Celtic Identity
Introduction
The term Celt first appeared as part of the historical record during the late sixth century B.C. through the works of a Greek geographer who referred to them as a “barbarian” group of people. Approximately one century later another geographer wrote that the source of the Danube River was in the Celts’ territory (Dietler 1994, 585). The Breton cleric Pezronwas also a part of those people who introduced the term Celt in historical records when in 1705 he stated that the Breton and Welsh languages had a common origin, that is, the Celtic origin. This link was later extended to the Scots, Irish, and Cornish (Grant et al. 2015, 598). It is on this basis that the European people are said to have a common Celtic origin.
Construction of the Celtic Identities
Archaeologists constructed the Celtic identities based on linguistics and material culture. The construction of the Celtic identities through linguistics analysis focuses on the linguistic development and the Celtic languages. Material culture, on the other hand, uses stylistic and distribution analysis to examine trade routes, dates, and any other Iron Age community interactions (Donnelly 2014, 8). Although there have been debates as to the existence and origin of the Celtic communities, the history of materials and languages linked to ancient Celts has provided evidence for their existence. There was also another construction based on the geographic space occupied by the Celts which divided them into the Insular Celts and the Continental Celts. Insular Celts cover those from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales while the Continental Celts comprise the rest of mainland Europe (Donnelly 2014, 11).
Linguistics Analysis
The initial understanding of the Celtic identity was constructed using linguistic characteristics. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, Edward Lhuyd and Paul-YevesPezron conducted studies into the relationship between the Celtic people and the Celtic languages. Pezron focused on the Breton language as the remnant of the pre-Roman languages. Based on this reference point he constructed the link to the Celtae. Based on the construction by Pezron, a line was created showing how the Celtic language was introduced into Britain and to the Welsh (Donnelly 2014, 35). This view supports other traditional archaeological views of a Celtic homeland in Central Europe. The studies conducted by Lhuyd revealed that the languages of Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Scots, and Irish were Celtic. The construction by Lhuyd revealed the languages were not just ancient but also formed the basis for the modern Celtic languages. The foundation created by Pezron and Lhuydensured that the idea of a Celtic identity had taken shape as different studies were conducted in the late 18th century surrounding the ideas shaped by Pezron and Lhuyd (Donnelly 2014, 36).
There have been different sources of evidence that have been used by archaeologists to support their construction of Celtic identities. Regarding linguistic analysis, archaeologists used languages and names as evidence of the existence of the Celtic identities. The beginning of the 18th century was characterized by the rise of an assumption that all Celts shared a common language. This assumption meant that all Celts were linked to a single ethnicity. Linguistic construction has shown that the Celtic languages spread from Britain and Ireland to other areas through farming. As farming became widespread in Europe so did the spread of the Celtic languages (Donnelly 2014, 40). The linguistic evidence to support this position was acquired from places, personal names, and ethnonyms. The spoken languages were also used as evidence together with epigraphic sources such as ancient inscriptions and writings.
Material Culture
The study of the history of the Celts through material culture has focused on the weapons and metal artifacts that were used by the Celtic communities. Archaeologists have focused on the material embellishment and design that were used in making these materials in order to understand the culture and the ways of the Celtics (Murray and Evans 2008, 199). One of the aspects of material culture that has been used in constructing Celtic identity has been art. Archaeologists conducted studies aiming to identify the distinct features of art associated with the Celtic. John Kemble suggested that one of the distinctive features of Celtic art was that it had a trumpet shape or a trumpet scroll (Donnelly 2014, 48). One of Kemble’s colleagues, Augustus Franks, identified the trumpet shape as Late Celtic because it differed from Roman art and it differed from the designs that were common in the Bronze Age.
There were other studies by archaeologists that used specific artifact types to understand the material representations of certain people and also to identify their migratory routes. This led to the division of the European Iron Age into two periods namely the Hallstatt and La Tene periods (Dietler 1994, 586). Hans Hildebrant later started the idea that the artifacts classified as belonging to the La Tene period were a representation of the Celts. Otto Tischler was able to identify different artifacts such as swords that had certain characteristics that were iconic of the La Tene period material culture. The designs, as well as engravings on the artifacts collected from Central Europe sites of La Tene and Hallstatt, led to the development of the Iron Age Celtic identity (Donnelly 2014, 49).
Other than art, other aspects of material culture that have been instrumental in constructing Celtic identity include historic texts and physical characteristics such as the size and shape of skulls. There are several historical texts that describe the Celts such as Herodotus and Julius Caesar (Murray and Evans 2008, 106).
Conclusion
There are debates about the existence of the Celts and the construction of the Celtic identity by archaeologists. However, there has been sufficient evidence pointing towards the existence of the Celtic communities and further showing the Celts as the origin of the European people. The Celtic identity was constructed through a study of languages and material culture. The Celtic languages can be traced to the modern-day European languages while materials such as art and historical texts have been useful evidence in tracing the existence of Celts.
References
Dietler, M 1994, “Our ancestors the Gauls”: Archaeology, ethnic nationalism and the manipulation of Celtic identity in modern Europe, American Anthropologist, 96(3), 584-605.
Donnelly, H 2014, The Celtic question, The University of Sydney.
Grant, J, Gorin, S, Fleming, N 2015, Thearchaeologycoursebook: An introduction to themes, sites, methods and skills, Routledge.
Murray, T and Evans, C 2008, Histories of archaeology: A reader in the history of archaeology, Oxford University Press.
