HIS-1101-XTIA 17/T5
15 July, 2017
The Culture of the Celts and Today
Thinking of the Celts conjures images in the mind of Ireland, professional basketball, or popular
movies with blue painted warriors and magical spells that turn Royals into bears. Outside of mainstream
modern popular culture, the Celts were a large grouping of mul,ple tribes across Europe that .rst
appeared in the early Iron Age with a rich history, tradi,ons, and culture. While commonly thought to
originate in Ireland, predecessors of the Celts were “Indo-European peoples, a collec,on of nomadic
shepherding popula,ons,” that moved from around the Black Sea into Western Europe star,ng in 2000
BCE (Backman, 54). The Celts were able to spread their people and culture throughout Europe for well
over 1000 years without signi.cant opposi,on; various tribes o7en migrated across the European
con,nent to escape wars (Cartwright). During this ,me and un,l the Celts were eventually pushed into
northwestern Europe, they made their mark on history by awing and inspiring growing tribes and
empires with lore that manages to survive today.
The name Celts was used not by Cel,c people themselves, but by writers of ancient ,mes (Cartwright).
These di9erent tribes of peoples living across Europe speaking shared Indo-European dialects (Celt).
Early Celts were known by their culture. Beginning around 1300 BCE, they were iden,.ed by their burial
habits and po;ery as Urn.eld culture, then in 800 BCE tribes were no,ced to shi7 to iron working and
iron weapons and here became referred to as Hallsta; culture (Cartwright). This iron assisted the Celts in
their spread over Europe during the Iron Age. Hallsta; culture was rela,vely short lived and, possibly
“due to internal poli,cal tensions and economic di>cul,es,” declined by 500 BCE; the following period
marked by the Celts was known as the La Tène culture (Cartwright). The La Tène culture developed
among the Celts and was a9ected by Greek and Roman inBuences during its ,me. “Greek inBuences that
s,mulated Cel,c culture included the introduc,on of the chariot and of wri,ng” (Celts). During the ,me
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iden,.ed by the La Tène culture scrolled, curled, or twis,ng metalwork was created and history is
introduced to a group of Cel,c tribes known as Gauls.
The Gauls marked a season in Cel,c history where Celts are known by equal parts of fame and infamy.
“Cel,c armies .rst came to the a;en,on of historians when the Gauls… sacked Rome in 390 BCE”
(Cartwright). This began a rela,onship of sorts between Gaul and Rome of warring. The Romans were
