Celts

The Greek historian

Diodorus Siculus and Strabo both suggest that the heartland of the people they call Celts was in southern Gaul. The former says that the Gauls were to the north of the Celts, but that the Romans referred to both as Gauls (linguistically the Gauls were certainly Celts). Before the discoveries at Hallstatt and La Tène, it was generally considered that the Celtic heartland was southern Gaul, see Encyclopædia Britannica for 1813.^{[citation needed]}

Distribution

Continental

Gaul

The Romans knew the Celts then living in present-day France as Gauls. The territory of these peoples probably included the Low Countries, the Alps and present-day northern Italy. Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars described the 1st-century BC descendants of those Gauls.^{[citation needed]}

Eastern Gaul became the centre of the western La Tène culture. In later Iron Age Gaul, the social organisation resembled that of the Romans, with large towns. From the 3rd century BC the Gauls adopted coinage. Texts with Greek characters from southern Gaul have survived from the 2nd century BC.^[72]

Greek traders founded

In 58 BC the Helvetii planned to migrate westward but Julius Caesar forced them back. He then became involved in fighting the various tribes in Gaul, and by 55 BC had overrun most of Gaul. In 52 BC Vercingetorix led a revolt against Roman occupation but was defeated at the Battle of Alesia and surrendered.^[76]

Following the Gallic Wars of 58–51 BC, Caesar's

]

Place- and personal-name analysis and inscriptions suggest that Gaulish was spoken over most of what is now France.^[78][79]

Iberia

Main articles: Celtiberians and Gallaeci

See also:

Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, Prehistoric Iberia, Hispania, Lusitania, Gallaecia, Celtici, and Vettones

Until the end of the 19th century, traditional scholarship dealing with the Celts did acknowledge their presence in the Iberian Peninsula[80]^[81] as a material culture relatable to the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. However, since according to the definition of the Iron Age in the 19th century Celtic populations were supposedly rare in Iberia and did not provide a cultural scenario that could easily be linked to that of Central Europe, the presence of Celtic culture in that region was generally not fully recognised. Modern scholarship, however, has clearly proven that Celtic presence and influences were most substantial in what is today Spain and Portugal (with perhaps the highest settlement saturation in Western Europe), particularly in the central, western and northern regions.^[82][83]

In addition to Gauls infiltrating from the north of the Pyrenees, the Roman and Greek sources mention Celtic populations in three parts of the Iberian Peninsula: the eastern part of the Meseta (inhabited by the Celtiberians), the southwest (Celtici, in modern-day Alentejo) and the northwest (Gallaecia and Asturias).^[84] A modern scholarly review^[85] found several archaeological groups of Celts in Spain:

• The
  Celtiberian Language the only Hispano-Celtic language classified as Celtic with unanimous agreement.^[87] In the late period, before the Roman Conquest, both archaeological evidence and Roman sources suggest that the Celtiberians
  were expanding into different areas in the Peninsula (e.g. Celtic Baeturia).
• The Vetton group in the western Meseta, between the Tormes, Douro and Tagus Rivers. They were characterised by the production of Verracos, sculptures of bulls and pigs carved in granite.
• The
  Vaccean group in the central Douro valley. They were mentioned by Roman sources already in the 220 BC. Some of their funerary rituals suggest strong influences from their Celtiberian neighbours.^{[citation needed}
  ]

• The Castro Culture in northwestern Iberia, modern day Galicia and Northern Portugal.^[88] Its high degree of continuity, from the Late Bronze Age, makes it difficult to support that the introduction of Celtic elements was due to the same process of Celticisation of the western Iberia, from the nucleus area of Celtiberia. Two typical elements are the sauna baths with monumental entrances, and the "Gallaecian Warriors", stone sculptures built in the 1st century AD. A large group of Latin inscriptions contain linguistic features that are clearly Celtic, while others are similar to those found in the non-Celtic Lusitanian language.^[87]
• The Astures and the Cantabri. This area was romanised late, as it was not conquered by Rome until the Cantabrian Wars of 29–19 BC.
• Celts in the southwest, in the area Strabo called Celtica^[89]

The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to understanding the Celticisation process in the rest of the Peninsula. The process of Celticisation of the southwestern area of the peninsula by the Keltoi and of the northwestern area is, however, not a simple Celtiberian question. Recent investigations about the Callaici^[90] and Bracari^[91] in northwestern Portugal are providing new approaches to understanding Celtic culture (language, art and religion) in western Iberia.^[92]

John T. Koch of Aberystwyth University suggested that Tartessian inscriptions of the 8th century BC might be classified as Celtic. This would mean that Tartessian is the earliest attested trace of Celtic by a margin of more than a century.^[93]

Germany, Alps and Italy

Main articles: Golasecca culture, Lepontii, and Cisalpine Gaul

Further information: History of the Alps

In Germany by the late

Unetice and Tumulus cultures in central Europe,^[96] whilst the Nordic Bronze Age had developed in Scandinavia and northern Germany. The Hallstatt culture, which had developed from the Urnfield culture, was the predominant Western and Central European culture from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and during the early Iron Age (8th to 6th centuries BC). It was followed by the La Tène culture

(5th to 1st centuries BC).

The people who had adopted these cultural characteristics in central and southern Germany are regarded as Celts. Celtic cultural centres developed in central Europe during the late Bronze Age (c. 1200 BC until 700 BC). Some, like the

Mediterranean. In the 5th century BC the Greek historian Herodotus mentioned a Celtic city at the Danube – Pyrene, that historians attribute to the Heuneburg. Beginning around 700 BC (or later), Germanic peoples (Germanic tribes) from southern Scandinavia and northern Germany expanded south and gradually replaced the Celtic peoples in Central Europe.^{[98][99][100][101][102][103]}

The

Po valley between Lake Maggiore and Lake Como (Scamozzina culture). It has also been proposed that a more ancient proto-Celtic presence can be traced back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age, when North Westwern Italy appears closely linked regarding the production of bronze artefacts, including ornaments, to the western groups of the Tumulus culture.^[106] La Tène cultural material appeared over a large area of mainland Italy,^[107] the southernmost example being the Celtic helmet from Canosa di Puglia.^[108]

Italy is home to Lepontic, the oldest attested Celtic language (from the 6th century BC).^[109] Anciently spoken in Switzerland and in Northern-Central Italy, from the Alps to Umbria.^{[110][111][112][113]} According to the Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises, more than 760 Gaulish inscriptions have been found throughout present-day France – with the notable exception of Aquitaine – and in Italy,^[114][115] which testifies the importance of Celtic heritage in the peninsula.^{[citation needed]}

In 391 BC, Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps streamed through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the

Po Valley and the rest of northern Italy (known to the Romans as Cisalpine Gaul) was inhabited by Celtic-speakers who founded cities such as Milan.^[116] Later the Roman army was routed at the battle of Allia and Rome was sacked in 390 BC by the Senones.^[117]

At the battle of Telamon in 225 BC, a large Celtic army was trapped between two Roman forces and crushed.^[118]

The defeat of the combined Samnite, Celtic and Etruscan alliance by the Romans in the Third Samnite War sounded the beginning of the end of the Celtic domination in mainland Europe, but it was not until 192 BC that the Roman armies conquered the last remaining independent Celtic kingdoms in Italy.^{[citation needed]}

Expansion east and south

Main article:

Gallic invasion of the Balkans

The Celts also expanded down the Danube river and its tributaries. One of the most influential tribes, the Scordisci, established their capital at Singidunum (present-day Belgrade, Serbia) in the 3rd century BC. The concentration of hill-forts and cemeteries shows a dense population in the Tisza valley of modern-day Vojvodina, Serbia, Hungary and into Ukraine. Expansion into Romania was however blocked by the Dacians.^{[citation needed]}

The

St Jerome, who visited Ancyra (modern-day Ankara) in 373 AD, likened their language to that of the Treveri of northern Gaul.^{[citation needed}

]

For Venceslas Kruta, Galatia in central Turkey was an area of dense Celtic settlement.^{[citation needed]}

The Boii tribe gave their name to Bohemia, Bologna and possibly Bavaria, and Celtic artefacts and cemeteries have been discovered further east in what is now Poland and Slovakia. A Celtic coin (Biatec) from Bratislava's mint was displayed on the old Slovak 5-crown coin.^{[citation needed]}

As there is no archaeological evidence for large-scale invasions in some of the other areas, one current school of thought holds that Celtic language and culture spread to those areas by contact rather than invasion.

expedition in Greece and western Anatolia, are well documented in Greek and Latin history.^[124][125]

There are records of Celtic mercenaries in

Ptolemies. Thousands were employed in 283–246 BC and they were also in service around 186 BC. They attempted to overthrow Ptolemy II.^[126]

Insular

Main article: Insular Celts

All living Celtic languages today belong to the

Iron Age Britain and Ireland.^[127] They separated into a Goidelic and a Brittonic branch early on. By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD, the Insular Celts were made up of the Celtic Britons, the Gaels (or Scoti), and the Picts (or Caledonians).^{[citation needed}

]

Linguists have debated whether a Celtic language came to the British Isles and then split, or whether the two branches arrived separately. The older view was that Celtic influence in the Isles was the result of successive migrations or invasions from the European mainland by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over several centuries, accounting for the

Q-Celtic isogloss. This view has been challenged by the hypothesis that the islands' Celtic languages form an Insular Celtic dialect group.^[128] In the 19th and 20th centuries, scholars often dated the "arrival" of Celtic culture in Britain (via an invasion model) to the 6th century BC, corresponding to archaeological evidence of Hallstatt influence and the appearance of chariot burials in what is now England. Cunliffe and Koch propose in their newer 'Celtic from the West' theory that Celtic languages reached the Isles earlier, with the Bell Beaker culture c.2500 BC, or even before this.^[129][130] More recently, a major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain in the Bronze Age from 1300 to 800 BC.^[131] The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul.^[131] From 1000 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain,^[132] but not northern Britain.^[131] The authors see this as a "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain".^[131] There was much less immigration during the Iron Age, so it is likely that Celtic reached Britain before then.^[131] Cunliffe suggests that a branch of Celtic was already spoken in Britain, and the Bronze Age migration introduced the Brittonic branch.^[133]

Like many Celtic peoples on the mainland, the Insular Celts followed an

Bretons (in Brittany) and Cumbrians (in the Old North); and the Gaelic-speaking Irish (in Ireland), Scots (in Scotland) and Manx (on the Isle of Man).^{[citation needed}

]

Classical writers did not call the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland Celtae or Κελτοί (Keltoi),[5]^[8][9] leading some scholars to question the use of the term 'Celt' for the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands.^{[5][8][9][10]} The first historical account of the islands was by the Greek geographer Pytheas, who sailed around what he called the "Pretannikai nesoi" (the "Pretannic isles") around 310–306 BC.^[134] In general, classical writers referred to the Britons as Pretannoi (in Greek) or Britanni (in Latin).^[135] Strabo, writing in Roman times, distinguished between the Celts and Britons.^[136] However, Roman historian Tacitus says the Britons resembled the Celts of Gaul in customs and religion.^[11]

Romanisation

Main articles: Gallo-Roman culture and Romano-British culture

Under Caesar the Romans conquered Celtic Gaul, and from Claudius onward the Roman empire absorbed parts of Britain. Roman local government of these regions closely mirrored pre-Roman tribal boundaries, and archaeological finds suggest native involvement in local government.^{[citation needed]}

The native peoples under Roman rule became Romanised and keen to adopt Roman ways. Celtic art had already incorporated classical influences, and surviving Gallo-Roman pieces interpret classical subjects or keep faith with old traditions despite a Roman overlay.^{[citation needed]}

The Roman occupation of Gaul, and to a lesser extent of Britain, led to Roman-Celtic syncretism. In the case of the continental Celts, this eventually resulted in a language shift to Vulgar Latin, while the Insular Celts retained their language.^{[citation needed]}

There was also considerable cultural influence exerted by Gaul on Rome, particularly in military matters and horsemanship, as the Gauls often served in the Roman cavalry. The Romans adopted the Celtic cavalry sword, the spatha, and Epona, the Celtic horse goddess.^[137][138]

Society

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme

.

To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian Iron Age Celtic social structure based formally on class and kingship, although this may only have been a particular late phase of organisation in Celtic societies. Patron-client relationships similar to those of Roman society are also described by Caesar and others in the Gaul of the 1st century BC.^{[citation needed]}

In the main, the evidence is of tribes being led by kings, although some argue that there is also evidence of

forms of government eventually emerging in areas which had close contact with Rome. Most descriptions of Celtic societies portray them as being divided into three groups: a warrior aristocracy; an intellectual class including professions such as druid, poet, and jurist; and everyone else. In historical times, the offices of high and low kings in Ireland and Scotland were filled by election under the system of tanistry, which eventually came into conflict with the feudal principle of primogeniture in which succession goes to the first-born son.^{[citation needed}

]

Little is known of family structure among the Celts. Patterns of settlement varied from decentralised to urban. The popular stereotype of non-urbanised societies settled in

Slavery, as practised by the Celts, was very likely similar to the better documented practice in ancient Greece and Rome.^[141] Slaves were acquired from war, raids, and penal and debt servitude.^[141] Slavery was hereditary,^[142] though manumission was possible. The Old Irish and Welsh words for 'slave', cacht and caeth respectively, are cognate with Latin captus 'captive' suggesting that the slave trade was an early means of contact between Latin and Celtic societies.^[141] In the Middle Ages, slavery was especially prevalent in the Celtic countries.^[143] Manumissions were discouraged by law and the word for "female slave", cumal, was used as a general unit of value in Ireland.^[144]

There are only very limited records from pre-Christian times written in Celtic languages. These are mostly inscriptions in the Roman and sometimes Greek alphabets. The

In some regards the Atlantic Celts were conservative: for example, they still used chariots in combat long after they had been reduced to ceremonial roles by the Greeks and Romans. However, despite being outdated, Celtic chariot tactics were able to repel the invasions of Britain attempted by Julius Caesar.^[146]

According to Diodorus Siculus:

The Gauls are tall of body with rippling muscles and white of skin and their hair is blond, and not only naturally so for they also make it their practice by artificial means to increase the distinguishing colour which nature has given it. For they are always washing their hair in limewater and they pull it back from the forehead to the nape of the neck, with the result that their appearance is like that of Satyrs and Pans since the treatment of their hair makes it so heavy and coarse that it differs in no respect from the mane of horses. Some of them shave the beard but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks but they let the moustache grow until it covers the mouth.

Clothing

Celtic costumes in Przeworsk culture, third century BC, La Tène period, Archaeological Museum of Kraków

During the later Iron Age the Gauls generally wore long-sleeved shirts or

Archaeological evidence suggests that the pre-Roman Celtic societies were linked to the network of overland trade routes that spanned Eurasia. Archaeologists have discovered large prehistoric trackways crossing bogs in Ireland and Germany. Due to their substantial nature, these are believed to have been created for wheeled transport as part of an extensive roadway system that facilitated trade.^[150] The territory held by the Celts contained tin, lead, iron, silver and gold.^[151] Celtic smiths and metalworkers created weapons and jewellery for international trade, particularly with the Romans.^{[citation needed]}

The myth that the Celtic

Very few reliable sources exist regarding Celtic views on

... a very witty remark is reported to have been made by the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to Julia Augusta. When the empress was jesting with her, after the treaty, about the free intercourse of her sex with men in Britain, she replied: "We fulfill the demands of nature in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest". Such was the retort of the British woman.^[159]

Barry Cunliffe writes that such references are "likely to be ill-observed" and meant to portray the Celts as outlandish "barbarians".^[160] Historian Lisa Bitel argues the descriptions of Celtic women warriors are not credible. She says some Roman and Greek writers wanted to show that the barbarian Celts lived in "an upside-down world [...] and a standard ingredient in such a world was the manly warrior woman".^[161]

The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote in his Politics that the Celts of southeastern Europe approved of male homosexuality. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote in his Bibliotheca historica that although Gaulish women were beautiful, the men had "little to do with them" and it was a custom for men to sleep on animal skins with two younger males. He further claimed that "the young men will offer themselves to strangers and are insulted if the offer is refused". His claim was later repeated by Greco-Roman writers Athenaeus and Ammianus.^[162] David Rankin, in Celts and the Classical World, suggests some of these claims refer to bonding rituals in warrior groups, which required abstinence from women at certain times,^[163] and says it probably reflects "the warlike character of early contacts between the Celts and the Greeks".^[164]

Under

Celtic art is generally used by art historians to refer to art of the La Tène period across Europe, while the

In contrast the less well known but often spectacular art of the richest earlier Continental Celts, before they were conquered by the Romans, often adopted elements of Roman, Greek and other "foreign" styles (and possibly used imported craftsmen) to decorate objects that were distinctively Celtic. After the Roman conquests, some Celtic elements remained in popular art, especially Ancient Roman pottery, of which Gaul was actually the largest producer, mostly in Italian styles, but also producing work in local taste, including figurines of deities and wares painted with animals and other subjects in highly formalised styles. Roman Britain also took more interest in enamel than most of the Empire, and its development of champlevé technique was probably important to the later Medieval art of the whole of Europe, of which the energy and freedom of Insular decoration was an important element. Rising nationalism brought Celtic revivals from the 19th century.^{[citation needed]}

Gallic calendar

The Coligny calendar, which was found in 1897 in Coligny, Ain, was engraved on a bronze tablet, preserved in 73 fragments, that originally was 1.48 metres (4 feet 10 inches) wide and 0.9 metres (2 feet 11 inches) high (Lambert p. 111). Based on the style of lettering and the accompanying objects, it probably dates to the end of the 2nd century.^[167] It is written in Latin inscriptional capitals, and is in Gaulish. The restored tablet contains 16 vertical columns, with 62 months distributed over 5 years.^{[citation needed]}

French archaeologist J. Monard speculated that it was recorded by druids wishing to preserve their tradition of timekeeping in a time when the Julian calendar was imposed throughout the Roman Empire. However, the general form of the calendar suggests the public peg calendars (or parapegmata) found throughout the Greek and Roman world.^[168]

Warfare and weapons

Tribal warfare appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest, the historical record is more of tribes using warfare to exert political control and harass rivals, for economic advantage, and in some instances to conquer territory.^{[citation needed]}

The Celts were described by classical writers such as Strabo, Livy, Pausanias, and Florus as fighting like "wild beasts", and as hordes. Dionysius said that their

"manner of fighting, being in large measure that of wild beasts and frenzied, was an erratic procedure, quite lacking in military science. Thus, at one moment they would raise their swords aloft and smite after the manner of wild boars, throwing the whole weight of their bodies into the blow like hewers of wood or men digging with mattocks, and again they would deliver crosswise blows aimed at no target, as if they intended to cut to pieces the entire bodies of their adversaries, protective armour and all".^[169]

Such descriptions have been challenged.^[170]

Polybius also asserts that certain of the Celts fought naked, "The appearance of these naked warriors was a terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of splendid physique and in the prime of life."[175] According to Livy, this was also true of the Celts of Asia Minor.^[176]

Head hunting

Celts had a reputation as head hunters.^[177] Paul Jacobsthal says, "Amongst the Celts the human head was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world."^[178] Writing in the first century BC, Greek historians Posidonius and Diodorus Siculus said Celtic warriors cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle, hung them from the necks of their horses, then nailed them up outside their homes.^[177] Strabo wrote in the same century that Celts embalmed the heads of their most esteemed enemies in cedar oil and put them on display.^[177] Roman historian Livy wrote that the Boii beheaded a defeated Roman general after the Battle of Silva Litana, covered his skull in gold, and used it as a ritual cup.^[177] Archaeologists have found evidence that heads were embalmed and displayed by the southern Gauls.^[179][180] In another example, at the southern Gaulish site of Entremont, there stood a pillar carved with skulls, within which were niches where human skulls were kept, nailed into position.^[181] Roquepertuse nearby has similar carved heads and skull niches. Many lone carved heads have been found in Celtic regions, some with two or three faces.^[182] Examples include the Mšecké Žehrovice Head and the Corleck Head.

Severed heads are a common motif in Insular Celtic myths, and there are many tales in which 'living heads' preside over feasts or speak prophecies.^[177][182] The beheading game is a motif in Irish myth and Arthurian legend, most famously in the tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where the Green Knight picks up his own severed head after Gawain has struck it off. There are also many legends in Celtic regions of saints who carry their own severed heads. In Irish myth, the severed heads of warriors are called the mast or nuts of the goddess Macha.^[183]

Religion and mythology

Ancient Celtic religion

Like other European Iron Age societies, the Celts practised a polytheistic religion and believed in an afterlife.^[184][185] Celtic religion varied by region and over time, but had "broad structural similarities",^[184] and there was "a basic religious homogeneity" among the Celtic peoples.^[186] Because the ancient Celts did not have writing, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco-Roman accounts, and literature from the early Christian period.^[187]

The names of over two hundred Celtic deities have survived (see list of Celtic deities), although it is likely that many of these were alternative names, regional names or titles for the same deity.^[184] Some deities were venerated only in one region, but others were more widely known.^[184] According to Miranda Aldhouse-Green, the Celts were also animists, believing that every part of the natural world had a spirit.^[187]

The Celts seem to have had a father god, who was often a god of the tribe and of the dead (

Most surviving Celtic mythology belongs to the Insular Celtic peoples: Irish mythology has the largest written body of myths, followed by Welsh mythology. These were written down in the early Middle Ages, mainly by Christian scribes.

The supernatural race called the Tuatha Dé Danann are believed to represent the main Celtic gods of Ireland. Their traditional rivals are the Fomóire, whom they defeat in the Battle of Mag Tuired.^[195] Barry Cunliffe says the underlying structure in Irish myth was a dualism between the male tribal god and the female goddess of the land.^[184] The Dagda seems to have been the chief god and the Morrígan his consort, each of whom had other names.^[184] One common motif is the sovereignty goddess, who represents the land and bestows sovereignty on a king by marrying him. The goddess Brigid was linked with nature as well as poetry, healing and smithing.^[189]

Some figures in medieval Insular Celtic myth have ancient continental parallels: Irish

In Insular Celtic myth, the Otherworld is a parallel realm where the gods dwell. Some mythical heroes visit it by entering ancient burial mounds or caves, by going under water or across the western sea, or after being offered a silver apple branch by an Otherworld resident.^[197] Irish myth says that the spirits of the dead travel to the house of Donn (Tech Duinn), a legendary ancestor; this echoes Caesar's comment that the Gauls believed they all descended from a god of the dead and underworld.^[184]

Insular Celtic peoples celebrated four seasonal festivals, known to the Gaels as

The Roman invasion of Gaul brought a great deal of Celtic peoples into the Roman Empire. Roman culture had a profound effect on the Celtic tribes which came under the empire's control. Roman influence led to many changes in Celtic religion, the most noticeable of which was the weakening of the druid class, especially religiously; the druids were to eventually disappear altogether. Romano-Celtic deities also began to appear: these deities often had both Roman and Celtic attributes, combined the names of Roman and Celtic deities, or included couples with one Roman and one Celtic deity. Other changes included the adaptation of the Jupiter Column, a sacred column set up in many Celtic regions of the empire, primarily in northern and eastern Gaul. Another major change in religious practice was the use of stone monuments to represent gods and goddesses. The Celts had probably only created wooden cult images (including monuments carved into trees, which were known as sacred poles) before the Roman conquest.^[190]

Celtic Christianity

While the regions under Roman rule adopted Christianity along with the rest of the Roman empire, unconquered areas of Ireland and Scotland began to move from

Genetic studies on the limited amount of material available suggest continuity between Iron Age people from areas considered Celtic and the earlier

• List of ancient Celtic peoples and tribes
• Ethnic groups in Europe
• Celtic F.C., soccer club in Glasgow

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• ISBN 978-0-19-991648-1. Archived
  from the original on 16 June 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
• Raftery, Barry. Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994.
  ISBN 0-500-27983-7
  .
• ISBN 978-0-19-518817-2. Archived
  from the original on 3 September 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
• Schiffels, Stephan; et al. (19 January 2016). "Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history".
  PMID 26783965
  .
• ISBN 978-0-09-122220-8
  . Retrieved 10 March 2020.
• Waldman, Carl; Mason, Catherine (2006). "Celts". Encyclopedia of European Peoples.
  ISBN 1-4381-2918-1. Archived
  from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2018.

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Celts.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Celts.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Celt".

• Ancient Celtic music – in the Citizendium
• Essays on Celtiberian topics – in
  University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Ancient Celtic Warriors in History
• Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds
• Discussion – with academic
  In Our Time, 21 February 2002. (Streaming RealPlayer
  format)

Geography

• An interactive map showing the lands of the Celts between 800 BC and 305 AD.
• Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC), showing the Celtic territories
• Map of Celtic lands Archived 25 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine

Organisations

• newworldcelts.org
• XIII. International Congress of Celtic Studies in Bonn