Microsoft Word - The Archaeology Of The Druids

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE DRUIDS. Ronnie Carleton © 2009-10-03

In this research I am dealing with the archaeology of the Druids and evidence of such across the UK and Ireland but also in other parts of Europe, the Near East and Asia. It would seem that many people link directly druids to Ireland, Scotland and Wales and nowhere else. I suggest that you keep an open mind for the moment of The Druids and Celtic History and then later form your own opinion, from an archaeology point of view. PART ONE.

‘IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS;’

Total confusion, myth, fiction and of course everyone who wanted to be a pagan also thought they could be a Druid as well. This new outbreak of Paganism and of course linked by many to being a Druid was in itself no surprise as the new brand of witchcraft shows in the last 30 years that anyone can ‘do it’. Of course 98% of people involved had little or no idea what being a druid was but in fairness they were good at inventing their own agenda which still goes on today, like Alien abduction and the UFO’s brigade of the past who have been more than discredited. When it comes down to fact and evidence they know nothing but once archaeology and history take a hard look at the Druids, such followers seem to know even less and do not like in your face evidence of what was and is, not what they would like it to be. This research is archaeology and history research, of what Druids were, what they did, and what evidence they left behind them.

If we want to understand the Druids and what and who they were, we first need to look hard at The Celts of who they were and where they came from, the settlements and archaeology evidence as well as Celtic art. We people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall think, wrongly, that we are a Celtic People even today. We are not in fact of pure Celtic blood or even with a good DNA link to the Celts of old. If the truth be known today’s ‘Celts’ are a blend of many past tribes and like a well known brand of baked beans it would be impossible to match DNA to a true race. The Isle of Man has its own blending also but DNA traces could be traced to Ireland Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, France, Spain as well as Old Saxon. The massive gold hoard found in the Midlands in September 2009 may not in fact be Saxon and I am off the opinion that is will be Celtic gold and buried there by one raiding party or other in the past. (Carleton 2009) If one looks very closely at the design on the gold it suggests very strongly ‘Celtic’.

Even so it is a massive find but not archaeology find by field workers. That came later once they were on site and in the rush to retrieve any gold left; the main evidence may well have been lost.

What needs now to happen is the interpretation of the art work and the hidden clues within because they will be there. Symbols and signs often suggest clues such as the inter-woven arms above. THE CELTS. WHO WERE THE CELTIC PEOPLE? There is I should point out still much debate on this. I being Irish born, my parents being Irish borne. All my old family traces also being Irish born. My Irish names being Ronan O’Carroll yet does that make me a Celt? “Celts were a mix of Alpine and Nordic, part Beaker, part Battle Ax mingled with Urn people. W Europe Celts pressured by northern Teutonic tribes and eastern Illyrians moved to central England with the Urn people who adopted their finer tools.” Such a bold statement by another Author on Celtic History shows the research here was not complete and much information has been left out. Celts were a pronto historic people of central and Western Europe and linked mainly to the early and later Iron Age. In 400 BC they invaded Italy and sacked Rome, invaded Greece and Antatolia.

Long before Rome ever went out and conquered the known world of that time, the Celtic speakers of Europe shared many close bonds, mainly language, culture, art and customs. They were to be found in Spain, France, and Southern Germany, in the Alpine Lands, Bohemia, Italy, and Balkans and in middle Turkey. (Anatolia) There is evidence that the Romans and Greeks recorded them as ‘Barbarians’ and from an archaeology point of view they have left good physical trace evidence behind. It has been modern archaeology of course that has added to the knowledge of the Celts today, something that the old ‘Classical writers’ left out and were also biased. Today we know a good deal about Celtic society of the past and still making new discoveries of their economy and ritual religions practices as well as their working with metals, as well as gold. Caesar, Polybius and Strabo’s writings however did help in the archaeology understanding along with new archaeology discoveries that have been made. Celts then turned out to be very intelligent, complex and accomplished societies who helped shape Europe. Though some of this may be true the migration of Celtic tribes from Europe took a long time. There may well have been slight interchanges during this migration with other tribal peoples be it in a war or trade. The Celts can be traced back by their roots at least to 2500 BC and a literate civilization well north of the Alps. As time progressed they became known as ‘KELTOI and GALATAE’ by the Greeks and ‘CELTAE and GALLI’ by the Romans and recorded as such in text. The word ‘Celt’ therefore had never been used before this and none of the Classical writers mentioned the word ‘Celt.’ The term Celt was very strictly used and referred to the tribes of Europe, and by that I mean continental Europe, 2000 BC and as for the British Isles and Ireland, the word ‘Celtic’ only came into play in the 1750’s into the early 1800’s. This discovery was all to do with very early linguistics. The problem here at that time that Gaulish and spoken at one time by the ancient Gauls of France was found, though slowly, to be related to the old Irish, and Scots gaelic, Welsh, Cornwall, and even to the Manx language. A new name then was chosen: ‘Celtic’ for all the tribes of people who spoke the language in its many forms. This shows that Classical writing and history runs side by side of archaeology today and both at times may cross over when looking for clues and evidence of any culture, though here it is the Celts. In my opinion we who work in the field of archaeology can say that the Celts were a homogeneous family of peoples who were conscious of an ethnic identity nor had any form of Empire. Carleton © 2009-10-05 “Celts were fusion of Mediterranean, Alpine, Nordic strains including dark Iberian and light hair. Archaeological evidence says they had contact with Iberian Peninsula.”

The above statement above is true in part but confusing in its context. (Carleton © 2009-10-05) “True Celts were either Goidels (Gaels) in Northern Ireland and high Scotland or Brythons /Britons in Wales; close in kin, especially the Belgi. The religious Druids dominated all.” Again this is another broad statement because the evidence lacking and should be Iron Age Celts, the Roman Period, all documentary, linguistic and archaeology evidence and as the Celts left very little ‘written’ language of their past. We can however look for place names and some words in the old Classical texts. Some of the ancient Celtic languages are long extinct as I discovered in parts of Spain or Gaul dialects and only six, if even that, still exist. We must therefore divide the two families into Q-Celtic or Goidelic and P-Celtic or Brithonic. There is in fact, and my opinion holds fast on this, that there is no such thing as “True Celts” and I suggest that there are many affiliations to the Celtic language. I have laid out in a diagram below to show that the language known as ‘Celtic’ has major affiliations to the Indo-European language family.

Anatolian

Greek

Latin IIIyrian Hispanoceltic

Indo European Slavonic Germanic Armenian Tocharian Baltic Celtic IndoIranian Gallic Lepontic Q-Celtic P-Celtic Irish, Scots Manx

Welsh,Cornish Breton

(Carleton © 2009-10-05) THE ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCE. As far as the Celtic culture is concerned there is some very good archaeology evidence and discoveries and I am sure will be more to add to our knowledge, providing it is interpreted rightly and that archaeologists don’t become biased like the Classical writers, which sadly, sometimes can happen. Does not help with truth, fact or knowledge if discovered ‘evidence’ is twisted to suit the aims of someone’s research. Archaeology on its own however can only give us part of the picture on the canvas but for the most when it comes to the Celts most of the discovered evidence points to fact. Putting therefore known and well researched archaeology with well researched history on the Celts should give us some idea of past life in the Celtic world.

It should be noted that the Celts were linked at some time to the Hallstatt culture in Europe and the Iron Age. (Hallstatt was from late Bronze Age and early Iron Age 1200-600 BC) and found in continental Europe. There was two phases of the Hallstatt culture and these are A and B but with the Iron Age beginning with phase C. The site on the shores of Lake Hallstatt was in the west which is in the Austrian Alps and it is here that at vast cemetery with 2000 graves were discovered in the Alpine Valley. There was recorded both cremations and inhumations here along with grave goods some of shows evidence of having being imported and some local. Swords with amber and ivory pommels are a good example which suggests trade with Africa and to the Baltic and local salt mines in the Alpine area that suggests that salt was a source of ‘currency’ at one time. Around the same time, 500 BC> in the zone from the east of France to Bohemia the new Celtic culture was born and named after the La Te’ne archaeology site. By 400BC the La Te’ne Celts had moved in force over the Alps and settled in the Po Valley and sacking Rome around 390BC> with much bloodshed, looting and rape. Other Celtic groups also migrated through the Balkans and into Greece where they may have sacked Delphi in 279 BC. They also had a fixed kingdom in Turkey (Galatia) This Celtic La Te’ne culture spread across France, Spain and the British isles around 400BC and there is evidence of art on metal work discovered at sites. Ireland therefore escaped the Roman invaders and therefore had much to find and also to find about the Celts. Ireland therefore had a cultural golden age from 600-800AD and the Celtic tribes grew here, invaded other parts of British Isles. End of Part 1 Ronnie Carleton © 2009-10-05