1. The British Isles have been populated by human beings for hundreds of thousands of years, but it was the introduction of farming around 7,000 years ago that began a process of radical change.
2. Originally,
people subsisted by gathering food like nuts, berries, leaves and fruit
from wild sources, and by hunting.
3. The
introduction of farming was one of the biggest changes in human history.
This change happened at various times in several different places around the
world. The concept of farming that reached Britain between about 5000 BC and 4500
BC had spread across Europe from what are nowadays Syria and Iraq, between
about 11000 BC and 9000 BC.
4. The
change from a hunter-gatherer to a farming way of life is what defines the
start of the Neolithic or New Stone Age. It used to be believed that the
introduction of farming into Britain was the result of a huge migration or folk
movement from across the Channel. Today, studies of DNA suggest that the influx
of new people was probably quite small - somewhere around 20% of the total population
were newcomers.
5. So the majority of early farmers simply adopted the new way of life and took it with them to other parts of Britain. This was not a rapid change - farming took about 2,000 years to spread across all parts of the British Isles.
6. Traditionally
the arrival of farming is seen as a major and rapid change sometimes called the
'Neolithic revolution'. Today, largely thanks to radiocarbon dates, we can
determine that the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer was relatively
gradual.
N. B. The word ‘revolution’ is frequently used to denote a series of great changes. We should not assume that such ‘revolutions’ are necessarily sudden or that they involve violence.
Thus,
in our later discussions we’ll speak about the ‘middle-class cultural
revolution’ which went on for the better part of 150 years, between the early
1700s and the mid-19th-century. It changed people’s way of thinking drastically
but the change was gradual. Something similar happened in the Neolithic period
and this is why we use the word ‘revolution’ to describe the switchover to
farming.
7. Neolithic
farmers also brought with them the first seed grains of wheat and barley. Initially,
plants were probably grown in garden plots near people's houses. Once harvested,
the grain needed to be stored and protected from natural pests and from raiding
parties. This tended to
encourage a more settled way of life.
8. Gradually
the first large communal tombs began to be constructed. Here people from
communities in a particular region would gather together, probably at regular
intervals, to socialise, to meet new partners, to acquire fresh livestock and
to exchange ceremonial gifts. During these ceremonies, rituals took place which
often involved the burial of significant items, such as finelypolished stone
axeheads, complete pottery vessels, or human skulls.
Some
of the great ceremonial monuments were aligned according to the position of the
sun during the winter or summer solstice.
The
long passage of a passage grave could be carefully positioned to allow the sun on
the shortest few days of the year to shine directly into the central burial
chamber.
Passage
graves were also constructed to provide good acoustics, and it seems most
probable that they were the scenes of ritual or religious theatrical
performances. The so-called 'henge' monuments, like the famous Stonehenge, seem
to have developed around 3000 BC. They also incorporate lunar and solar
alignments which are seen as a means of uniting the physical and social structures
of human societies with the powers of the natural world.
 |
| Stonehenge |
9. Stonehenge
is a prehistoric monument located in the South of England. It is one of the
most famous prehistoric sites in the world. Stonehenge is composed of
earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. Archaeologists
believe the standing stones were erected around 2200 BC and the surrounding
circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument,
have been dated to about 3100 BC.
2. Celts
The Celts (pronounced with a hard C like "Clay")
appear in Europe as a group
of peoples who spoke languages in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family
of languages. Other branches of the Indo-European family are Balto-Slavic, Germanic (includes
English), Greek,
Indo-Iranian, and Italic
or Romance (Latin based). Celtic is closest to the Italic group.
Around 1500-1000 BC, the Celts lived in
an area which today is mostly in Eastern
France. The Celts then expanded to cover an area covering most of Western Europe and Central Europe.
Around 400 BC, the Celts lived in present-day
Britain, Ireland, France (i.e. Gaul), Luxemburg, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech
and Slovak Republics. Celts also lived in
parts of Spain, northern Italy, the Netherlands, the southern half of Germany, and parts of Poland, Russia
and the Balkan Peninsula.
The Celts did not know themselves by that name, which
was only used of a small part of southern Gaul. They knew
themselves as Galli (Gauls) or Galatae (Galatians), names that derive from a
word meaning ‘courage’, still used in Irish gal, ‘bravery’. As the ‘brave
ones’, the Celts clearly did not underestimate their own powers!
Wherever they went, the Celts took with them the
name beginning in Gal, from Galicia in the west, whose people are still known
as Gallegos, to Galatia in the East, the only Celtic people to receive a
mention in the Bible. Galli (Gaul) was used of the Celts in France and northern
Italy, and the French still use Gallois to refer to the Welsh (Pays-de-Galles).
The Celts spread across Europe during two main periods (1) c. 1000 Bc to 500 BC and (2) 500 BC to 300 BC, both of which are known to archaeologists by reference to particularly important Celtic sites; (1) Hallstatt (Celtic hall, ‘salt’; German statt), and (2) a lake in Switzerland called La Tène.
The people of Hallstatt grew rich from trade in
salt, which was particularly plentiful in this part of Austria, as can be shown
by such other local names as Hallein (otherwise famous as the home of the
priest who composed ‘Silent Night’ (Stille Nacht)) and Salzburg (otherwise
famous for its association with Mozart)!
By being the first people in Europe to exploit
iron, the Celts achieved superiority over others, especially in the area of
weaponry, and this greatly facilitated their expansion
By 250 BC., as the Romans were about to begin
their expansion, the Celts controlled the greater part of Europe, as can be
shown not only by archaeology but also by reference to numerous names, still in
use today, including such names of countries as Ireland, Britain, Belgium,
Germany, and Switzerland, that were originally used of Celtic tribes.
Most of England’s
local names are Celtic in origin,
including London, York, Devon, Kent etc. The word British means Celtic, and
this is one of two things the English do not like to hear, the other being the
fact that the Irish taught them how to write.
Celtic tribes gave name to many modern French
and German cities or regions, e.g. Auvergne (Arverni), Calais (Caletes), Paris
(Parisii), Reims (Remi), Soissons (Suessiones), Chartres (Carnutes), Amiens
(Ambani), Trier (Treveri). Celtic placenames, many of them recalling
divinities, also survive in large numbers in France and Germany, e.g. Lyon/Laon
(Lugdunum), Vienne (Vindobona); Verdun/Würtemberg (Viro-dunum); Bonn (Bonna).
During the period 400 to 200 BC, the Celts
expanded into the Balkans and eastern Europe, at one stage threatening Greece,
until defeated in the battle of Delphi, following which some tribes crossed the
Dardanelles into Asia Minor, where they established the kingdom of Galatia.
In Bulgaria, formerly Upper Thrace, there is
some archaeological and place name evidence of Celtic occupation, for example a
La Tène chariot burial at Mezek in S./E. Bulgaria, then further north near
Nikolskoe, portable La Tène objects. Among Celtic elements in names on the map
are dunon, ‘fort’, medio, ‘middle’, and bona, ‘base’. Off map, near the mouth
of the Danube, there are more, for example, Novio-dunum, ‘new fort’.
There could have been many more, if early
medieval writers of history had their way. Largely because of the popularity of
the Legend of Troy, many western European peoples, including the Irish, traced
their ancestry to Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). In order to support this
tradition, the Irish went even further; they established a link between the
name by which they were known in the Medieval period, the Scoti, and that of
the Scythae (Scythians), who came from an area north of the Black Sea but
expanded down into the Balkans. And not
content with this, in one version of their origin legend, contained in the Life
written for an Irish/Scottish saint (Cadroe), their coming to Ireland is described
as a twist of fortune, due to a change of wind; they really had wanted to
settle in Upper Thrace, in other words, Modern Bulgaria.
This is how the text
reads: An ancient group
founded on the river which separates the kingdoms of Caria and Lydia the city
of Choriscon, whose inhabitants, in pursuit of commerce, embarked in boats
through the Hellespont until they came to Upper Thrace. Captivated by the
wealth of this kingdom, they returned to their homeland and, having constructed
a fleet, they set out, with wives, children, and all household goods towards
the country they desired to take possession of. But, soon after entering the
Hellespont, the north wind rose, and while struggling in vain against it,
Ephesus and Melos fell away behind them, until they arrived at the island of Crete.
And leaving Crete behind, they sailed through
the Mediterranean and out into the Atlantic, finally reaching Ireland, when all
the time, they really had wanted to settle in Bulgaria! Some might say that
their descendants achieved this aim in fairly large numbers during the era of
the Celtic Tiger (now sadly at an end), when numerous Bulgarian properties were
bought up by Irish investors!
The Celts today - Once spoken widely enough to provide names
for large tracts of Europe, the Celtic languages have now been reduced to
speakers precariously situated on the western extremities of the Continent.
What brought about
the decline of the Celts? The Roman writer,
Cato, pithily summed it up: “The Celts rocked many states but created none’. A
lack of central authority, and a proneness to internal division, now known as
the inevitable ‘Split’, is what turned the Celts into easy prey for their Roman
successors.
Celtic
life. The
basic unit of Celtic life was the clan, a sort of extended family. The term ‘family’ is a bit
misleading, for by all accounts the Celts practised
a peculiar form of child rearing; they didn't bring up their own children, they farmed them out. Children
were actually brought up by foster
parents. The foster father was often the brother of the birth-mother.
Clans were bound together very loosely
with other clans into tribes, each of which
had its own social structure and customs, and possibly its own local gods. The Celts lived in huts made of timber with walls of
wicker and roofs of thatch.
The huts were generally gathered in loose hamlets. The Celts were farmers when they
weren't fighting. One of the interesting innovations
that they brought to Britain was the iron plough. Earlier ploughs were suitable only for
ploughing the light upland soils. The heavier iron ploughs constituted an agricultural revolution all
by themselves, for they
made it possible for the first time to cultivate the rich valley and lowland soils.
The lot of women. Celtic lands were owned communally,
and wealth seems to
have been based largely on the size of cattle herds. The lot of women was a good deal better than in most
societies of that time. They were technically equal to men, owned property, and could choose their own
husbands. They could also be war
leaders.
Religion. We know of the Celts from Roman
commentators who were not necessarily
fair or objective in what they said about them. According to those commentators, they held many of
their religious ceremonies in oak groves
and near sacred water, such as wells and springs. The Romans speak of human sacrifice as being a part of
Celtic religion. One
thing we do know is that the Celts revered human heads. Celtic warriors would cut off the
heads of their enemies in battle and display
them as trophies. They mounted heads in doorposts and hung them from their belts. This might seem
barbaric to us, but to the Celt the seat of spiritual power was the head, so by taking the head of a
defeated enemy they acquired
that person’s power.
Who
were the Druids? The
Roman occupation of Britain lasted from 43 AD
to around 400. Before the
Romans invaded, the druid priesthood was the undisputed power in the land. For the previous two or three
centuries the druids had been a dominant
force throughout what was then the Celtic world, which included France, the Netherlands and parts of
Scandinavia as well as Britain.
History is written by the victors;
this can make it hard to get a clear picture of the people on the losing side. When the Romans
conquered the Celts and Ancient
Britons, they gave unflattering descriptions of the druids. Some sources describe the druids as
bloodthirsty barbarians who were addicted to
human sacrifice. Others maintain that they were gentle and peaceful, and that they derived their authority from
being in touch with nature.
There are a few things we can say for
certain. Druids:
- held ceremonies in oak groves
- saw mistletoe as a sacred plant with
healing powers
- practised divination and believed
they could foretell the future
The
Celts at War. The Celts loved war. If one wasn't happening they'd be sure to start one. They arrayed
themselves as fiercely as possible, sometimes charging into battle fully naked, dyed blue from head to
toe, and emitting terrible
screams to terrify their enemies.
Boudica (also spelt Boudicca, formerly better
known as Boadicea) (d.60/61AD) was a queen of a Celtic tribe in Norfolk in
Eastern Britain wholed a major uprising of the tribes against the occupying
forces of the Roman Empire.
Her husband, Prasutagus, who had ruled
as a nominally independent ally of Rome,
had left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and the Roman Emperor in his will, but when he died
his will was ignored, possibly because the
Romans, unlike the Britons, did not recognise daughters as heirs. The kingdom was annexed as if conquered,
Boudica was flogged and her daughters
raped, and Roman financiers called in their loans. In 60 or 61 AD, while the Roman governor
was leading a campaign on the island
of Anglesey in north Wales, Boudica led her people, along with some allies, in revolt. They destroyed
Camulodunum (Colchester), a colonia (a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers) and the site of
a temple to the former emperor
Claudius, built and maintained at local expense, and routed a Roman legion, the IX Hispana,
sent to relieve the settlement. On
hearing the news, the governor hurried to Londinium (London), the twenty-year-old commercial settlement
which was the rebels' next target, but
concluding he did not have the numbers to defend it, evacuated and abandoned it. It was burnt to the
ground, as was Verulamium (St Albans). An
estimated 70,000-80,000 people were killed in the three cities. The governor, meanwhile, regrouped his forces
in the West Midlands, and despite
being heavily outnumbered, defeated Boudica. The crisis had led the emperor Nero to consider withdrawing
Roman forces from the island, but Suetonius's
victory secured Roman control of the province. Boudica was not killed in the battle but took poison to
avoid being captured by
the Romans.
The
Celts as such are a recent phenomenon. The first person to use the name Celtic,
as we use it today, was George Buchanan in his History of Scotland, published
in 1598. He applied it to the Celtic peoples. The first to speak of the Celtic
languages was Edward Lhuyd, curator of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, who died
in 1709.
During
the Romantic period, the Celts were thought to represent more than any other
people Rousseau’s idea of the ‘Noble Savage’, as can be seen from the way in
which MacPherson’s Ossianic poems became
European bestsellers, read by Napoleon (when he found time between wars!) and
used as a motif by Goethe, who began to learn Gaelic. At this time, a Celtic
Academy was founded in Paris, with the modest (!) aim of explaining all that
needed to be explained about humanity.
Vercingetorix, chieftain of the Celtic Arveni tribe, surrendering to Julius Caesar Painting by Lionel Royer (1852-1926)
No comments:
Post a Comment