The Celts were a group of fierce warriors, talented engineers, and art lovers who emerged around 1200 BCE. They were the earliest and greatest Iron Age civilization. By 700 BCE the Celts were producing iron in large quantities. From their homes in the center of Europe, they spread outwards. Within a few hundred years there were Celtic tribes in every corner of Europe. Even today, in places as far apart as Ireland, Spain, and Turkey, people can still find traces of the ancient Celts in their art, their language, and even in their genes.
As they spread across Europe, the Celts separated into a great number of different tribes, such as the Nervii of northern Gaul (modern Belgium). The tribes continued to share a language, a religion, and customs, even though they grew geographically separate. The ancient Celts loved listening to stories and music, but they did not leave any written records. However, as they moved around, they continued to make their unique iron tools and their decorated weapons, and archaeologists have been able to piece together their history from the objects they have left behind.
Early History
The earliest Celts were a group of people living around 1200 BCE. Their culture is called the Urnfield Culture because they cremated their dead and put the ashes in urns, which they buried in fields. Over the next few hundred years small groups started to break away and settle in different parts of Europe. The central group of Celts stayed in the same area, spreading west and south, sometimes fighting against other Celts. By 700 BCE they covered a much wider area and were masters at using iron.
The Celts became very rich from controlling the traffic along the rivers in their area and from trading with the Greeks to the south. This period, starting around 750 BCE, is called the Halstatt Culture, after a town in Austria where a great number of their ingenious iron tools and weapons have been found.
The Invasions
In 400 BCE a tribe called the Etruscans was living in the lush Po Valley in northern Italy. The Etruscans had never heard of the Celts when they swept down over the Alps from the north, conquered the Etruscans, and took their land. Next the Celts marched south to Rome and besieged the city. The Romans had to pay them a vast sum of gold to get them to leave. The Celts settled to the north of Rome in a territory the Romans called Cisalpine Gaul. Here and all over Europe the Celts enjoyed a long period of domination. However, one by one, the various Celtic tribes were conquered by Greek and Roman armies. Gradually Celts started to intermarry with local cultures, and Celtic identity began to disappear.
The Roman Empire
By 192 BCE the Roman Empire had conquered Cisalpine Gaul. Blocking the path of further Roman expansion to the north was the final Celtic stronghold in continental Europe, called Transalpine Gaul. By 57 BCE Julius Caesar had succeeded in conquering it, and he was able to declare that all the Celts in Gaul were Roman subjects. In 43 CE the Romans arrived in Britain, another land where Celtic tribes had established themselves. Over the next forty years the Romans advanced north, defeating the tribes that had settled there. By the end of the first century CE, most of Britain was Romano-Celtic.
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CELTIC ARTS AND CRAFTS |
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The Celts decorated almost everything they made, from swords and shields to boxes and mirrors. The basis was iron, and they added bronze, semiprecious stones, colored enamels, and sometimes gold and silver. The most famous examples of Celtic art were made by Celts of the La Tène Culture. This group of Celts emerged in Switzerland in 500 BCE, and soon their artistic style was found all over Europe. It involves surfaces filled with curves, swirls, spirals, circles, and floral designs. The patterns are often symmetrical and always abstract – La Tène style almost never depicted people or animals.
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