Search results
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the hypothetical ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method.
Proto-Celtic paganism was the beliefs of the speakers of Proto-Celtic and includes topics such as the mythology, legendry, folk tales, and folk beliefs of early Celtic culture.
A newer theory, "Celtic from the West", suggests proto-Celtic arose earlier, was a lingua franca in the Atlantic Bronze Age coastal zone, and spread eastward. Another newer theory, "Celtic from the Centre", suggests proto-Celtic arose between these two zones, in Bronze Age Gaul, then spread in various directions. [11]
People also ask
What is the history of pre-Celtic Europe and Celtic origins?
What is Proto-Celtic paganism?
Where did Proto-Celtic artefacts come from?
- The ‘Celts’ - Definition & Problems
- Origins: Urnfield, Hallstatt & La Tène
- Celtic Language
- Celtic Religion
- Celtic Society
- Celtic Art
- Trade in The Celtic World
- Celtic Warfare
- Decline & Legacy
The term ‘Celts’ is commonly used to refer to peoples who lived in Iron Age Europe north of the Mediterranean region prior to the Roman conquest after ancient writers gave them that name. However, it is a problematic label. This is because these peoples were not part of a unified state but, rather, belonged to a multitude of tribes, many of which h...
Most scholars agree that the origins of Celtic culture can be traced back to three earlier, closely-related, and overlapping cultural groups. The first of these is the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture present around the upper Danube from c. 1300 BCE. The name of this culture derives from the common practice of interring the cremated remains of the ...
One of the striking points of connection between many of the peoples of Iron Age Europe is their common language: Celtic. The Celtic language is a branch of the Indo-European language family. Scholars have divided Celtic languages into two groups: Insular Celtic and Continental Celtic. The latter group was no longer widely spoken after the Roman im...
The second common characteristic of those people we call ancient Celts is their religion. This was a polytheistic religion with a multitude of gods, although our knowledge of them is limited to classical authors given the lack of written works by the Celts themselves. Variations existed across regions and the centuries, but common features of the a...
Once again, without first-hand written records it is difficult to reconstruct the intricacies of ancient Celtic society. Nevertheless, we do know that society in many Celtic tribes was hierarchical. At the top were rulers and elite warriors, then there were the religious leaders and repositories of the community's collected knowledge, the druids, w...
Alongside language and religious practices, another common feature of Celts throughout Europe is the art they produced. Celtic art was influenced by that of the earlier indigenous Iron Age cultures mentioned above and by neighbouring cultures or trading partners like the Thracians, Scythians, Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans, and through these peoples...
As noted above, the proto-Celtic cultures in western and central Europe had already established trade links with the Mediterranean cultures, and this continued with the Celts. Tin from Britain, amber from the Baltic, and horses from eastern Europe and the Balkans were also imported and used or passed on southwards. Celtic resources which were trade...
That warfare was a major part of Celtic culture is clear from the number of gods in the ancient Celtic pantheon associated with war and the great number of weapons deposited in tombs. Courage and prowess on the battlefield were also important in determining status within society. Celtic warriors in Gaul are described as bleaching their long hair us...
The first real sign of trouble in the Celtic world was a marked increase in local competition for resources and trade opportunities, and this manifested itself in the building of oppida in the 2nd and 1st century BCE. An oppidum was the Roman name for larger settlements which we now apply specifically to fortified sites, usually located on high poi...
- Mark Cartwright
Ancient Celtic religion or Celtic paganism was followed by the Celtic people in Europe long ago. Since there aren't written records of their beliefs, we learn about them from what they left behind. The Celts believed in many gods and goddesses, and their religion was similar across different regions.
Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because there are no extant native records of their beliefs, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco-Roman accounts (some of them hostile and probably not well-informed), and literature from the early ...
The retention of the Proto-Celtic sequences am and an, which mostly result from the Proto-Indo-European syllabic nasals. Celtic /w/ (written u in Latin texts and ou in Greek) became gw-in initial position, -w-internally, whereas in Gaelic it is f-in initial position and disappears internally: Proto-Celtic *windos 'white, fair' became Welsh gwyn ...
