Abstract The Golasecca Celtic Civilization (GCC) developed in the Italian Iron Age, between the 9th and 4th centuries BCE, and is characterized by the predominant use of cremation as a funerary ...ritual in the Italian area. Reconstructing the steps of the cremation ritual in archaeology is a complex challenge, as many anthropic actions leave only faint traces in cremated remains. Within the funerary rituals of prehistoric and protohistoric Italy, the skull has received particular attention from numerous archaeological cultures and civilizations. The context of via Marconi 2020 (Sesto Calende, Varese, northern Italy) has allowed hinting at this practice also in GCC, through the anthropological analysis of cremated remains found in two different but spatially close tombs. The analysis of the cremated remains identified the selection of some elements of the skull of an adult individual and the post‐cranium of a non‐adult individual in the first tomb, and the presence of only the skull of the non‐adult individual in the second tomb. The possibility of a ritual attention of the GCC reserved for the skull has been proven for the first time thanks to the analysis of these subjects. This work provides new data on funerary ritual behaviors of the GCC, allowing for a better understanding within the Italian and European panorama.
ABSTRACT One historical actor in Antiquity are the populations of Western-Central Europe, commonly called ‘Celts’ by classical authors. Themselves (mostly) illiterate until approximately the 1st ...century BC/AD, reports about them, written by foreigners like Polybius, Caesar, Diodorus and others have survived. The study of ‘Celtic’ societies thus can hardly rely on classical historiography, but is mainly based on archaeology. Historical sources and archaeology are difficult to reconcile, even if common themes can be identified in both types of sources. This article examines the differences, but also similarities between the various ‘Celtic’ societies of Europe and their neighbours, and the use of the term ‘the Celts’. The case study of the excavations at Meillionydd in North Wales is used to demonstrate how different types of source material and local and global scales can be integrated into a single, coherent explanatory model.
RESUMO Entre os atores históricos da Antiguidade estão as populações do Noroeste e Centro da Europa, denominadas “Celtas” pelos autores clássicos. Embora iletradas, em sua maioria, até por volta do século I a.C./d.C., foram mencionadas por autores estrangeiros como Políbio, César, Estrabão, Diodoro e outros. O estudo dessas sociedades “célticas”, portanto, dificilmente se sustentaria com base apenas na historiografia clássica, mas precisa considerar a Arqueologia. As fontes históricas e arqueológicas são dificilmente reconciliáveis, mesmo quando há temas comuns. Este artigo examina as diferenças, mas também as semelhanças entre as várias sociedades “célticas” da Europa e seus vizinhos, e os usos do termo “Celta”. O estudo de caso das escavações de Meillionydd, no Norte do País de Gales, é usado para demonstrar como diferentes tipos de material e escalas local e global podem integrar-se em um único e coerente modelo explanatório.
This work re-approaches the origins of “the Celts” by detailing the character of their society and the nature of social change in Europe across 700–300 BC. A new approach integrates regional burial ...archaeology with contemporary classical texts to further refine our social understanding of the European Iron Age. Those known to us as “Celts” were matrifocal Early Iron Age groups in central Gaul who engaged in social traditions out of the central European salt trade and became heavily involved in Mediterranean politics. The paper focuses on evidence from the Hallstatt–La Tène transition to solve a 150-year-old problem: how the Early Iron Age “Celts” became the early La Tène “Galatai,” who engaged in the Celtic migrations and the sacking of Rome at 387 BC.
•Lithic reduction strategies for the manufacture of stone celts in SE India.•Dolerite ‘quarries’ for exploitation of slabs for celt façonnage and debitage sequences.•Spatial variability in ...organization of areas of quarrying, polishing/grinding and use/discard.•Association with early agro-pastoral communities.•Comparison with other celt production sites in India and significance for behaviour.
Polished stone celts form a key cultural signifier of the Indian Neolithic/Chalcolithic, although continuing in time into later cultural phases. However, in India, celt manufacturing sequences are rarely studied despite their significance for investigating behavioural organisation, mobility and functionality amongst early agro-pastoral populations. Here we present new data from two celt-manufacturing complexes in Southern India, with a focus on the early stages of celt production at ‘quarry’ sites. We highlight diverse reduction sequences on slabs and flakes, with implications in terms of decision making in knapping strategies and spatial differentiation of activities across the landscape. We identify-three different reduction sequences focused on dolerite slabs and flakes, and granite/gneiss clasts. Spatial variability in reduction stages is observed in locations reflecting quarrying and early stages of knapping near dolerite dykes, grinding and polishing localities, and areas of final stocking/use and discard, distributed across the landscape. We also highlight the local reuse of celts by village populations in ritualistic contexts. We compare the reduction sequences noted at sites in the study region with similar sites in Southern India, thereby contributing to a wider perspective on celt-manufacturing technologies in India.
Who are the Celts, and what does it mean to be Celtic? In this book, Caoimhin De Barra focuses on nationalists in Ireland and Wales between 1860 and 1925, a time period when people in these countries ...came to identify themselves as Celts. De Barra chooses to examine Ireland and Wales because, of the six so-called Celtic nations, these two were the furthest apart in terms of their linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic differences. The Coming of the Celts, AD 1860 is divided into three parts. The first concentrates on the emergence of a sense of Celtic identity and the ways in which political and cultural nationalists in both countries borrowed ideas from one another in promoting this sense of identity. The second part follows the efforts to create a more formal relationship between the Celtic countries through the Pan-Celtic movement; the subsequent successes and failures of this movement in Ireland and Wales are compared and contrasted. Finally, the book discusses the public juxtaposition of Welsh and Irish nationalisms during the Irish Revolution. De Barra's is the first book to critique what Celtic has meant historically, and it will appeal to the reader who wants to learn more about the modern political and cultural connections between Ireland and Wales, as well as scholars and students in the fields of modern Irish and Welsh history. It will also be of interest to professionalhistorians working in the field of Four Nations history, which places an emphasis on understanding the relationships and connections between the four nations of Britain and Ireland.
Animals played a crucial role in many aspects of Celtic life: in the economy, hunting, warfare, art, literature and religion. Such was their importance to this society, that an intimate relationship ...between humans and animals developed, in which the Celts believed many animals to have divine powers. In Animals in Celtic Life and Myth, Miranda Green draws on evidence from early Celtic documents, archaeology and iconography to consider the manner in which animals formed the basis of elaborate rituals and beliefs. She reveals that animals were endowed with an extremely high status, considered by the Celts as worthy of respect and admiration.
Member States have published National Energy and Climate Plans with challenging variable renewable electricity (VRE) targets. As VRE has a high peak to average output, the Single Electricity Market ...of the island of Ireland (SEM) will need to consider how best to balance the lost value of curtailment against the extra costs of higher Simultaneous Non-Synchronous Penetration (SNSP), more interconnector capacity and/or more storage. The paper develops a spreadsheet model to explore these options for the 2026 VRE targets in the SEM and her neighbours. Raising SNSP from 75 % to 85 % reduces curtailment from 13.3 % to 8.0 %, saving 1338 GWh/yr of spilled wind. Adding the Celtic Link of 700 MW at SNSP of 75 % reduces curtailment to 12.4 % and saves 235 GWh. Adding 100 MW of batteries saves 19 GWh/yr, but the costs of delivering these savings are high. The marginal spilled wind can be four times the average, creating a potentially significant market distortion and reducing the value of adding further VRE.
The aim of this article is to discuss a very important topic of interest and to define the character of an immense group of coins, namely — the group of the tetradrachms, which, according to the ...author, are called the tetradrachms of the island of Thasos, and the “Thasos type” tetradrachms of “bad-style”. A number of authors have supported the hypothesis that the coins in question are eastern Celtic imitations. The author of this article has analyzed a number of large coin hoards, which he has already sorted and published. The methodology includes the analysis of spatial distribution; the examination of the internal chronology and dynamics of the coinage; a “die-study”. The author has divided the coinage in terms of names and types of Thasians present on the coins in three main groups: original — up until approximately the end of the 2nd Century BCE; of a “Thasos type” under the control of the Roman administration in Macedonia in the period up until ca. 80 BCE; imitative — after 70 BCE. At the same time, the author has given his own definition regarding which tetradrachms of the “Dionysios Soter” type are imitations. These are the rough and almost completely barbarous imitations, on which the legends are simply forged by marks. The images are stylized and they diverge from the prototype. The coins themselves, which have so far been called imitations, the author has divided into three groups: the first and the second ones he refers to as “bad-style” coins, whereas the third one he calls “real” imitations. The question of the so-called imitations of the tetradrachms of the Macedonian regions has been touched upon, as well.
There are longstanding questions about the origins and ancestry of the Picts of early medieval Scotland (ca. 300-900 CE), prompted in part by exotic medieval origin myths, their enigmatic symbols and ...inscriptions, and the meagre textual evidence. The Picts, first mentioned in the late 3rd century CE resisted the Romans and went on to form a powerful kingdom that ruled over a large territory in northern Britain. In the 9th and 10th centuries Gaelic language, culture and identity became dominant, transforming the Pictish realm into Alba, the precursor to the medieval kingdom of Scotland. To date, no comprehensive analysis of Pictish genomes has been published, and questions about their biological relationships to other cultural groups living in Britain remain unanswered. Here we present two high-quality Pictish genomes (2.4 and 16.5X coverage) from central and northern Scotland dated from the 5th-7th century which we impute and co-analyse with >8,300 previously published ancient and modern genomes. Using allele frequency and haplotype-based approaches, we can firmly place the genomes within the Iron Age gene pool in Britain and demonstrate regional biological affinity. We also demonstrate the presence of population structure within Pictish groups, with Orcadian Picts being genetically distinct from their mainland contemporaries. When investigating Identity-By-Descent (IBD) with present-day genomes, we observe broad affinities between the mainland Pictish genomes and the present-day people living in western Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Northumbria, but less with the rest of England, the Orkney islands and eastern Scotland-where the political centres of Pictland were located. The pre-Viking Age Orcadian Picts evidence a high degree of IBD sharing across modern Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Orkney islands, demonstrating substantial genetic continuity in Orkney for the last ~2,000 years. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA diversity at the Pictish cemetery of Lundin Links (n = 7) reveals absence of direct common female ancestors, with implications for broader social organisation. Overall, our study provides novel insights into the genetic affinities and population structure of the Picts and direct relationships between ancient and present-day groups of the UK.
The present paper examines a sword dated in the La Tène Period, currently exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Durrës, Albania. According to the scientific staff of the Museum the archaeological ...context of the sword has not been specified but the blade had been found in the necropolis of the city. The analysis of the sword is based on its typological features but also the historical, the archaeological and ethnological aspects of the region had been taken into consideration. The most significant feature of the blade is of course the bending. This feature led us to correlate the examined object with the Celts, who practiced this ritual of the intentional destruction “killing” a weapon. This is the first folded sword which had been found in the territory of the modern-day Albania.
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