You Celts they were a group of peoples that existed from 600 BC. Ç. to 600 d. Ç. and that arose from the cultural evolution of populations that inhabited Central Europe. Over time, these peoples spread throughout the European continent and reached the region of Asia Minor, in present-day Turkey. The first mention that is had of the term celta was made by Greeks in the VI century; Ç.
The Celts had a hierarchical society, and one of the most influential groups was the Druids, who assumed legal and religious functions in the tribes. The Celts had a religion with a strong connection to nature, believed in elements such as the transmigration of the body and performed human and animal sacrifices.
Accessalso: War for the Vikings - Importance and Weapons Used
Where did the Celts come from?
The Celts were a people that developed in Central Europe, in the first millennium BC. a., and that it spread by all the continent, reaching the British Isles and Asia Minor. Leading Celtic experts say they existed between 600 a. Ç. and 600 d. Ç.
When we study them, we need to consider that the "Celtic" designation is generic, as it incorporates different peoples seen in the Antique as one, and this was due to the cultural proximity that existed between them. Currently, the language is the criterion used by historians to define who is Celtic and who is not. The Celtic languages belonged to the trunks Gaelic and britonic.
In the region of origin of the Celts, there was a great cultural evolution, which, in the long run, allowed the emergence of peoples understood as Celts. The starting point was the Culture of the Ballot Boxes, which, over time, evolved into the emergence of Culturehallstatt and, finally, gave rise to the La Tène culture. The first two are seen as protocelts, as they had Celtic characteristics but were not yet fully so. La Tène, yes, is already considered a properly Celtic culture.
Thus, the populations that inhabited Central Europe gave rise to the Celts during the process of cultural evolution. However, there are studies that speculate that Celtic populations settled in Central Europe after having migrated from Central Asia during the Neolithic.
Why are they called Celts?
As we have already seen, the term Celtic is a generic name for different peoples who had a similar culture and spoke languages from the same linguistic trunks. This term was established by the greeks sometime between 540 a. Ç. and 424 a. Ç. The two responsible persons who are known to have used this designation were HecateusinMiletus and Herodotus.
They referred to the Celts, in their own language (Greek), as keltoi. This name was used, in the case of Hecateus of Miletus, for example, to refer to peoples who inhabited the region close to Massilia, a Greek colony located in southern France. We can see, then, that the Greek naming started from the principle of "outside view", which means that it represents the image that the Greeks had of different peoples with cultural proximity and who lived outside the coastal regions of the Mediterranean Sea.
As the Greeks did not know details about these peoples, they were seen as only one, in this case, the keltoi. This vision was consolidated through the romans, people who had much contact with the Celts on the northern borders of their lands. The Romans, in turn, called them Celtic, Celtic or galli.
readmore: Norman invasions in the Kingdom of the Franks – when and how
Where did the Celts live?
We have already seen that the Celts emerged in Central Europe and gained ground across the European continent. Here we are not talking about just one tribe, but of several tribes that shared this culture and languages with the same origin.
Among the regions that the Celts settled are the PeninsulaIberian (currently Portugal and Spain); The Gaul, region of present-day France; at IslandsBritish, where Ireland and the United Kingdom are now located; The Thrace, in Eastern Europe (present-day Bulgaria); and the AsiaSmaller, in present-day Turkey. All of them received Celtic populations belonging to different tribes. Among these, we can mention the ordovic, who inhabited the region of Wales; you Celtiberians, who inhabited the north of Portugal and Spain; you Helvetii, who inhabited the territory of Switzerland; you bituriges, who inhabited the region of France; and the Galatians, who settled in the region of Turkey.
Historians study the reasons for this great migration of Celts across Europe and believe that it began around the fourth century BC. Ç. During this period, the Celts who inhabited Central Europe from the La Tène Culture began to migrate because of the overpopulation in this region as well as the scarcity of resources. This measure was aimed at finding better places to survive.
Furthermore, the wars fought between the Celtic tribes themselves and with the Romans, in the following centuries, were a factor that probably contributed to these migrations taking place. THE presenceroman it was even the first stage towards the end of the Celts. THE Christianization also contributed to this in 600 AD. Ç.
Accessalso: Ragnarok - the end of the nordic universe according to its mythology
society and religion
The Celts socially organized themselves into tribes they called the tuatha. They were formed by the union of families that had the cultural bond as a trait. This bond brought the tribes closer together, but it did not guarantee peaceful coexistence. Furthermore, cultural proximity did not mean that they were identical in every respect, as there were differences in language and religion, for example.
In what it refers to societyCeltic, there were five large groups: the druids, you nobles and warriors, you menfree, and the slaves. The tribes were ruled by kings, chosen from among nobles and warriors, two classes that were part of the Celtic aristocracy. However, the most powerful group in this society were the druids.
Druids took on different roles in Celtic society. They could act in the role of accumulators of the people's knowledge, especially since Celtic wisdom was oral and therefore its accumulation and transmission was their function; they could still draft and enforce local laws and do it even against kings; and they were known to fulfill religious functions, although this last function is still poorly understood.
On the orality of the Celts, historians consider it as one of the main factors why much of this culture was lost. The Celts only began to report details about themselves in writing after Roman influence. In addition, most of the accounts we currently have were written by other peoples, such as Greeks, Romans and Christianized peoples.
There was relationshipinpatronage among the Celtic social classes, with the poorest groups offering their services to influential and powerful people. This allowed nobles and great warriors to secure influence through the large number of followers, in addition to getting people to work for them. In return, they offered protection and cost-effective support to their customers.
Nobles and warriors were, as mentioned, groups that were part of the social elite of the Celts. The Celtic warriors had their fame transmitted by Greeks and Romans, people who, at different times, fought conflicts against Celtic tribes. These accounts tell of the ferocity of Celtic warriors and highlight their characteristics, such as dexterity with horses.
Free men were common men, of little financial condition and who were, above all, involved in agricultural work. Finally, slaves formed the Celtic social base and were often foreign prisoners of war.
At the questionreligious, the Celts were polytheists and they had a wide variety of gods. These people had in their religion beliefs in life after death and funeral practices that led them to bury different objects with the person who had died.
The Celts believed that the nature was sacred and they had several practices and beliefs that reinforced this, one of which was performing their religious rituals in nature, outdoors. They believed in the possibility transmigrationof the human body, especially for the bodies of birds and fish.
They had several religious rituals, such as the Imbolc, O Beltane, O lammas it's the Samhain. The Celts practiced human and animal sacrifices, and in the case of human sacrifices, there could be practices of necromancy —the realization of predictions by means of how blood gushed from the human body or the shape of its bowels.
By Daniel Neves
History teacher