Early European literature, or rather folklore, learned a lot from the works of this ancient people. The heroes of many medieval legends - Tristan and Isolde, Prince Eisenhertz (Iron Heart) and the magician Merlin - all of them were born in the fantasy of the Celts. In their heroic sagas, recorded in the 8th century by Irish monks, fabulous Grail knights such as Persifal and Lancelot appear. Today, little is written about the life of the Celts and the role they played in the history of Europe. They were more fortunate in modern entertainment literature, mainly in French comics.
The Celts are painted, like the Vikings, as barbarians in horned helmets, who like to drink and feast on boar meat. Let this image of a rude, albeit cheerful, carefree savage remain on the conscience of the creators of today's tabloid literature. A contemporary of the Celts, Aristotle, called them "wise and skillful."
Wise and skillful
The skill of the Celts is confirmed today by archaeological finds. As early as 1853, a horse harness was found in Switzerland; the art with which its details were performed made scientists doubt: was it really made in ancient times by the Celts or is it a modern fake? However, skeptical voices have long ceased. According to modern researchers, Celtic masters were capable of the finest execution of magnificent artistic designs.
The German researcher Helmut Birkhan, in his book on Celtic culture, speaks of the genius of the then technicians who invented the joiner's workbench. But they also own a much more important business - they were the first to establish salt mines and the first to learn how to obtain iron and steel from iron ore, and this determined the beginning of the end of the Bronze Age in Europe. About 800 B. C. bronze in Central and Western Europe is being replaced by iron.
Birkhan, studying and analyzing the latest trophies of archeology, comes to the conclusion that the Celts, who at first settled in the center of Europe, in the Alps, generous with fossils, quickly accumulated wealth, created well-armed detachments that influenced politics in the ancient world, developed crafts, and their masters possessed high technologies for that time.
Here is a list of the pinnacles of production that were only available to Celtic craftsmen.
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“They were the only ones among other peoples who made bracelets from molten glass that had no seams.
- The Celts obtained copper, tin, lead, mercury from deep-lying deposits.
“Their horse-drawn carriages were the best in Europe.
- Celts-metallurgists were the first to learn how to obtain iron and steel.
- Celtic blacksmiths were the first to forge steel swords, helmets and chain mail - the best weapons in Europe at that time.
“They mastered the washing of gold on the Alpine rivers, the production of which was measured in tons.
On the territory of modern Bavaria, the Celts erected 250 religious temples and built 8 large cities. 650 hectares occupied, for example, the city of Kelheim, another city, Heidengraben, was two and a half times larger - 1600 hectares, Ingolstadt stretched out on the same area (here are the modern names of German cities that arose on the Celtic sites). It is known what the name of the main city of the Celts, in the place of which Ingolstadt grew up, was called - Manching. It was surrounded by a rampart seven kilometers long. This ring was geometrically perfect. The ancient builders changed the course of several streams for the sake of the accuracy of the circular line.
The Celts are a large people. In the first millennium BC, it occupied the territory from the Czech Republic (according to the modern map) to Ireland. Turin, Budapest and Paris (then called Lutetia) were founded by the Celts.
Inside the Celtic cities, revival reigned. Professional acrobats and strongmen entertained the townspeople on the streets. Roman authors speak of the Celts as natural horsemen and all as one emphasize the panache of their women. They shaved off their eyebrows, wore narrow belts that accentuated their slender waists, adorned their faces with headbands, and almost each had amber beads. Massive bracelets and neck rings of gold rang at the slightest movement. Hairstyles resembled towers - for this, the hair was moistened with lime water. Fashion in clothes - bright and colorful in the oriental way - changed frequently. Men all wore mustaches and gold rings around their necks, women wore bracelets on their legs, which were shackled at a girl's age.
The Celts had a law - you have to be thin, and therefore many went in for sports. Those who did not fit the "standard" belt were fined.
The customs in everyday life were peculiar. In military campaigns, homosexuality was the norm. The woman enjoyed great freedom, it was easy for her to get a divorce and take back the dowry she had brought with her. Each tribal prince kept his own squad, which protected his interests. Even such a small reason could be a frequent reason for fights - which of the elders will get the first, best piece of deer or wild boar. It was a matter of honor for the Celts. Such contentions are reflected in many Irish sagas.
The Celts could not be called one nation, they remained fragmented into separate tribes, despite the common territory (more than one million square kilometers), a common language, a single religion, and trade interests. Tribes of about 80,000 operated separately.
Travel to the past
Imagine that, wearing a helmet equipped with a miner's lamp, you descend an incline into the depths of a mountain, into a mine where the Celts have mined salt since time immemorial in the eastern Alps. The journey into the past has begun.
A quarter of an hour later, a transverse excavation is encountered, it, like the drift along which we walked, is trapezoidal in section, but all four sides of it are five times smaller, only a child can crawl into this hole. And once an adult passed here in full growth. The rock in salt mines is very plastic and over time it seems to heal the wounds inflicted on it by people.
Now salt is not mined in the mine, the mine has been turned into a museum where you can see and learn how people once got here the salt that everyone needs so much. Archaeologists are working nearby, they are fenced off from sightseers by an iron grate with the inscription: “Attention! Research is in progress. The lamp illuminates a sloping wooden tray that goes down, through which you can sit down to the next road.
The mine is located a few kilometers from Salzburg (translated as Salt Fortress). The city's history museum is overflowing with finds from mines scattered around the area called the Salzkammergut. Salt from this region of the Alps was delivered thousands of years ago to all corners of Europe. The peddlers carried it on their backs in the form of 8-10-kilogram cylinders lined with wooden slats and tied with ropes. In exchange for salt, valuables from all over Europe flocked to Salzburg (in the museum you can see a stone knife made in Scandinavia - the mineral composition proves this - or jewelry made from Baltic amber). This is probably why the city in the eastern foothills of the Alps has been famous since ancient times for its wealth, fairs and holidays. They still exist - the whole world knows the annual Salzburg festivals,every theater, every orchestra dreams of visiting.
Findings in salt mines, step by step, reveal to us a distant and largely mysterious world. Wooden shovels, but at the same time iron picks, leg wraps, the remains of woolen sweaters and fur caps - all this was found by archaeologists in long-abandoned adits. A medium containing excess salt prevents the decomposition of organic materials. Therefore, scientists were able to see the cut ends of the sausage, boiled beans and fossilized digestive waste. The loungers say that people did not leave the mine for a long time, they slept next to the face. According to rough estimates, about 200 people worked in the mine at the same time. In the dim light of the torches, people smoked with soot cut down the salt blocks, which were then pulled to the surface on a sled. The sleigh slid along the raw timber paths.
Drifts cut by people connect shapeless caves created by nature itself. According to rough estimates, people passed more than 5500 meters of drifts and other workings in the mountain.
Among the finds made by modern archaeologists in mines, there are no human remains. Only in the chronicles dating back to 1573 and 1616, it is said that two corpses were found in the caves, their tissues, like those of mummies, were almost fossilized.
Well, those finds that now come to archaeologists often make you wonder. For example, the exhibit under the code "B 480" resembles a finger cot made from a pig's bladder. The open end of this small pouch could be tightened with an attached cord. What is it - scientists wonder - is it a protection for a wounded finger or a small wallet for valuables?
Sacred plant - mistletoe
"When studying the history of the Celts," says the historian Otto-Hermann Frey of Marburg, "surprises fall like raindrops." A monkey skull was found in the Irish cult site "Emine Maha". How did he get there and what role did he play? In 1983, a board with a text fell into the hands of archaeologists. It was partially deciphered and it was understood that this was a dispute between two groups of rival sorcerers.
Another sensational find in recent months has added speculation about what the spiritual culture of the Celts is. A stylized, taller than life-size human figure made of sandstone was discovered 30 kilometers from Frankfurt. The shield is in the left hand, the right is pressed to the chest, a ring is visible on one of the fingers. Neck jewelry complements his costume. On the head is something like a turban in the shape of a mistletoe leaf - a plant sacred to the Celts. The weight of this figure is 230 kilograms. What does she represent? So far, experts adhere to two opinions: either it is a figure of some kind of deity, or it is a prince, endowed with religious duties, perhaps, the main priest - a druid, as the Celtic clergy are called.
I must say that there is no other European people who would deserve such gloomy assessments when it comes to the druids, their magic and commitment to human sacrifice. They killed prisoners and criminals of the same tribe, they were also judges, were engaged in healing, taught children. They also played an important role as prophets of the future. Together with the tribal nobility, the Druids constituted the upper stratum of society. After the victory over the Celts, the Roman emperors made them their tributaries, banned human sacrifice, deprived the Druids of many privileges, and they lost that aura of significance that surrounded them. True, for a long time they still existed as itinerant diviners. And even now in Western Europe you can find people who claim that they have inherited the wisdom of the Druids. Books like "The Teachings of Merlin - 21 Lectures on the Practical Magic of the Druids" or "The Celtic Tree Horoscope" are published. Winston Churchill in 1908 entered the circle of followers of the Druids.
Not a single grave of a druid has yet been encountered by archaeologists, so information about the religion of the Celts is extremely scarce. It is therefore understandable with what interest historians study the figure found not far from Frankfurt in the hope that science will advance in this area.
A statue with a turban apparently stood in the center of the burial complex, which is an earthen hill, leading to it a 350-meter alley, along the edges of which were deep ditches. In the depths of the hill, the remains of a man about 30 years old were found. The burial took place 2500 years ago. Four restorers carefully freed the skeleton from the soil and moved it to the laboratory, where they gradually remove the remaining soil and clothing. One can understand the impatience of scientists when they saw the complete coincidence of the equipment of the deceased with the one depicted on the statue: the same neck decoration, the same shield and the same ring on the finger. One might think that the ancient sculptor repeated the appearance of the deceased as he was on the day of the funeral.
Workshop of Europe and dark rituals
Elizabeth Knoll, a historian dealing with the prehistory of Europe, highly appreciates the level of development of the Celts: "They did not know the written language, did not know the all-encompassing state organization, but nevertheless they were already on the verge of a high culture."
At least in technical and economic terms, they were far superior to their northern neighbors - the Germanic tribes who occupied the swampy right bank of the Rhine and partially populated the south of Scandinavia. Only thanks to the neighborhood with the Celts, these tribes, who did not know the time count, or the fortified cities, were mentioned in history shortly before the birth of Christ. And the Celts in these times just reached the zenith of their power. Trading life was in full swing south of the Main River, cities, large for that time, were erected, in which forges rang, potters' circles spun, and money flowed from buyers to sellers. This was a level that the Germans of that time did not know.
The Celts raised their ritual temple in the Carinthian Alps near Magdalensberg by 1000 meters. In the vicinity of the temple, you can still find slag dumps of two hundred meters in length, three meters in width - these are the remains of the processing of iron ore. There were blast furnaces, in which ore was turned into metal, there were also forges, where shapeless castings, the so-called "kritz" - a mixture of metal and liquid slag - became steel swords, spearheads, helmets or tools. Nobody in the Western world did this then. Steel products enriched the Celts.
An experimental reproduction of Celtic metallurgy by the Austrian scientist Harold Straube showed that in these first furnaces it was possible to bring the temperature up to 1400 degrees. By controlling temperature and skillfully handling molten ore and coal, ancient craftsmen obtained either soft iron or hard steel at will. Straub's publication on "Ferrum Noricum" (of the "Northern Iron") prompted further research into Celtic metallurgy. The inscriptions discovered by the archaeologist Gernot Riccocini speak of a lively steel trade with Rome, which bought wholesale steel in the form of ingots resembling bricks or strips, and through the hands of Roman merchants this metal went to the weapons workshops of the eternal city.
The almost manic passion of the Celts to sacrifice human lives seems all the more monstrous against the background of brilliant achievements in the field of technology. This theme is a common thread in many works of the time of the Caesars. But who knows, maybe the Romans deliberately focus on this in order to gloss over their own crimes in the wars they waged in Europe, for example, in the Gallic one?
Caesar describes the group burnings used by the druids. The already mentioned researcher Birkhan reports on the custom of drinking wine from a goblet made from the enemy's skull. There are documents saying that the druids guessed the future by the type of blood flowing from a person's abdomen after being struck with a dagger. The same priests instilled in the people fear of ghosts, the transmigration of souls, the revival of dead enemies. And in order to prevent the arrival of the defeated enemy, the Celt decapitated his corpse or cut it to pieces.
The Celts treated the deceased relatives with the same mistrust and tried to prevent the deceased from returning. In the Ardennes, graves have been found in which 89 people were buried, but 32 skulls are missing. In Dürrenberg, a Celtic burial was found, in which the deceased was completely "dismantled": the sawn-off pelvis lies on his chest, the head is separated and stands next to the skeleton, there is no left hand at all.
In 1984, excavations in England brought scientists evidence of how ritual murder took place. Archaeologists are in luck. The victim was lying in a soil saturated with water, and therefore the soft tissues did not decompose. The murdered man's cheeks were clean-shaven, nails well-groomed, teeth too. The date of this man's death is approximately 300 BC. Having examined the corpse, it was possible to restore the circumstances of this ritual murder. First, the victim received a blow to the skull with an ax, then he was strangled with a noose and, finally, his throat was cut. Mistletoe pollen was found in the stomach of the unfortunate - this suggests that the druids were involved in the sacrifice.
English archaeologist Barry Gunlife notes that all sorts of prohibitions and taboos played an exorbitant role in the life of the Celts. The Irish Celts, for example, did not eat the meat of cranes, the British Celts did not eat hares, chickens, and geese, and certain things could only be done with the left hand.
Each curse, and even a wish, according to the Celts, had magical power and therefore inspired fear. They were also afraid of curses, as if uttered by the deceased. This also pushed to separate the head from the body. The skulls of enemies or their embalmed heads adorned temples, were exhibited as trophies of veterans, or were kept in their chests.
Irish sagas, ancient Greek and Roman sources speak of ritual cannibalism. The ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo writes that the sons ate the meat of their deceased father.
An ominous contrast is archaic religiosity and high technical skill for those times. "Such a diabolical synthesis," concludes Haffer, a researcher of the customs of ancient people, "we find only among the Maya and Aztecs."
Where did they come from?
Who were the Celts? Scientists learn a lot about the life of ancient people by studying their funeral ritual. About 800 years ago BC, the inhabitants of the northern Alps burned their dead and buried them in urns. Most researchers agree that the Celts' ritual of burial in urns was slowly replaced by the burial of not ashes, but bodies, however, as already mentioned, mutilated. Eastern motives are guessed in the clothes of the buried: sharp-toed shoes, the nobility wore wide trousers. We must also add round conical hats, which are still worn by Vietnamese peasants. The art is dominated by ornament of animal figures and grotesque decorations. According to the German historian Otto-Hermann Frey, there is an undeniable Persian influence in the clothing and art of the Celts. There are other signs pointing to the East as the homeland of the Celtic ancestors. The Druidic teachings about the rebirth of the dead are reminiscent of Hinduism.
There is an ongoing debate among modern specialists as to whether the Celts were born horsemen. Supporters of an affirmative answer to the question turn their gaze to the inhabitants of the European steppes - the Scythians - these hunters and born equestrians - did the ancestors of the Celts come from there? One of the authors of this point of view, Gerhard Herm, commented on it with such a joking question: "Are we all Russians?" - meaning by this the hypothesis according to which the settlement of Indo-European peoples came from the center of Eastern Europe.
The first material signal of their presence in Europe was given by the Celts in 550 B. C. (At that time, Rome was just forming, the Greeks were busy with their Mediterranean, the Germans had not yet emerged from the prehistoric darkness.) Then the Celts declared themselves, creating gravestones in the Alps. hills for the repose of their princes. The hills were up to 60 meters high, which allowed them to survive to our times. The burial chambers were full of rare things: Etruscan castanets, a bronze bed, ivory furniture. In one of the graves, the largest (for ancient times) bronze vessel was found. It belonged to Prince Fix and held 1100 liters of wine. The prince's body was wrapped in a thin red cloth. The strands are 0.2 millimeters thick and are comparable to those of horsehair. Nearby stood a bronze vessel with 400 liters of honey and a wagon assembled from 1,450 parts.
The remains of this prince were transported to the Stuttgart Museum. The 40-year-old ancient leader was 1.87 meters tall, the bones of his skeleton are striking, they are extremely massive. By order of the museum, the Skoda plant undertook to make a copy of a bronze vessel in which honey was poured. The thickness of its walls is 2.5 millimeters. However, the secret of the ancient metallurgists was never discovered: among modern craftsmen, bronze was constantly torn when making a vessel.
Trade routes
The skilled Celts were of interest to the Greeks as trading partners. Ancient Greece by that time colonized the mouth of the Rhone and named the port founded here Massilia (now Marseille). Around the 6th century BC. the Greeks began to climb up the Rhone, selling luxury goods and wine.
What could the Celts offer them in return? The hottest goods were blonde slaves, metal and delicate fabrics. Moreover, on the way of the Greeks, the Celts created, as they would now say, "specialized markets." In Manching it was possible to exchange Greek goods for metal products made of iron and steel. In Hochdorf, Celtic textile workers offered their wares. Magdalensberg not only produced steel, but also traded alpine stones - rock crystal and other rare natural wonders.
Celtic tin, an indispensable element in the smelting of bronze, enjoyed particular attention of Greek merchants. Tin mines were only in Cornwell (England). The entire Mediterranean world bought this metal here.
In the 6th century BC, the brave Phoenicians reached the shores of Britain across the Atlantic, overcoming six thousand kilometers of the sea route. The Greeks in a different way got to the "tin islands", as England was then called. They moved north along the Rhone, then crossed into the Seine. In Lutetia (in Paris), tribute was paid for traveling through Celtic territory.
Arrows with three points, like a fork or a trident, found on the banks of the Rhone serve as confirmation of such distant trade contacts. This weapon is typical of the Scythians. Maybe they accompanied merchant ships as guards? And in ancient Athens, the Scythians served as hired law enforcement officers.
Industry and trade highly, by the standards of the time, raised the economy of the Celts. The princes of the tribes directed the population towards the production of products that were marketed. Those who could not master the craft, just like slaves, did auxiliary and hard work. The mentioned salt mine in Hollein is an example of the conditions in which there were people doomed to slave labor.
A joint expedition of four German universities investigated the finds in the salt mines, where the lower strata of Celtic society worked. Her conclusions are as follows. Remains of bonfires in the workings speak of a "big open fire". Thus, the movement of air in the mine was excited, and people could breathe. The fire was made in a mine specially dug for this purpose.
Toilets found underground say the salt miners had persistent indigestion.
Mostly children worked in the mines. The shoes found there indicate the age of their owners - six-year-olds also worked here.
Invasion south
Such conditions could not fail to generate discontent. Researchers are convinced that from time to time, the Druid Empire was shaken by serious riots. Archaeologist Wolfgang Kittig believes that it all started with the peasants' demand for freedom. And around the 4th century BC. the tradition of lavish funerals is disappearing, and the entire Celtic culture is undergoing radical changes - the big difference between the standard of living of the poor and the rich has disappeared. The dead were again burned.
At the same time, there is a rapid expansion of the territory occupied by the Celtic tribes, who moved to the south and southeast of Europe. In the 4th century BC. from the north they crossed the Alps, and before them appeared the paradise beauty of South Tyrol and the fertile valley of the Po River. This was the land of the Etruscans, but the Celts had a military superiority, thousands of their two-wheeled carts stormed the Brenner Pass. A special technique was used in the cavalry: one horse carried two riders. One steered the horse, the other threw spears. In close combat, both dismounted and fought with lances with helical points, so that the wounds were large and ripped apart, as a rule, taking the enemy out of the battle.
In 387 B. C. The colorfully dressed tribes of the Celts led by Brennius began their march on the capital of the Roman Empire. The siege of the city lasted seven months, after which Rome surrendered. 1000 pounds of gold tribute paid by residents of the capital. "Woe to the vanquished!" cried Brennius, throwing his sword onto the scales that measured the precious metal. “It was the deepest humiliation that Rome suffered in its entire history,” - this is how historian Gerhard Herm assessed the victory of the Celts.
The booty disappeared in the temples of the victors: according to the laws of the Celts, a tenth of all military booty was supposed to be given to the druids. Over the centuries that have passed since the Celts appeared in Europe, tons of precious metal have accumulated in the temples.
Geopolitically and militarily, the Celts had reached the pinnacle of their power by this time. Their tribes ruled from Spain to Scotland, from Tuscany to the Danube. Some of them reached Asia Minor and founded the city of Ankara - the current capital of Turkey there.
Returning to long-lived areas, the druids renovated their temples or built new ones, more richly decorated. In the Bavarian-Czech space, more than 300 places of worship were erected in the third century BC. All records in this sense were broken by the burial temple in Ribemont; it was considered a central cult place and occupied an area of 150 by 180 meters. There was a small area (10 by 6 meters) where archaeologists found more than 10,000 human bones. Archaeologists believe that this is evidence of a one-time sacrifice of about a hundred people. The Druids of Ribemont built monstrous towers from the bones of the human body - from legs, arms, etc.
Not far from present-day Heidelberg, archaeologists have discovered "sacrificial mines." A person tied to a log was thrown down. The found mine had a depth of 78 meters. Archaeologist Rudolf Raiser called the Druidic barbarism "the most terrible monuments in history."
And yet, despite these inhuman customs, the Celtic world flourished again in the second and first centuries BC. They built large cities north of the Alps. Each such fortified settlement could accommodate up to ten thousand inhabitants. Money appeared - coins made according to the Greek model. Many families were well off. The tribes were headed by a man chosen for a year from the local nobility. The English researcher Cunliffe thinks that the entry of the oligarchy into government "was one of the important steps on the road to civilization."
In 120 B. C. the first messenger of misfortune appeared. Hordes of barbarians - Cimbri and Teutons - from the north crossed the border along the Main and invaded the lands of the Celts. The Celts hastily built earthen ramparts and other defensive structures to shelter people and livestock. But the attack from the north was incredible. The trade routes passing through the alpine valleys were cut off by the advancing from the north, the Germans ruthlessly plundered villages and cities. The Celts retreated to the southern Alps, but this once again threatened a powerful Rome.
Rival Rome
As already mentioned, the Celts did not know writing. Perhaps the druids are to blame. They argued that letters destroy the sanctity of spells. However, when it was necessary to secure an agreement between the Celtic tribes or with other states, the Greek alphabet was used.
The Druid caste, despite the fragmentation of the people - in Gaul alone there were more than a hundred tribes - acted in concert. Once a year, the Druids gathered together to discuss burning issues that were not limited to the religious sphere. The meeting also enjoyed high authority in secular affairs. For example, druids could stop a war. Very little is known about the structure of the Celtic religion, as already noted. But there are suggestions that the supreme deity was a woman, that the people worshiped the forces of nature and believed in the afterlife and even in the return to life, but in a different way.
Roman writers left in their memoirs the impressions of contacts with druids. These testimonies are mixed between respect for the knowledge of the priests and aversion to the bloodthirsty essence of Celtic magic. For 60 years before the new era, the Arch Druid Diviciacus peacefully conducted conversations with the Roman philosopher-historian Cicero. And his contemporary Julius Caesar two years later went to war against the Celts, capturing Gaul and the territory of present-day Belgium, Holland and partly Switzerland, later he conquered part of Britain.
Caesar's legions destroyed 800 cities, according to the latest estimates of French scientists, the legionnaires exterminated or took into slavery about two million people. Celtic tribes in western Europe have faded from the historical scene.
Already at the beginning of the war, during the attack on the Celtic tribes, the number of victims among them amazed even the Romans: out of 360,000 people, only 110,000 survived. In the Senate of Rome, Caesar was even accused of exterminating the people. But all this criticism was drowned in the stream of gold pouring from the fronts to Rome. Legions plundered treasures accumulated in places of worship. Caesar doubled his salaries for life to his legionaries, and built an arena for gladiatorial battles for 100 million sesterces for the citizens of Rome. Archaeologist Haffner writes: "Before the military campaign, Caesar himself was all in debt, after the campaign he became one of the richest citizens of Rome."
The Celts resisted Roman aggression for six years, but the last leader of the Gallic Celts fell, and the end of this shameful war of ancient Rome was the collapse of the Celtic world. The discipline of Roman legionnaires from the south, and the pressure from the north of the Germanic barbarians, ground the culture of the metallurgists and salt miners. In the territories of Spain, England and France, the Celts lost their independence. Only in the distant corners of Europe - in Brittany, on the English peninsula of Cornwell and in part of Ireland, the Celtic tribes survived, escaping from assimilation. But then they adopted the language and culture of the Anglo-Saxons who came. Nevertheless, the Celtic dialect and myths about the heroes of this people have survived to this day.
True, even in the 1st century AD, wandering Druids, carriers of the Celtic spirit and ideas of resistance, were persecuted by the Roman state for "political reasons."
In the works of the Roman authors Polybius and Diodorus, the Roman Empire is glorified as the pioneer of civilization, and the Celts in them are assigned the role of stupid people, nothing but war and the cultivation of arable land, who cannot. Authors of a later time echo the Roman chronicles: the Celts are invariably gloomy, clumsy and superstitious. And only modern archeology has refuted these ideas. Not the pitiful inhabitants of the huts were defeated by Caesar, but the political and economic rivals who, several centuries earlier, were far ahead of Rome in technical terms.
However, the panorama of Celtic life is far from being fully open today; it still has many blank spots. Many places where Celtic culture once flourished have not yet been explored by archaeologists.
G. Alexandrovsky.
Based on materials from the magazine "Der Spiegel".