Land, People & Language

The ancient Celts were a branch of the Indo-Europeans, an ethnico-linguistic group that also included Germanic, Slavic, Greek and Indo-Iranian people. From their homeland in the Pontic-Caspian Steppes, the Proto-Indo-Europeans went to conquer most of Europe, Central Asia and South Asia from 4000 BCE onwards thanks to the advent of the Bronze Age in the North Caucasus. => See the History of the Indo-Europeans for more details.

Proto-Celtic people arrived from the Balkans to Central Europe around 2500 BCE. Equipped with horses and superior bronze weapons, the Celts quickly conquered Western Europe, from Iberia to the British Isles.

Classical Celtic culture emerged in central Europe around modern Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland. The earliest major Celtic settlement, dating from 1200 BCE, was found in Hallstatt, Upper Austria.

The classical Hallstatt culture, and its successor the La Tène culture, spread from the Alps to most of Western and Central Europe between 600 and 400 BCE. People in those areas spoke a similar language, shared a same religion, similar traditions and beliefs, the same arts and techniques...

There were some minor regional differences between Celtic people. For example, houses in Britain and Ireland were typically round, while those in Gaul were rectangular.

The term "Celt" comes from Greek Keltoi or Galatae (Galatian), and Latin Celtae or Galli (Gaul). It is not known how they called themselves, but it is likely to have been a word in between those, maybe resembling the modern word "Gael".

or (Galatian), and Latin or (Gaul). It is not known how they called themselves, but it is likely to have been a word in between those, maybe resembling the modern word "Gael". Though the Celts did not have their own writing system, Celtic-language inscriptions in Latin or Greek alphabets have been found on Celtic sites.

Contrarily to popular beliefs, Celtic languages were still spoken after the Roman conquest. Saint Jerome (347-420) notes that the language of the Anatolian Galatians in his day was still very similar to the language of the Treveri (from the region of Trier and the border of Germany and Luxembourg).

Celtic languages progressively disappeared during the Middle Ages. They only survived in Brittany, Corwall, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and for a time also in Galacia (north-western Spain). Today, only a minority of people can still speak Celtic/Gaelic languages, and they are mostly confined to Wales, Brittany and western Ireland.

Genetic studies determined that most of the ancient Celtic men belonged to the Y-DNA haplogroup R1b-S116 and its subclades. Two Early Bronze Age migrations brought the L21 subclade to north-west France and the British Isles, and the DF27 subclade to south-west France and Iberia. The third major Celtic subclade is S28 (aka U152), which is associated with the expansion of the Hallstatt and La Tène Celts, as well as with Italic tribes.

Celtic people are believed to have spread the genes for red hair. => See the Origins and history of red hair for more details.

Expansions of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures Map of Celtic paternal lineages in modern Europe

This map represents the paternal lineages (Y-chromosomal DNA) associated with the spread of Proto-Italo-Celtic people from Central to Western Europe in the Bronze Age, starting circa 4,500 years ago. The Celtic lineages are the S116 (aka P312) branch of the Indo-European Haplogroup R1b minus the Greco-Etruscan R1b-L23, the Germanic R1b-U106 and R1b-L238, and the Proto-Celto-Germanic L11, L51 and L150. S116 includes subclades associated with non-IE languages such as Basque, and the ancient Gascon and Iberian languages. Since it is unclear exactly when and where Celtic languages developed and whether some Proto-Celtic speakers might have adopted indigenous languages in the land they settled (especially in Gascony and Mediterranean Iberia), all lineages were included for the purpose of this map, giving priority to Y-DNA over languages.

Society, Culture & Lifestyle

The Celts actively traded with the Mediterranean world, exchanging notably their iron tools and weapons for wine and pottery. They also imported amber from the Baltic to resell to the Romans and Greeks.

The Celts preempted the Romans in their construction of a road network across the European continent.

The Celtic world was very decentralised compared to the Roman one, but at least a dozen Celtic towns possessed high stone walls rivalling those of Rome at the time. The longest were 5km long.

Recent studies have shown that the Celts were more advanced than the Romans in some scientific and economic aspects. Pre-Roman Celtic calendars were much more accurate than the Roman one. In fact, they were possibly more accurate than the Gregorian calendar in use nowadays.

Each Galatian tribe was organised in four septs (clans), each ruled by a tetrach (chief), assisted by a judge, a general and two deputy generals. Each sept sent 25 senators to a central shrine called Drunemeton .

. The Celts were immensely rich. We now know that Julius Caesar's main reason to conquer Gaul was to lay hands on Celtic gold. Over 400 Celtic gold mines were found in France alone. The Romans had little gold on their home territory, so the conquest of Gaul was a tremendous boost to their power.

The Celtic nobility were also known to be clean shaven with well trimmed hair following the fashion of the time. Tweezers were also found on archeological sites.

Ancient Celtic society gave much more freedom and power to women than the Greeks and Romans did. Greco-Roman housewives were prohibited to do business and mostly sequestrated in their home under the supervision of male family members. Celtic women could sometimes become powerful tribe leaders, and were also known to go to war.

Celtic Warfare & Technology

The Celts invented the chainmail (around 300 BCE) and the helmets later used by Roman legionaries. Celtic swords and shields were at least as good as the Roman's.

The decoration of the Celtic weapons, chariots and artifacts was in many ways superior to those of many Mediterranean cultures.

Gauls at the time of Julius Caesar were described as wearing shiny, gold-like armours and swords.

The Celts' early development of prime iron weapons and armoury gave them a military advantage over the neighbours. It permitted them to conquer and subdue most of Europe for many centuries.

The Celts had a reputation of fearsome barbarians among the Greeks and Romans. Around 400 BCE, they seized the territory that lay between the Appeninne mountains and the Alps (i.e. northern Italy), then went on to plunder Rome in 390 BCE. Even Alexander the Great made sure of avoiding war with the Celts, eagerly signing a peace treaty with them in 335 BCE, before embarking on his conquest of Persia. After his death, the Celts became a threat for the Greeks again. Lured by the wealth accumulated in Greek temples by Alexander, the Galatian Celts invaded Macedonia in 281 BCE and sacked Delphi in 279 BCE.

Their defeat against the Romans was mainly due to the fact that they were disunited against the Roman enemy, and victims of internal tribal struggles.

It is estimated that Julius Caesar massacred 1 out of 10 million of Celts in Gaul, and put another million into slavery. In modern terms, this would be called a genocide.

Religion & Beliefs