The Celtic Gauls

Celtic Paganism

• rustic, villager
  • pagus
• non-Christian, pre-Christian religious practices continuing after Christianity is generally accepted by the Roman Empire.
• Barbarian
  • term for a non-Greek speaker
• heathen
  • someone who lives on the heath
• primitive
  • primal, 1st stage, original, underived

Social organization of the Celts and land distribution

• tribe
  • basic social unit
  • described by Greek and Roman ethnographers
• tribus
  • term used by Romans
  • tri-
    • three
  • -bus
    • dative / abl. plural
• Roman
  • originally 3 tribes
  • 1 section = 1/3 = tribus
  • later came to mean a division of Roman society (35 tribes)
• phyle
  • term used by Greek writers
  • a group united by kinship -->the area inhabited by that group
• 3rd century BC
  • tribes coalesced into civitates (vivitas)
  • tribe retained integrety as the basic social unit
• Irish
  • túath
  • 35 túath in Ireland in the early medaeval period
  • a number would coalesce into a larger group
• Toutiorix
  • toutio
    • earlier form = people
  • rix
    • king
  • teut-on
  • teutonomy
• a number of túatha would coalesce into a provence
  • coíced /coigeth/
  • 1/5
  • ~civitates
• each of the tribes occupied an area called a pagus
  • on open space with fixed boundaries.

pagus / pax

• same root
• pax
  • cessation of quarrels, interruption of war
• pagina - page
• several pagi form a civitas
  • noun refers to the people as well as the area occupied by the people

Bruneax

• tribal terriotry ranged from 60,000 to 200,000 hectares
  • 1 hectare ~2.5 acres
• 60k - 231 square miles, 15 x 15 miles -- smaller end of area
  • 5-hour walk
• Boston proper - < 50 miles^2

1st century BCE

• divided into 16 civitas
• Nora Chat < The Druids -- Helvetii - 4 pagi -->civitas
• civitates had thei own napme, fortified centeres, 'captials'
  • called oppidum
  • Parisii
    • oppidum at Paris
  • Traveri
    • Triere
  • Boiigi
    • Bohemia

archeologiests

• isolated farmsteads
• Pigott - druids
  • villages teh basic unit of the continental Celts, farmsteads in Britain/Ireland
  • towns are the exception --some of them did become oppida
• fortified wood/forest
  • Caesar -- oppidum

attempt to describe space on the basis of archeological discoveries

• given a bunch of huts, and another isolated one, larger, and off the ground
  • king? priest? grainiary?
• every pagus had an oppidum
• every civitas (federation) also had an oppidum
• probably was a marketplace, perhaps also a stronghold
• archeologists are certain that the oppidum of the civitas did serve as a place of defense. Pagi could come together in times of threat

The Celts -- 1991 exhibition

• brief essays on a number of excavated oppida
• most importantly -- represented a closeed-off space
  • political space
  • seeds of organisation
  • sacred space -- sanctuaries found within oppida
    • sacred function might be older function of oppida, older than the political function

mediolanum

• these sites correspond to sites where oppida discovered
• means middle of the plain/opening
• site of religious gathering
  • eg. Milan -- mediolanum older than the oppidum
  • Gorney
• sacred spot, mediolanum, ippidum served other functions, political/economic, developed around that.

patterns in comparative religion

• long before military use, magic defense
• marked out an enclosurep. with a center
• middle, center, navel
  • Mide /mithe/
  • 4 provinces in Ireland
  • 5th one (Meath) where Tara hill is, seat of high kingship of Ireland
  • so loaded as to be taboo
    • medon /methon/ took over middle function

topographical features as sacred spaces

• examples in Ireland
• Marne
  • river name < matrona -- mother goddess, divine mother, teutelary deity
• Sequana
  • goddess of Sequani tribe
    • Sen
• Danube
  • Donau (Greek) < Dôn -- goddess, Tuatha De Danann, tribe of the goddess Danu
  • Welsh, chilren of Dôn
• gods attached to features of landscape
  • rivers
  • fortifications dedicated to various deities -- Lugh
  • hills, promintaries 'sacred hill'
• clues that the Celts invested places with the divine
• religous worship -- nature
  • mediolanum
  • privite sites

Types of sacred enclosures

• built sanctuaries (cf. natural sanctuaries)
• 2 types of sacred enclosures
• Belgic type
  • mostly in Belgic Gaul, NE part of Gaul
  • consists of
    • enclosure
      • the basic cult site among the Celts was delimiated by a ditch, perhaps enclosed by a palasade
      • early La Tene, 500-250 BCE
        • enclosure may have been the only thing that marked it as a cult site
      • témenos (Greek)
        • a cut-off space, space set aside, dedicated to a god or goddess
      • temulum (Latin) -->templum (Latin)
        • cut off, dedicated space
      • in some Indo-European tradition, not a permanent space, but boundaries traced each time
      • lann (Irish)
        • sacred enclosure, grounds around a church
      • llan (Welsh)
        • place set off and often dedicated to a saint
      • temair /tevir/
        • g. singular -- tara
        • no accepted linguisted etymology
        • right kind of site to be a sacred spot
      • would expect to see a reflex in Ireland and Wales
        • llan-fair
          • fair = Mary
      • the enclosure is a cut-off place
      • the palasade serves to concel the enclosure, hdies the sacred space
      • a ditch marks the boundary
    • entrance
      • special
        • go from profame to sacred world
        • Sur-a-rout
          • originally just a break in the ditch marked the entrance
          • the palasade was a secondary development
          • then change it to a bridge over the bridge so there is a reall crossing over
          • then a gate could be added
          • passage from one kind of space to another kind
          • then eventually a portico up over the gate
          • crossed over, entered the sanctuary
          • may not have been different from the porticos with human skulls
            • entremon
            • betuse -- carved skulls in pillars
          • evidence for a cult of the head among Celts
            • atropoten
              • warding off evil function of heads
    • center
      • most sacred spot in the enclosure
      • marked by a post or pit or small cell, chapel, temple
      • best spot -- farthest away from profane world
      • closer to divine, world of gods
      • pits/posts in center may have had astronomical significance
      • pits -- communication with netherworld deities/cthonic deities
    • temple
      • later development
      • Celts didn't make images of their deiteis in their early period.
      • images done under imitation of Romans after conquest of Gaul, part of Romanization
      • cella -- cella
        • small building/structure, might have held something, talismatic objects
        • open gallary built around the cella
        • allowed faithful to circumambulate the tabernacle
        • evidence from early and recent folk tradition
          • circumambulate holy trees, sacred wells
          • Irish -- have to go righthandwise, way the sun goes
          • widdershins -- an insult
        • fanum
          • the whole thing
          • Latin words archeologiest use to describe
          • fanum would be roofed
          • Pocidonius -- evidence
            • Greek Historian 135 BC - 51
            • Celts are off coast of Gaul
            • women of Sanitae
              • no men may land on island
              • every year, remove roof and reroof by ending.
              • anyone who drops their load is torn up and carried around
            • ritual destruction of a sacred site not uncommon in Irish / Welsh literature
            • fierectshanzen -- evidence as well
    • deposites and trophies
• German type -- fierectshanzen

43 - 410

• Romans in England, after 30 year service, retire, Roman citizen
• married British women, etc.
• 2AD -- Romans hiring Germans
• a mix from the very beginning
• moving around a lot, trade, amber from Baltic area, tin

• Belgic type NE part of Gaul
  • 1) enclosure
  • 2) entrance
  • 3) center
  • 4) temple
  • 5) deposits and trophies
• firectschanzen
  • quadrangular enclosure
  • 1st century BCE
  • Ann Ross - Pagan Celts
  • Br. -- Belgic has rich yields of sacrificial offerings, other matter, in ditches (Celtic Gauls)
  • firectschanzen -- almost complete absence of all sacrificial material, animals or remains
  • contradictory evidence
    • L. 25-foot shaft, upright wooden stakes at bottom, surrounded by breakdown of organic material.
  • Piggot -- druids
    • rep. of cult c. -- ritual shafts communicate with underworld deities
    • botris, mundis
    • Daubissa -- pit -- holy offerings, buried
    • continuation of Indo-European idea
  • mundus (Roman)
    • world/universe -- heavens, cosmos, netherworld, underworld
    • located at the place of Roman assemply -- forum
    • covered by a stone, 24 Au. 5 Oct. 8 Nov
    • stone covering removed and fruits thrown into pit as offering
  • Ovid/Plutarc
    • foundation of Rome
    • Romulus dug deep trench, with fruit c., traced tra. with plow.
    • trench -- mundus
    • whole world became a mundus
  • microcosm of trench
    • end
    • center
    • pit
  • firectschanzen -- mostly in southern Gaul -- tribal variation?
  • numerous ritual shafts
    • like Celtic Britain
  • Britain
    • 7' top of pit, 250' deep, top 7' lined with flint
    • Ann Ross - pottery, deer carcasses -- cult of stag
    • 1st fruits, sacrificial animals -- votive offerings
• Celtoligurian sanctuary
  • monum. in stone -- found in Gen.
  • Antremon -- t. p. 37 -- Bruneau
  • -touse -- lintal, 2 colomns, niches for human heads
  • human heads and bird
  • Irish war goddess -- carrion crow
  • Antrem
    • pillar carved with stylized human heads. Inside of oppidum, 15 human heads, some still with iron nails
    • nailing heads ond oorway of house

natural sanctuaries

• in early period, did they have any built structures?
• sacred trees, wells
• La Têne, Switzerland
  • horde of weapons, jewelry, tools, coins
  • base of stream from large pool
    • cult site -- votive deposits
• Caesar
  • areas of Gaul under Roman sway -- lakes auctioned off. Commonly known Celtic practise of water-submersion
• natural clearings
  • nemeton
    • sanctuary in a wood/clearing
    • nemos (Latin)
      • wood/clearing in a wood
  • Strabo (Greek)
    • leaders of Galacians -- conduct business in a drunemeton
      • dru-
        • oak
      • nemeton
        • survives in Irish
          • nemed /neveth/
          • sacred persons -- class of people who are sacred
          • kings, poets, clerics
      • Fotunatus (Latin)
        • vernemeton
          • great shrine
          • ver -- super, great
      • Scotland
        • medio-nemeton
      • Gaul
        • nemeto-durum -- nantere
  • What happened in these sanctuary?
• Piggot
  • past as past -- never know
  • past as known -- however fragmentary
  • past as wished-for -- fill in blanks
• wells
  • similar to pools/lakes
    • those of insular Celts known by Irish/Welsh literature
      • Well of Nechtan 00 only he and his 3 cupbearers can approach it. Anyone else will suffor losst of sight -- shattered eyeballs.
      • Boand -- pride -- approached well. It rose up against her. Destroyed 1 hand, eye, and thighs, and pursued her has far as the sea -- Boyne River
      • cupbearer
• rivers
  • source of (inspired) wisdom (seer)
  • dinsheanchas -- place lore
  • otherworld river, hazelnut tree, eaten by salmon
• after Christianity -- wells, cults of Saints
  • pilgrimages to sites still common
  • trees with holy wells -- hazel/ash
  • circumambulate wells -- approach syaing rosary 3 times, elave something, pieces of cloth tied to trees
  • image in stone at well, rob cross on stone
• cauldron
  • portable pool
  • Strabo
    • 1st century BCE, p. of war, throats slit over sacred cauldron, drowing in cauldrons.
    • hanging, burning, drowning
  • Welsh
    • spoils of Anofn -- feature of otherworld -- huge cauldron where spoils are
    • one of e. ref. to Arthur
    • raded otherworld to acquire magical things
    • rules of en. weapon if not immersed no one can take or ostr.
  • cauldrons at bottom of wells/laeks -- pool within a pool
  • shaft, pit, well, mundus -- points of contact with otherworld
• Findon, West Sussix -- Ross -- Pagan Celts