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The Celts--The Culture History Forgot

© Lianne Bruynell Lopes

Anyone familiar with the Bible, particularly the New Testament, has heard of the book of Galatians. The Galatians were a group of people in Asia Minor, now Turkey, who were evangelized by the apostle Paul. So what does this have to do with Ireland?

Present day Ireland is made up of a mixture of races, but the prime people that influenced Irish culture and made it the proud land that it is today, are the Celts. But who were they? History books tell us little about them. Being a relatively illiterate culture depending on word of mouth to recount their history, much of who and what they were has been lost. Also, what little is known of them comes mostly from Greek and Roman writings that cast the Celts in a poor light. The Celts were a powerful group that dominated central and western Europe, stronger at one point than Rome. In 390 B.C. an army of Celts sacked the city of Rome, and again in 280 BC, several Greek cities.

Celtic culture is mostly confined to the British isles now, but excavations show they had a widespread influence in ancient times. Artifacts of Celtic origin have been found in Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and France, and remains of an ancient Celtic fort were discovered on the Buda side of the river in Budapest, Hungary.

In Hallstatt, Austria, signs of Celtic lifestyle from as early as 800 B.C. were found. The Hallstatt Celts were master iron workers, having developed intricately decorated iron vases, weapons and other objects. This discovery, in 1846, was significant in that it first brought to light the importance of Celtic culture, alongside that of the classical Greeks and Romans.

Out of the Hallstatt culture developed the "La Tene" Celts. The La Tene sight near Neuchatel, Switzerland was discovered 12 years after Hallstatt, and represents a more developed Celtic society. It was at this time, from around 600 BC to 100 BC that Celtic culture lived its golden age. The rise of the Roman empire in the south, and attacks from Germanic tribes in the North pushed the Celts West into France and Spain, and eventually confined them to the British Isles.

The Gauls were another branch of Celts, and these moved south into Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and Asia minor. They were considered by the Romans, crazy barbarians. In warfare, they were known to scream and shake their weapons, then run headlong against the opposing army. In deed, anyone who has seen the movie Braveheart has a vivid picture of this. Although it is clear today, this was an intimidation tactic to get the enemy to run, to the classically trained armies of Greece and Rome, these soldiers appeared a bunch of raving lunatics. They must have known what they were doing, however, for they were often successful. If the opponents did not flee with the first run-down, the Celts would turn back to their places and try again.

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