were the three commoners these were either Farmers or craftsmen by the time the Romans arrived in Britain the landscape here had been under the plow for some three and a half thousand years so there's been a lot of development clearing of the land and the population had grown to a very considerable level the Societies in Britain consisted of a large number of smallish-sized Celtic tribal States some of which were ruled by Chieftains somewhere which were under monarchs and the general level of technological development was actually very considerable iron working had long been established and weapons of iron especially were very well advanced weapons were of central importance to Celts especially to their nobility they seem to have been probably the badge of free manhood so it's not surprising that in the circumstances of the Roman Invasion when Roman officials come and remove weapons from people who are in theory allies of the Romans that the ancient britons were very upset indeed and in were prepared to Stage a rebellion [Music] [Music] well the immediate effect of the buddhican rebellion was to stop the Roman advance in Britain in its tracks for about 20 years the Romans did not really begin the advance northwards again until virtually into the 80s AED it pretty certainly also precipitated changes in Roman administrative practice it was always somewhat corrupt but normally it was under much more control than had been the case with the events which led to the Buddakan Rebellion itself I think the main longer term event or result of the eruption of the Rebellion itself May well have been that it prevented the Romans finally Conquering the whole of the British Isles that they eventually could only get as far as Central and Northern Scotland who were not able to completely quell the highlands Because by the time they got up there battles and Wars on other fronts started to mean with the withdrawal of troops from Britain they never had enough soldiers thereafter to complete the conquest of Britain so it may well be the boudicca's Rebellion did help the survival of Celtic culture in the British Isles under the control of Rome Craftsmen were highly prized especially blacksmiths who were given High status the blacksmith's craft itself was thought to be of semi-supernatural origin a feature which is reflected in the magical qualities frequently attributed to Smith's in Celtic folklore and myth below the free commoners were the poor the disenfranchised and the slaves in practice the destitute whatever their Origins were regarded as little better than those formerly enslaved they had no status and few possessions their dwellings little more than hovels without foundations each free member of Celtic Society of whatever grade had what has been called an honor price an assessment of worth and dignity within the community this was directly related to wealth a prosperous member of society could rise considerably in Rank by amassing wealth this made redress and compensation for wrongs particularly important land was not owned by individuals even Kings it was always the collective property of Akin or family nevertheless wealth could be determined by the amount of land over which a person held influence or stewardship Celtic houses were circular or rectangular built of planks and wicker work topped by a thick thatch despite the evident richness of much of Celtic life the interior of these houses was very crude Celts lavished much more attention on personal appearance than they did on their living arrangements the interior consisted of a large open space with cubicles around the periphery often resembling a wheel with spokes the cubicles were demarcated by wooden or wicker work partitions and could be closed off from the rest of the house with heavy drapes or screens covered in cloth or leather should the need arise the fire was Central beneath a hole in the roof through which the smoke could Escape a large metal cauldron was suspended from a Cross Beam over the fire and in this the vast quantities of meat consumed would be boiled when it wasn't roasted on a spit their diet seems to have consisted almost entirely of meat or fish supplemented with small loaves of bread one aspect of Celtic culture still exerting an undeniable influence is their art and craftsmanship [Music] these stand out as shining beacons and many rank among the world's greatest masterpieces Celtic metalwork is finely wrought in their distinctive and elaborate forms the Celts made a real and Lasting contribution to European culture [Music] foreign [Music] much of the content of Celtic art is clearly derived from other sources the dragon Motif for example which figures large in their work was borrowed from the Vikings [Music] nevertheless in the hands of Celtic Craftsmen these forms often take on a richness and vivacity which is purely Celtic and inspiration the forms created by Celtic metal workers were transferred to the medium of writing once that art form came to the Celts practically illiterate in Pagan times the coming of Christianity to the Celts brought writing at least to the monks who practically deposed The Druids as the Wellspring of Celtic spiritual life and once writing was established in Celtic areas the native scribes developed their own highly distinctive forms the beauty of Celtic manuscript art is indescribable dense swirls of tracery interlace with stylized animal and human forms delicate swirls Loop endlessly in Imitation Of The Eternity of the universe giving compelling visual testimony to the richness of Celtic spiritual life and the letter forms themselves are elegant simple and compellingly beautiful [Music] the Celts had sacred places where they invoked their deities including perhaps the famous Oak grooves of The Druids they had sacred days and festivals some of which have survived Beltane celebrated on the 1st of May Samhain on the 31st of October otherwise known as Halloween and lugnassad otherwise called Lamas which was celebrated on the 1st of August midway between Beltane and Samhain [Music] the maypole a distinctive feature of Mayday celebrations is thought to have originated in the Beltane Festival there were many Celtic gods each bearing multiple names male deities tended on the hall to be associated with the tribe or the home [Music] female deities were associated with the land or territory for the Celts religion was inextricably linked to Magic [Music] the purpose of their religion was to beg favors from their gods or to appease them in order to avoid Divine Wrath one of the things about the Celts that has intrigued a lot of people starting with the classical writers and has continued all down to the present days Celtic religion and um the classical writers particularly Julius Caesar spoke at considerable length about The Druids who were their Priestly cast and indeed some writers wrote about things like human sacrifice um the classical writers tried to identify Celtic gods and equate them with Greek and Roman gods so that the the readers would understand roughly what kind of deities they were but it's fairly clear that Celtic religion was much vager than this and there were very large numbers of deities who were local tribal deities or locational deities deities of Springs deities of woods and so on the most usual method of sacrifice was by a weapon with the blood of the victim later sprinkled on sacred objects some victims were drowned some strangled and others notoriously burned to death in a hollow tree the victims tended to be criminals of some kind captives taken in battle were not used the Celts were also fervent head worshipers believing the head to be the seat of the Soul their art is full of images of the severed head and they practiced headhunting as well many of their shrines containing human skulls attest to this practice we do know that The Druids conducted religious ceremonies and from what we can gather these appeared to take place in the famous Oak Groves we do know that the Druid or part of the druidic religion centered around trees and we still have vestiges of the druidic tree alphabet which to some extent is still associated with the garlic and the gallic alphabet the ancient Celts were remarkable people in some respects they were barbarous in others primitive but they were also cultured and have left the world with a lasting Legacy and their influences significant well beyond the borders of the countries they inhabited one of the things about the Kelps which I think is particularly interesting and and probably quite important in understanding the counts their literature and especially their religion is the way they thought now there is a distinct difference between the way the Celts thought and the way most of the other European peoples thought particularly the Anglo-Saxons now where is the where is the Anglo-Saxons and um by default ourselves thinking pairs we think in in pairs of black and white up and down good and bad and sort of binary opposites the Celts tended to think in trinities which is which gives an entirely different flavor on the world so whereas we would have black and white the Celts would almost naturally have black white and gray whereas we have good and bad or good and evil they would have good evil and some kind of neutrality so this tended to give the Celts a slightly different and I think perhaps more balanced view of the world and the part that they played in the world [Music] together through the dim Mists of History their Echoes can be heard clearly [Music] [Applause] the world would have been a much poorer Place had they never existed [Music] thank you [Music]