| Question Home |
Position:Home>Genealogy> Who were the celts?Question: Who were the celts?Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: A category of people who flourished from about 750 to 12 BC During this time, the Celts were the most powerful group in central and northern Europe. Although the Celts were composed of many different tribes, they shared similar languages, technology, customs, artistic styles, and beliefs. By AD 60, their power had been destroyed by the Romans. After that, only the Celtic tribes in the more remote areas of Europe, such as the British Isles, survived. www.digonsite.com/glossary/ag.... my ancestors. being irish Most Irish and British people have some Celtic heritage. Further to other answer, Gaul was another name for Celt, Kelt etc. The certainly extended all ACROSS Europe, not south or extreme north. The Norsemen (Russ-russian) came from the north, the Romans from the south, the got squeezed west, then back onto the continent, Brittany. The Irish Welsh, Scottish, some other smaller commutes in the British Isle.As well the Brittnay territory which I belive you can still find the name on a map of France. It located on its northern coast. The Celts were an Indo-European group, that is, related linguistically to the Greeks, the Germanic peoples, certain Italic groups and peoples of the Indian sub-continent. They arose in central Europe at the beginning of the first millennium B.C. and were an iron using and horse rearing peoples. By the end of the first millennium B.C. their cultural group had spread up and down the Danube and Rhine, taking in Gaul, Ireland and Britain, across central Europe, into northern Italy and northern Spain. Their roaming across Europe led some of the Celtic tribes to sack Rome in 390 B.C. (creating a fear of the northern barbarians that was to haunt Romans for hundreds of years to come), and in 279B.C. another Celtic tribe sacked the Greek sanctuary at Delphi, going on to found a Celtic kingdom in Asia-Minor, Galatia (The people to whom St. Paul was to address some of his epistles). Celtic peoples were apparently fierce warriors, with a taste for head hunting and going into battle naked, though armour of varying types are not uncommon artifacts The story of the Celts is very long and very complex. Here in Britain there are millions of Celts. They mainly occupy which has become known as the Celtic fringe - of Cornwall, Wales and Scotland. Two islands, Britain and Eire are populated by Celts. The CeltsRome never withstood another more humiliating defeat and the Celts made an initial step of magnificent proportions into history. ... http://www.ibiblio.org/gaelic/celts.html... Celtic History At this stage in Celtic history it had developed that the amount of cattle you had was a status symbol, much like gold in the Empire. ... http://www.geocities.com/area51/labyrint... CELTIC HISTORY; BRIEFLY...Celtic Wicca, Scotican Wicca, Celtic Art, Tree of Life, Celtic History, Pagan Links, Witchcraft, Candlemaking, Aromatherapy, Herbology, Herbs, Colors, ... http://www.joellessacredgrove.com/celtic... Celtic Europe The notion of the "romantic highlander" and the modern conception of the druids are based on these romanticized images of Celtic history and culture. ... http://www.watson.org/~leigh/celts.html... Celtic History, Warfare & Armory The history of the Celtic people goes back many centuries. The Celts transmitted their culture Battle Scene orally, never writing down history or facts. ... http://www.celticgrounds.com/chapters/c-... Celts and Britain Celts, who were the celts, Britain was Europes sacred isle ever since the Gods chose to favour the isle. ( proberly when the Gulf stream started to warm ... http://www.webmesh.co.uk/nice/newhistory... BBC Wales - Education - Iron Age Celts Learn about the people who lived in Britain 2000 years ago. From the BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/celts... The language of the Celts of Britain today : - WELSH Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg - Welsh Language Board Set up in 1993 as a statutory (publicly funded) organization, the purpose of the Welsh Language Board is to promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh ... http://www.bwrdd-yr-iaith.org.uk... CORNISH LANGUAGE Warlinenn - The Cornish Language OnlineA Guide to the Cornish Language, featuring a phrasebook, dictionary, Cornish placenames and information on classes and how to learn. http://www.cornish-language.org/... Cornish Language - Kernowak, Kernewek, Kernuak History 2: Wella Rowe · History 3: Ordinalia · Online Dictionary · Forum · Cornish Tarot · Polls · Books · Online Shop · Links · design by cornish inspiration. http://www.cornishlanguage.co.uk... The Ancient Cornish Language Cornwall - its distinctive language, culture and history, explored in detail. http://www.shimbo.co.uk/language/languag... 3.1.1 Celtic languages in Britain are Welsh, Cornish, Scots Gaelic, Manx, and Irish Gaelic. The main groups of Welsh, Scots and Irish Gaelic still exist, ... http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb8/misc/lfb/ht... A study of the Celts is a vast subject, covering all of Western Europe and as far East as the Czech Republic and even into China and northern India/Pakistan. Being a Celt is not so much being a member of a specific 'race' but more being part of a pan-Eurpean Culture - indeed a pan-Celtic culture still exists in much of Europe today. Welcome to the Pan Celtic 2008 Home PageWhen the Pan Celtic Festival began in Killarney in 1971 its primary objective was to foster better relations between the Celtic nations of Ireland, ... http://www.panceltic.ie The Celts of today occupy the following countries [lands] - SCOTLAND, IRELAND, WALES, CORNWALL, BRITANNY AND THE BASQUE COUNTRY OF NORTHERN SPAIN. Celtic Nations Heritage FestivalThe Celtic Nations Heritage Festival celebrates and preserves the authentic Celtic cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Asturias, Galicia, ... http://www.celticnationsfestival.org... My notes: We Celts have the annoying habit of always being around when you least expect us. Half the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence were Welsh, the rest were a mixed bag of Scots and Irish and a few English. Heres a small Welsh phrase to help you : - Celtii bew = the living Celts. The most famous Celt in British history is Queen Boudica of the Icani - her statue with her daughters is on Westminster Bridge just opposite the House of Commons. A constant reminder of who we are - the British - we just will not shut up or go away, will we!! Gaul is France, btw Wouldn't you know that the Irish (my blood is green, LOL) are blessed with the gift of gab - I think its the Basque in us! http://www.ldolphin.org/cooper/ch8.html... This should explain a great many things. Click on the link above and have a good read. BTW, Halloween is next month and it is the Celtic New Year. Irish people, which are made up of Basque (Spanish), Tuatha De Danaan and Firbolgs. Celts? "Celts, normally pronounced /k?lts/ (see article on pronunciation), refers primarily to the members of any of a number of peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages or descended from those who did. [1] It can refer in a wider sense to those who participate in a Celtic culture. The focus of this article is the ancient peoples of Europe; for Celts of the present day, see Modern Celts. Although more recently restricted to the Atlantic coast of Western Europe (known as the "Celtic fringe"), Celtic languages were once predominant over much of Europe, with territory largely ceded to expanding Germanic tribes and the invading Roman Empire. Archaeological and historical sources show that at their maximum extent in the third century BC, Celtic peoples were also present in areas of Eastern Europe and Asia Minor.[2]Modern uses In a historical context, the terms "Celt" and "Celtic" are used in several senses: to denote peoples speaking Celtic languages; the peoples of prehistoric and early historic Europe who shared common cultural traits which are thought to have originated in the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures;[citation needed] or the peoples known to the Greeks as Keltoi, to the Romans as Celtae and to either by cognate terms such as Gallae or Galatae. The extent to which each of these meanings refers to the same group of people is a matter of debate.[citation needed] Brittany Cornwall Ireland Isle of Man Scotland Wales In a modern context, the term "Celt" or "Celtic" is used to denote areas where Celtic languages are spoken—this is the criterion employed by the Celtic League and the Celtic Congress. In this sense, there are six modern nations that can be defined as Celtic: Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales. Only four, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Brittany have native speakers of Celtic languages and in none of them is it the language of the majority. However, all six have significant traces of a Celtic language in personal and place names, and in culture and traditions. Some people in Galicia,[citation needed] Asturias [citation needed] and Cantabria[citation needed], in north-western Spain, and Minho,[citation needed] Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in northern Portugal wish to be considered Celtic because of the strong Celtic cultural identity and acknowledgement of their Celtic past. The Celtic element is seen as the key differentiator of the Galician-Portuguese identity from the Mediterranean Iberian, Roman or Moorish influences of southern and eastern Spain, and southern Portugal.[citation needed] Regions of England such as Cumbria and Devon likewise retain some Celtic influences, yet haven't retained a Celtic language (even Cornwall became fully English-speaking during the 18th century) and are therefore not categorised as Celtic regions or nations.[citation needed] Cornish aside, the last attested Celtic language native to England was Cumbric, spoken in Cumbria and southern Scotland and which may have survived until the 13th century, but was most likely dead by the eleventh. As in the case of Cornish, there have been recent attempts to recreate it, based on medieval miracle plays and other surviving sources.[citation needed] Another area of Europe associated with the Celts is France, which traces its roots to the Gauls.[citation needed] In Scotland, the Gaelic language traces at least some of its roots to migration and settlement by the Irish Dál Riata/Scotti.[citation needed] The settlement of Germanic immigrants in the lowlands—among other things—reduced the spread of the Gaelic language which was supplanting Brythonic in Scotland; this has meant that Scots-Gaelic-speaking communities survive chiefly in the country's northern and western fringes.[citation needed] [edit] Use of the term for pre-Roman peoples of Britain and Ireland The first person to use the term "Celt" in relation to Britain and Ireland was George Buchanan in 1582. [citation needed] After its employment by Edward Lhuyd in 1707,[8] the use of the word "Celtic" as an umbrella term for the pre-Roman peoples of Britain gained considerable popularity in the nineteenth century, and remains in common usage. However its historical basis is now seen as dubious by many historians and archaeologists, and this usage has been called into question. Simon James, formerly of the British Museum, in his book The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention? makes the point that the Romans never used the term "Celtic" (or, rather, a cognate in Latin) in reference to the peoples of Britain and Ireland, and points out that the modern term "Celt" was coined as a useful umbrella term in the early 18th century to distinguish the non-English inhabitants of the archipelago when England united with Scotland in 1707 to create the Kingdom of Great Britain and the later union of Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom in 1800. Nationalists in Scotland, Ireland and Wales looked for a way to differentiate themselves from England and assert their right to independence. James then argues that, despite the obvious linguistic connections, archeology does not suggest a united Celtic culture and that the term is misleading, no more (or less) meaningful than "Western". Miranda Green, author of Celtic Goddesses, describes archaeologists as finding "a certain homogeneity" in the traditions in the area of Celtic habitation including Britain and Ireland — she sees the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland as having become thoroughly Celticised by the time of the Roman arrival, mainly through spread of culture rather than a movement of people. In his book Iron Age Britain, Barry Cunliffe concludes that "...there is no evidence in the British Isles to suggest that a population group of any size migrated from the continent in the first millennium BC...". Modern archaeological thought tends to disparage the idea of large population movements without facts to back them up, a caution which appears to be vindicated by some genetic studies. In other words, Celtic culture in the Atlantic Archipelago and continental Europe could have emerged through the peaceful convergence of local tribal cultures bound together by networks of trade and kinship — not by war and conquest. This type of peaceful convergence and cooperation is actually relatively common among tribal peoples; other well known examples of the phenomenon include the Six Nations of the Iroquois League and the Nuer of East Africa. He argues that the ancient Celts are thus best depicted as a loose and highly diverse collection of indigenous tribal societies bound together by trade, a common druidic religion, related languages, and similar political institutions — but each having its own local traditions. Michael Morse in the conclusion of his book How the Celts came to Britain concedes that the concepts of a broad Celtic linguistic area and recognizably Celtic art have their uses, but argues that the term implies a greater unity than existed. Despite such problems he suggests that the term Celt is probably too deep-rooted to be replaced and — what is more important — it has the definition that we choose to give it. The problem is that the wider public reads into the term quite anachronistic concepts of ethnic unity that no one on either side in the academic debate holds." Basically they were Scottish, Irish and Welsh people. Is this homework? a group of people that lived in Ireland during the dark ages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/celt... Has more information than any history teacher especialising in Celtic history would know. I'm celtic on every side of my family.(grandparents, great-grandparents). The celts were the name of a people orginally came from France and moved throught Europe, most Irish, Welsh, and Scottish are of celtic descent.(I'm Irish). Wheras alot of English are of Roman descent. CELT Resources http://www.ucc.ie/celt/links.html... http://www.ucc.ie/celt/publishd.html... Me, I'm Scottish! Without meaning to sound flippant, academics and scholars have argued over this question for decades, so I seriously doubt that you're going to find a reliable answer on here. Since they had no written language, much is left to eye witness reports from the Romans and Greeks. There have, however been substantial archaeological finds in Central Europe, which form the basis of our understanding of the Celts and their origins. I would treat with some degree of caution though, ideas of "Celtic Britain" .There is no scientific evidence to support such claims. What is known though, is that there were Iron Age peoples around at that time. Whether they can be regarded as true Celts though, is another question. My suspicion is that a lot of what is taken for common knowledge today comes from the romanticism of our idea of who the Celts were. There is also the question of National identity, indeed, in some cases, regional identity. I think some of this comes from the need for a sense of pride and belonging, rather than any solid evidence on the ground, or from other sources. Basically, what I'm saying is that we really don't know. My advice to you, if you want to get closer to our understanding of who the Celts were, would be to do some reading from a variety of different sources. That way you'll get a much more balanced view on the subject. they were the reason for my existence i am probably married to one of my genetic relations. come to think of it !!!! Me..(I'm Welsh) most of Britain and Ireland are of Celtic origin The Celts were a group of peoples that occupied lands stretching from the British Isles to Gallatia. The Celts had many dealings with other cultures that bordered the lands occupied by these peoples, and even though there is no written record of the Celts stemming from their own documents, we can piece together a fair picture of them from archeological evidence as well as historical accounts from other cultures. The first historical recorded encounter of a people displaying the cultural traits associated with the Celts comes from northern Italy around 400 BC, when a previously unkown group of barbarians came down from the Alps and displaced the Etruscans from the fertile Po valley, a displacment that helped to push the Etruscans from history's limelight. The next encounter with the Celts came with the still young Roman Empire, directly to the south of the Po. The Romans in fact had sent three envoys to the beseiged Etruscans to study this new force. We know from Livy's The Early History of Rome that this first encounter with Rome was quite civilized: [The Celts told the Roman envoys that] this was indeed the first time they had heard of them, but they assumed the Romans must be a courageous people because it was to them that the [Etruscans] had turned to in their hour of need. And since the Romans had tried to help with an embassy and not with arms, they themselves would not reject the offer of peace, provided the [Etruscans] ceded part of their seperfluous agricultural land; that was what they, the Celts, wanted.... If it were not given, they would launch an attack before the Romans' eyes, so that the Romans could report back how superior the Gauls were in battle to all others....The Romans then asked whether it was right to demand land from its owners on pain of war, indeed what were the Celts going in Etruria in the first place? The latter defiantly retorted that their right lay in their arms: To the brave belong all things. The Roman envoys then preceded to break their good faith and helped the Etruscans in their fight; in fact, one of the envoys, Quintas Fabius killed one of the Celtic tribal leaders. The Celts then sent their own envoys to Rome in protest and demand the Romans hand over all members of the Fabian family, to which all three of the original Roman envoys belonged, be given over to the Celts, a move completely in line with current Roman protocol. This of course presented problems for the Roman senate, since the Fabian family was quite powerful in Rome. Indeed, Livy says that: The party structure would allow no resolution to be made against such noblemanm as justice would have required. The Senate...therefore passed examination of the Celts' request to the popular assembly, in which power and influence naturally counted for more. So it happened that those who ought to have been punished were instead appointed for the coming year military tribunes with consular powers (the highest that could be granted). The Celts saw this as a mortal insult and a host marched south to Rome. The Celts tore through the countryside and several battalions of Roman soilders to lay seige to the Capitol of the Roman Empire. Seven months of seige led to negotiations wherby the Celts promised to leave their seige for a tribute of one thousand pounds of gold, which the historian Pliny tells was very difficult for the entire city to muster. When the gold was being weighed, the Romans claimed the Celts were cheating with faulty weights. It was then that the Celts' leader, Brennus, threw his sword into the balance and and uttered the words vae victis "woe to the Defeated". Rome never withstood another more humiliating defeat and the Celts made an initial step of magnificent proportions into history. Other Roman historians tell us more of the Celts. Diodorus notes that: Their aspect is terrifying...They are very tall in stature, with ripling muscles under clear white skin. Their hair is blond, but not naturally so: they bleach it, to this day, artificially, washing it in lime and combing it back from their foreheaads. They look like wood-demons, their hair thick and shaggy like a horse's mane. Some of them are cleanshaven, but others - especially those of high rank, shave their cheeks but leave a moustache that covers the whole mouth and, when they eat and drink, acts like a sieve, trapping particles of food...The way they dress is astonishing: they wear brightly coloured and embroidered shirts, with trousers called bracae and cloaks fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, heavy in winter, light in summer. These cloaks are striped or checkered in design, with the seperate checks close together and in various colours. [The Celts] wear bronze helmets with figures picked out on them, even horns, which made them look even taller than they already are...while others cover themselves with breast-armour made out of chains. But most content themselves with the weapons nature gave them: they go naked into battle...Weird, discordant horns were sounded, [they shouted in chorus with their] deep and harsh voices, they beat their swords rythmically against their shields. Diodorus also describes how the Celts cut off their enemies' heads and nailed them over the doors of their huts, as Diodorus states: In exactly the same way as hunters do with their skulls of the animals they have slain...they preserved the heads of their most high-ranking victims in cedar oil, keeping them carefully in wooden boxes. Diodorus Siculus, History. What is a Celt and who are the Glasgow Celtics? The people who made up the various tribes of concern were called Galli by the Romans and Galatai or Keltoi by the Greeks, terms meaning barbarian. It is from the greek Keltoi that Celt is derived. Since no soft c exists in greek, Celt and Celtic and all permutations should be pronounced with a hard k sound. It is interesting to note that when the British Empire was distinguishing itself as better and seperate from the rest of humanity, it was decided that British Latin should have different pronunciation from other spoken Latin. Therefore, one of these distinguishing pronunciational differences was to make many of the previously hard k sounds move to a soft s sound, hence the Glasgow and Boston Celtics. It is the view of many today that this soft c pronunciation should be reserved for sports teams since there is obviously nothing to link them with the original noble savegery and furor associated with the Celts. The Six Celtic Languages There was a unifying language spoken by the Celts, called not suprisingly, old Celtic. Philogists have shown the descendence of Celtic from the original Ur-language and from the Indo-European language tradition. In fact, the form of old Celtic was the closest cousin to Italic, the precursor of Latin. The original wave of Celtic immigrants to the British Isles are called the q-Celts and spoke Goidelic. It is not known exactly when this immigration occurred but it may be placed somtime in the window of 2000 to 1200 BC. The label q-Celtic stems from the differences between this early Celtic tounge and Italic. Some of the differences between Italic and Celtic included that lack of a p in Celtic and an a in place of an the Italic o. At a later date, a second wave of immigrants took to the British Isles, a wave of Celts referred to as the p-Celts speaking Brythonic. Goidelic led to the formation of the three Gaelic languages spoken in Ireland, Man and later Scotland. Brythonic gave rise to two British Isles languages, Welsh and Cornish, as well as surviving on the Continent in the form of Breton, spoken in Brittany. The label q-Celtic stems from the differences between this early Celtic tounge and the latter formed p-Celtic. The differences between the two Celtic branches are simple in theoretical form. Take for example the word ekvos in Indo-European, meaning horse. In q-Celtic this was rendered as equos while in p-Celtic it became epos, the q sound being replaced with a p sound. Another example is the Latin qui who. In q-Celtic this rendered as cia while in p-Celtic it rendered as pwy. It should also be noted that there are still words common to the two Celtic subgroups. As an aside, take note that when the Irish expansion into Pictish Britain occurred (see below), several colonies were established in present day Wales. The local inhabitants called the Irish arrivals gwyddel savages from which comes geídil and goidel and thus the Goidelic tounge. The Irish and the Scots Are From the Same Tribe Ireland used to be divided up into five parts, the five fifths. There was a northern fifth, Ulster, a western fifth, Connaught, a southern fifth, Munster, an eastern fifth, Leinster and a middle fifth, Mide. The Ulster Cycle is a set of stories which are grounded in the five fifths. Indeed, they are primarily concerned with Cú Chulainn, the Ulster hero and his king, Conor Mac Nessa in their wars against the king and queen of Connaught, Ailill and Maeve. These figures play a prominent role in the what may be the greatest story of the Ulster Cycle, the Táin Bó Cúailnge, The Cattle Raid of Cooley. Sometime after 300 AD, Ulster became steadily less important in status among the five farthings and the ruling family of Mide, the Uí Néill Sons of Niall started to take over large parts of Connaught and most of Ulster. A similar move was made in Muster by the ruling family of Munster, the Eoganachta family. Thus was Ireland divided almost entirely into two halves. The people of Ulster were pushed to a small coastal strip bordering the Irish Sea. The kingdom changed it's name to Dál Riata. Yet eventually Dál Riata fell under the rule and influence of the Uí Néill. This family, not content with the boundry presented by the sea, launched colonies across the Irish Sea into then Pictish Britain. Thus was Scotland founded, for it was these Uí Néill that the Romans called Scotti, not the original Picts. Indeed, it was this Irish Expansion which led to Christianity in Scotland in 563 AD. St. Columba, the patron saint of Scotland, was a member of a powerful family in Dál Riata and in order to keep his ties in Ireland he settled on an island that was close to both Scotland and Ireland, Iona. Of course, even more bizarre is the fact that St. Patrick, the man responsible for bringing Christianity to Ireland in the first place, was from Wales. the Celts were people who were enemies of the vikings they went to war with them they were traders they were british tribes, a famous leader of a celtic tribe was Boudica They are the Scots. The term "Celt" in a historical context comes from the Greek word "Keltoi" which refers to all the peoples of Northern Europe except the Thracians, the Scythians, the (mythical) Hyperboreans, and the Mediterranean cultures. So basically this could equate to all the Europeans of non-Mediterranean, non Slavic genetic heritage. However archaeology refines this to the peoples of the Hallstatt and La Tène culture types, primarily the peoples of Northern Spain, the Germanic Peoples, the Gauls, the Britons, the Hibernians, Picts and sometimes the Norse. |