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78-585: The Deceangli or Deceangi (Welsh: Tegeingl) were one of the Celtic tribes living in Britain , prior to the Roman invasion of the island. The tribe lived in the region near the modern city of Chester but it is uncertain whether their territory covered only the modern counties of Flintshire , Denbighshire and the adjacent part of Cheshire or whether it extended further west. They lived in hill forts running in

156-472: A Brittonic language of northern Britain. Celtic regions of mainland Europe are those whose residents claim a Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language survives; these include western Iberia, i.e. Portugal and north-central Spain ( Galicia , Asturias , Cantabria , Castile and León , Extremadura ). Continental Celts are the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe and Insular Celts are

234-705: A Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy), the oldest of which pre-date the La Tène period . Other early inscriptions, appearing from the early La Tène period in the area of Massilia , are in Gaulish , which was written in the Greek alphabet until the Roman conquest. Celtiberian inscriptions, using their own Iberian script, appear later, after about 200 BC. Evidence of Insular Celtic

312-568: A borrowing from Frankish * Walholant , 'Roman-land' (see Gaul: Name ) , the root of which is Proto-Germanic * walha- , 'foreigner, Roman, Celt', whence the English word Welsh ( Old English wælisċ ). Proto-Germanic * walha comes from the name of the Volcae , a Celtic tribe who lived first in southern Germany and central Europe, then migrated to Gaul. This means that English Gaul , despite its superficial similarity,

390-644: A chain through the Clwydian Range and their tribal capital was Canovium . Assaults on the British tribes were made under the legate Publius Ostorius Scapula who attacked the Deceangli in 48 AD. No Roman town is known to have existed in the territory of this tribe, though the auxiliary fort of Canovium ( Caerhun ) was probably in their lands and may have had a civilian settlement around it. Roman mine workings of lead and silver are evident in

468-830: A collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia , identified by their use of Celtic languages and other cultural similarities. Major Celtic groups included the Gauls ; the Celtiberians and Gallaeci of Iberia; the Britons , Picts , and Gaels of Britain and Ireland; the Boii ; and the Galatians . The interrelationships of ethnicity, language and culture in the Celtic world are unclear and debated; for example over

546-708: A common cultural and linguistic heritage more than a genetic one. Celtic cultures seem to have been diverse, with the use of a Celtic language being the main thing they had in common. Today, the term 'Celtic' generally refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall , the Isle of Man , and Brittany ; also called the Celtic nations . These are the regions where Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent. The four are Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton ; plus two recent revivals, Cornish (a Brittonic language ) and Manx (a Goidelic language ). There are also attempts to reconstruct Cumbric ,

624-557: A diverse set of maternal lineages associated with steppe ancestry. The paternal lineages were on the other hand characterized by a "striking homogeneity", belonging entirely to haplogroup R and R1b , both of whom are associated with steppe ancestry. The evidence suggested that the Gauls of the La Tène culture were patrilineal and patrilocal , which is in agreement with archaeological and literary evidence. A genetic study published in

702-407: A large amount of steppe ancestry , and to have been closely related to peoples of the preceding Bell Beaker culture , suggesting genetic continuity between Bronze Age and Iron Age France. Significant gene flow with Great Britain and Iberia was detected. The results of the study partially supported the notion that French people are largely descended from the Gauls. A genetic study published in

780-699: A result, these items quickly became associated with the Celts, so much so that by the 1870s scholars began to regard finds of the La Tène as 'the archaeological expression of the Celts'". This cultural network was overrun by the Roman Empire, though traces of La Tène style were still seen in Gallo-Roman artifacts . In Britain and Ireland, the La Tène style survived precariously to re-emerge in Insular art . The Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to be challenged in

858-633: A rethinking of the meaning of "Celtic". John T. Koch and Barry Cunliffe have developed this 'Celtic from the West' theory. It proposes that the proto-Celtic language arose along the Atlantic coast and was the lingua franca of the Atlantic Bronze Age cultural network, later spreading inland and eastward. More recently, Cunliffe proposes that proto-Celtic had arisen in the Atlantic zone even earlier, by 3000 BC, and spread eastwards with

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936-535: A revival. The first recorded use of the name 'Celts' – as Κελτοί ( Keltoi ) in Ancient Greek – was by Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus in 517 BC, when writing about a people living near Massilia (modern Marseille ), southern Gaul . In the fifth century BC, Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the source of the Danube and in the far west of Europe. The etymology of Keltoi

1014-668: A single culture or ethnic group. A new theory suggested that Celtic languages arose earlier, along the Atlantic coast (including Britain, Ireland, Armorica and Iberia ), long before evidence of 'Celtic' culture is found in archaeology. Myles Dillon and Nora Kershaw Chadwick argued that "Celtic settlement of the British Isles" might date to the Bell Beaker culture of the Copper and Bronze Age (from c. 2750 BC). Martín Almagro Gorbea (2001) also proposed that Celtic arose in

1092-628: A strong continuity with an afterlife . Elaborate burials also reveal a wide network of trade. In Vix , France, an elite woman of the 6th century BCE was buried with a very large bronze "wine-mixer" made in Greece. Exports from La Tène cultural areas to the Mediterranean cultures were based on salt , tin , copper , amber , wool , leather , furs and gold . Artefacts typical of the La Tène culture were also discovered in stray finds as far afield as Scandinavia, Northern Germany, Poland and in

1170-488: A tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. A Latin name for the Gauls, Galli ( pl. ), may come from a Celtic ethnic name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during the Celtic expansion into Italy from the early fifth century BC. Its root may be Proto-Celtic *galno , meaning "power, strength" (whence Old Irish gal "boldness, ferocity", Welsh gallu "to be able, power"). The Greek name Γαλάται ( Galatai , Latinized Galatae ) most likely has

1248-567: Is available only from about 400 AD, in the form of Primitive Irish Ogham inscriptions . Besides epigraphic evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is toponymy (place names). Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2017) demonstrated that Celtic-related populations of the European Atlantic (Orkney Islands, Scottish, Irish, British, Bretons, Basques, Galicians) shared a common HLA system . La T%C3%A8ne culture La Tène culture's territorial extent corresponded to what

1326-501: Is debated. The art history of La Tène culture has various schemes of periodization. The archaeological period is now mostly divided into four sub-periods, following Paul Reinecke . The preceding final phase of the Hallstatt culture , HaD, c. 650–450 BC, was also widespread across Central Europe , and the transition over this area was gradual, being mainly detected through La Tène style elite artefacts, which first appear on

1404-477: Is difficult to assess; archaeologists have repeatedly concluded that language, material culture, and political affiliation do not necessarily run parallel. Frey (2004) notes that in the 5th century, "burial customs in the Celtic world were not uniform; rather, localised groups had their own beliefs, which, in consequence, also gave rise to distinct artistic expressions". La Tène metalwork in bronze, iron and gold, developing technologically out of Hallstatt culture ,

1482-510: Is not actually derived from Latin Gallia (which should have produced * Jaille in French), though it does refer to the same ancient region. Celtic refers to a language family and, more generally, means 'of the Celts' or 'in the style of the Celts'. Several archaeological cultures are considered Celtic, based on unique sets of artefacts. The link between language and artefact is aided by

1560-536: Is now France , Belgium , Switzerland , Austria , England , Southern Germany , the Czech Republic , Northern Italy and Central Italy , Slovenia , Hungary and Liechtenstein , as well as adjacent parts of the Netherlands , Slovakia , Serbia , Croatia , Transylvania (western Romania ), and Transcarpathia (western Ukraine ). The Celtiberians of western Iberia shared many aspects of

1638-534: Is primarily a linguistic label. In his 'Celtic from the Centre' theory, he argues that the proto-Celtic language did not originate in central Europe nor the Atlantic, but in-between these two regions. He suggests that it "emerged as a distinct Indo-European dialect around the second millennium BC , probably somewhere in Gaul [centered in modern France] ... whence it spread in various directions and at various speeds in

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1716-439: Is somewhat different and the artefacts are initially found in some parts of the islands but not others. Migratory movements seem at best only partly responsible for the diffusion of La Tène culture there, and perhaps other parts of Europe. By about 400 BCE, the evidence for Mediterranean trade becomes sparse; this may be because the expanding Celtic populations began to migrate south and west, coming into violent conflict with

1794-547: Is stylistically characterized by inscribed and inlaid intricate spirals and interlace, on fine bronze vessels, helmets and shields, horse trappings , and elite jewelry, especially the neck rings called torcs and elaborate clasps called fibulae . It is characterized by elegant, stylized curvilinear animal and vegetal forms, allied with the Hallstatt traditions of geometric patterning. The Early Style of La Tène art and culture mainly featured static, geometric decoration, while

1872-502: Is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European * kʲel 'to hide' (seen also in Old Irish ceilid , and Modern Welsh celu ), * kʲel 'to heat' or * kel 'to impel'. It may come from the Celtic language . Linguist Kim McCone supports this view and notes that Celt- is found in the names of several ancient Gauls such as Celtillus, father of Vercingetorix . He suggests it meant the people or descendants of "the hidden one", noting

1950-662: The Histories of Herodotus, which placed the Celts at the source of the Danube . However, Stephen Oppenheimer shows that Herodotus seemed to believe the Danube rose near the Pyrenees , which would place the Ancient Celts in a region which is more in agreement with later classical writers and historians (i.e. in Gaul and Iberia). The theory was also partly based on the abundance of inscriptions bearing Celtic personal names in

2028-621: The Journal of Archaeological Science in October 2019 examined 43 maternal and 17 paternal lineages for the La Tène necropolis in Urville-Nacqueville, France, and 27 maternal and 19 paternal lineages for La Tène tumulus of Gurgy Les Noisats near modern Paris , France. The examined individuals displayed strong genetic resemblance to peoples of the earlier Yamnaya culture , Corded Ware culture and Bell Beaker culture. They carried

2106-770: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in June 2020 examined the remains of 25 individuals ascribed to the La Tène culture. The nine examples of individual Y-DNA extracted were determined to belong to either the paragroups or subclades of haplogroups R1b1a1a2 (R-M269; three examples), R1b1a1a2a1a2c1a1a1a1a1 (R-M222), R1b1 (R-L278), R1b1a1a (R-P297), I1 (I-M253), E1b1b (E-M215), or other, unspecified, subclades of haplogroup R . The 25 samples of mtDNA extracted

2184-530: The 3rd millennium BC , suggesting that the spread of the Bell Beaker culture explained the wide dispersion of the Celts throughout western Europe, as well as the variability of the Celtic peoples. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Alberto J. Lorrio and Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero reviewed and built on Almagro Gorbea's work to present a model for the origin of Celtic archaeological groups in Iberia and proposing

2262-704: The Gaels ( Irish , Scots and Manx ) and the Celtic Britons ( Welsh , Cornish , and Bretons ) of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Britain, Ireland, and other European territories such as Galicia . Today, Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton are still spoken in parts of their former territories, while Cornish and Manx are undergoing

2340-541: The Iberian Peninsula , Ireland and Britain. The languages developed into Celtiberian , Goidelic and Brittonic branches, among others. The mainstream view during most of the twentieth century is that the Celts and the proto-Celtic language arose out of the Urnfield culture of central Europe around 1000 BC, spreading westward and southward over the following few hundred years. The Urnfield culture

2418-537: The Lepontic inscriptions from the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names. Insular Celtic languages are attested from the 4th century AD in Ogham inscriptions , though they were being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century AD. Elements of Celtic mythology are recorded in early Irish and early Welsh literature. Most written evidence of

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2496-546: The Venetic culture". From their homeland, La Tène culture expanded in the 4th century BCE to more of modern France, Germany, and Central Europe , and beyond to Hispania , northern and central Italy , the Balkans , and even as far as Asia Minor , in the course of several major migrations. La Tène style artefacts start to appear in Britain around the same time, and Ireland rather later. The style of "Insular La Tène" art

2574-621: The Vix Grave in Burgundy contain imported luxury goods along with artifacts produced locally. Most areas were probably controlled by tribal chiefs living in hilltop forts , while the bulk of the population lived in small villages or farmsteads in the countryside. By 500 BCE the Etruscans expanded to border Celts in north Italy, and trade across the Alps began to overhaul trade with

2652-464: The first millennium BC ". Sims-Williams says this avoids the problematic idea "that Celtic was spoken over a vast area for a very long time yet somehow avoided major dialectal splits", and "it keeps Celtic fairly close to Italy, which suits the view that Italic and Celtic were in some way linked ". The Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the Late Bronze Age. The earliest records of

2730-408: The 3rd century, with a peak of activity around 200 BCE and abandonment by about 60 BCE. Interpretations of the site vary. Some scholars believe the bridge was destroyed by high water, while others see it as a place of sacrifice after a successful battle (there are almost no female ornaments). An exhibition marking the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the La Tène site opened in 2007 at

2808-461: The 5th century onwards as Keltoi ("Celts") and Galli ("Gauls"). Herodotus (iv.49) correctly placed Keltoi at the source of the Ister/Danube , in the heartland of La Tène material culture: "The Ister flows right across Europe, rising in the country of the Celts". Whether the usage of classical sources means that the whole of La Tène culture can be attributed to a unified Celtic people

2886-544: The Balkans. It is therefore common to also talk of the "La Tène period" in the context of those regions even though they were never part of the La Tène culture proper, but connected to its core area via trade. The La Tène type site is on the northern shore of Lake Neuchâtel , Switzerland , where the small river Thielle , connecting to another lake, enters the Lake Neuchâtel. In 1857, prolonged drought lowered

2964-473: The Bell Beaker culture over the following millennium. His theory is partly based on glottochronology , the spread of ancient Celtic-looking placenames, and thesis that the Tartessian language was Celtic. However, the proposal that Tartessian was Celtic is widely rejected by linguists, many of whom regard it as unclassified. Celticist Patrick Sims-Williams (2020) notes that in current scholarship, 'Celt'

3042-479: The Britons resembled the Gauls in customs and religion. For at least 1,000 years the name Celt was not used at all, and nobody called themselves Celts or Celtic, until from about 1700, after the word 'Celtic' was rediscovered in classical texts, it was applied for the first time to the distinctive culture, history, traditions, language of the modern Celtic nations – Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and

3120-511: The Celtic-speaking people of the British and Irish islands, and their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their language from migrating Insular Celts from Britain and so are grouped accordingly. The Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages . By the time Celts are first mentioned in written records around 400 BC, they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of western mainland Europe,

3198-585: The Celts from reaching very far south of Rome, but on the other side of the Adriatic Sea groups passed through the Balkans to reach Greece , where Delphi was attacked and sacked in 279 BCE, and Asia, where Galatia was established as a Celtic area of Anatolia . By this time, the La Tène style was spreading to the British Isles , though apparently without any significant movements in population. After about 275 BCE, Roman expansion into

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3276-543: The Celts with the Iron Age Hallstatt culture which followed it ( c.  1200 –500 BC), named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt , Austria, and with the following La Tène culture ( c.  450 BC onward), named after the La Tène site in Switzerland. It proposes that Celtic culture spread westward and southward from these areas by diffusion or migration . A newer theory, " Celtic from

3354-574: The Eastern Hallstatt region ( Noricum ). However, Patrick Sims-Williams notes that these date to the later Roman era, and says they suggest "relatively late settlement by a Celtic-speaking elite". In the late 20th century, the Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to fall out of favour with some scholars, which was influenced by new archaeological finds. 'Celtic' began to refer primarily to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to

3432-508: The Gauls claimed descent from an underworld god (according to Commentarii de Bello Gallico ), and linking it with the Germanic Hel . Others view it as a name coined by Greeks; among them linguist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel , who suggests it meant "the tall ones". In the first century BC, Roman leader Julius Caesar reported that the Gauls called themselves 'Celts', Latin : Celtae , in their own tongue . Thus whether it

3510-570: The Greek or Latin alphabets exist allowing the fragmentary reconstruction of Continental Celtic . Current knowledge of this cultural area is derived from three sources comprising archaeological evidence, Greek and Latin literary records, and ethnographical evidence suggesting some La Tène artistic and cultural survivals in traditionally Celtic regions of far western Europe. Some of the societies that are archaeologically identified with La Tène material culture were identified by Greek and Roman authors from

3588-514: The Greeks to apply this name for the type of Keltoi that they usually encountered". Because Classical writers did not call the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland Κελτοί ( Keltoi ) or Celtae , some scholars prefer not to use the term for the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands. However, they spoke Celtic languages, shared other cultural traits, and Roman historian Tacitus says

3666-543: The Greeks, and the Rhone route declined. Booming areas included the middle Rhine , with large iron ore deposits, the Marne and Champagne regions, and also Bohemia , although here trade with the Mediterranean area was much less important. Trading connections and wealth no doubt played a part in the origin of the La Tène style, though how large a part remains much discussed; specific Mediterranean-derived motifs are evident, but

3744-476: The Isle of Man. 'Celt' is a modern English word, first attested in 1707 in the writing of Edward Lhuyd , whose work, along with that of other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages and history of the early Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain. The English words Gaul , Gauls ( pl. ) and Gaulish (first recorded in the 16–17th centuries) come from French Gaule and Gaulois ,

3822-563: The La Tène area began with the conquest of Gallia Cisalpina . The conquest of Gallia Celtica followed in 121 BCE and was complete with the Gallic Wars of the 50s BCE. Gaulish culture quickly assimilated to Roman culture, giving rise to the hybrid Gallo-Roman culture of Late Antiquity . The bearers of the La Tène culture were the people known as Celts or Gauls to ancient ethnographers. Ancient Celtic culture had no written literature of its own, but rare examples of epigraphy in

3900-490: The La Tène sphere. The site at La Tène itself was therefore near the southern edge of the original "core" area (as is also the case for the Hallstatt site for its core). The establishment of a Greek colony, soon very successful, at Massalia (modern Marseilles) on the Mediterranean coast of France led to great trade with the Hallstatt areas up the Rhone and Saone river systems, and early La Tène elite burials like

3978-537: The La Tène style of Celtic art , characterized by curving "swirly" decoration, especially of metalwork. It is named after the type site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland , where thousands of objects had been deposited in the lake, as was discovered after the water level dropped in 1857 (due to the Jura water correction ). La Tène is the type site and the term archaeologists use for

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4056-796: The Musée Schwab in Biel/Bienne , Switzerland, then Zürich in 2008 and Mont Beuvray in Burgundy in 2009. Some sites are: Some outstanding La Tène artifacts are: A genetic study published in PLOS One in December 2018 examined 45 individuals buried at a La Tène necropolis in Urville-Nacqueville , France. The people buried there were identified as Gauls . The mtDNA of the examined individuals belonged primarily to haplotypes of H and U . They were found to be carrying

4134-493: The West ", suggests proto-Celtic arose earlier, was a lingua franca in the Atlantic Bronze Age coastal zone, and spread eastward. Another newer theory, "Celtic from the Centre", suggests proto-Celtic arose between these two zones, in Bronze Age Gaul, then spread in various directions. After the Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe in the 3rd century BC, Celtic culture reached as far east as central Anatolia , Turkey . The earliest undisputed examples of Celtic language are

4212-567: The burials "dated to roughly the time when Celts are mentioned near the Danube by Herodotus , Ramsauer concluded that the graves were Celtic". Similar sites and artifacts were found over a wide area, which were named the 'Hallstatt culture'. In 1857, the archaeological site of La Tène was discovered in Switzerland. The huge collection of artifacts had a distinctive style. Artifacts of this 'La Tène style' were found elsewhere in Europe, "particularly in places where people called Celts were known to have lived and early Celtic languages are attested. As

4290-458: The culture, though not generally the artistic style. To the north extended the contemporary Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe , including the Jastorf culture of Northern Germany and Denmark and all the way to Galatia in Asia Minor (today Turkey ). Centered on ancient Gaul , the culture became very widespread, and encompasses a wide variety of local differences. It is often distinguished from earlier and neighbouring cultures mainly by

4368-452: The early Celts comes from Greco-Roman writers, who often grouped the Celts as barbarian tribes. They followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . The Celts were often in conflict with the Romans , such as in the Roman–Gallic wars , the Celtiberian Wars , the conquest of Gaul and conquest of Britain . By the 1st century AD, most Celtic territories had become part of the Roman Empire . By c. 500, due to Romanisation and

4446-502: The established populations, including the Etruscans and Romans. The settled life in much of the La Tène homelands also seems to have become much more unstable and prone to wars. In about 387 BCE, the Celts under Brennus defeated the Romans and then sacked Rome , establishing themselves as the most prominent threats to the Roman homeland, a status they would retain through a series of Roman-Gallic wars until Julius Caesar 's final conquest of Gaul in 58–50 BCE. The Romans prevented

4524-630: The later period of the culture and art of the ancient Celts , a term that is firmly entrenched in the popular understanding, but it is considered controversial by modern scholarship. Extensive contacts through trade are recognized in foreign objects deposited in elite burials; stylistic influences on La Tène material culture can be recognized in Etruscan , Italic , Greek , Dacian and Scythian sources. Datable Greek pottery and analysis employing scientific techniques such as dendrochronology and thermoluminescence help provide date ranges for an absolute chronology at some La Tène sites. La Tène history

4602-408: The latter 20th century, when it was accepted that the oldest known Celtic-language inscriptions were those of Lepontic from the 6th century BC and Celtiberian from the 2nd century BC. These were found in northern Italy and Iberia, neither of which were part of the 'Hallstatt' nor 'La Tène' cultures at the time. The Urnfield-Hallstatt theory was partly based on ancient Greco-Roman writings, such as

4680-445: The migration of Germanic tribes, Celtic culture had mostly become restricted to Ireland, western and northern Britain, and Brittany . Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. They had a common linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from surrounding cultures. Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of

4758-416: The new style does not depend on them. Barry Cunliffe notes localization of La Tène culture during the 5th century BCE when there arose "two zones of power and innovation: a Marne – Moselle zone in the west with trading links to the Po Valley via the central Alpine passes and the Golasecca culture , and a Bohemian zone in the east with separate links to the Adriatic via the eastern Alpine routes and

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4836-462: The presence of inscriptions. The modern idea of a Celtic cultural identity or "Celticity" focuses on similarities among languages, works of art, and classical texts, and sometimes also among material artefacts, social organisation , homeland and mythology . Earlier theories held that these similarities suggest a common "racial" ( race is now a contested concept) origin for the various Celtic peoples, but more recent theories hold that they reflect

4914-936: The regions occupied by the Deceangli. Several sows of lead have been found in Chester , one weighing 192 lbs bears the markings: IMP VESP AVGV T IMP III DECEANGI. Another, found near Tarvin Bridge, weighing 179 lbs is inscribed: IMP VESP V T IMP III COS DECEANGI and is dated to AD 74. Both are displayed in the Grosvenor Museum . Celt Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Celts ( / k ɛ l t s / KELTS , see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( / ˈ k ɛ l t ɪ k / KEL -tik ) were

4992-402: The results of which were published by Vouga in the same year. All in all, over 2500 objects, mainly made from metal, have been excavated in La Tène. Weapons predominate, there being 166 swords (most without traces of wear), 270 lanceheads, and 22 shield bosses , along with 385 brooches , tools, and parts of chariots . Numerous human and animal bones were found as well. The site was used from

5070-483: The same origin, referring to the Gauls who invaded southeast Europe and settled in Galatia . The suffix -atai might be a Greek inflection. Linguist Kim McCone suggests it comes from Proto-Celtic *galatis ("ferocious, furious"), and was not originally an ethnic name but a name for young warrior bands . He says "If the Gauls' initial impact on the Mediterranean world was primarily a military one typically involving fierce young *galatīs , it would have been natural for

5148-411: The site as an armory, erected on platforms on piles over the lake and later destroyed by enemy action. Another interpretation accounting for the presence of cast iron swords that had not been sharpened, was of a site for ritual depositions. With the first systematic lowering of the Swiss lakes from 1868 to 1883, the site fell completely dry. In 1880, Emile Vouga, a teacher from Marin-Epagnier, uncovered

5226-761: The transition to the Developed Style constituted a shift to movement-based forms, such as triskeles . Some subsets within the Developed Style contain more specific design trends, such as the recurrent serpentine scroll of the Waldalgesheim Style. Initially La Tène people lived in open settlements that were dominated by the chieftains' hill forts. The development of towns— oppida —appears in mid-La Tène culture. La Tène dwellings were carpenter-built rather than of masonry . La Tène peoples also dug ritual shafts, in which votive offerings and even human sacrifices were cast. Severed heads appear to have held great power and were often represented in carvings. Burial sites included weapons, carts, and both elite and household goods, evoking

5304-403: The two periods, particularly in southern France. The samples from northern and southern France were highly homogeneous, with northern samples displaying links to contemporary samples form Great Britain and Sweden, and southern samples displaying links to Celtiberians . The northern French samples were distinguished from the southern ones by elevated levels of steppe-related ancestry. R1b was by far

5382-413: The water. From among these, Kopp collected about forty iron swords. The Swiss archaeologist Ferdinand Keller published his findings in 1868 in his influential first report on the Swiss pile dwellings ( Pfahlbaubericht ). In 1863 he interpreted the remains as a Celtic village built on piles. Eduard Desor , a geologist from Neuchâtel , started excavations on the lakeshore soon afterwards. He interpreted

5460-434: The waters of the lake by about 2 m (6 ft 7 in). On the northernmost tip of the lake, between the river and a point south of the village of Epagnier ( 47°00′16″N 7°00′58″E  /  47.0045°N 7.016°E  / 47.0045; 7.016 ), Hansli Kopp, looking for antiquities for Colonel Frédéric Schwab, discovered several rows of wooden piles that still reached up about 50 cm (20 in) into

5538-532: The ways in which the Iron Age people of Britain and Ireland should be called Celts. In current scholarship, 'Celt' primarily refers to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to a single ethnic group. The history of pre-Celtic Europe and Celtic origins is debated. The traditional "Celtic from the East" theory, says the proto-Celtic language arose in the late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of central Europe, named after grave sites in southern Germany, which flourished from around 1200 BC. This theory links

5616-458: The western edge of the old Hallstatt region. Though there is no agreement on the precise region in which La Tène culture first developed, there is a broad consensus that the centre of the culture lay on the northwest edges of Hallstatt culture , north of the Alps , within the region between in the West the valleys of the Marne and Moselle , and the part of the Rhineland nearby. In the east

5694-554: The western end of the old Hallstatt core area in modern Bavaria , the Czech Republic , Austria and Switzerland formed a somewhat separate "eastern style Province" in the early La Tène, joining with the western area in Alsace . In 1994 a prototypical ensemble of elite grave sites of the early 5th century BCE was excavated at Glauberg in Hesse , northeast of Frankfurt-am-Main , in a region that had formerly been considered peripheral to

5772-520: The wooden remains of two bridges (designated "Pont Desor" and "Pont Vouga") originally over 100 m (330 ft) long, that crossed the little Thielle River (today a nature reserve) and the remains of five houses on the shore. After Vouga had finished, F. Borel, curator of the Marin museum, began to excavate as well. In 1885 the canton asked the Société d'Histoire of Neuchâtel to continue the excavations,

5850-615: Was determined to belong to various subclades of haplogroup H , HV , U , K , J , V and W . The examined individuals of the Hallstatt culture and La Tène culture were genetically highly homogeneous and displayed continuity with the earlier Bell Beaker culture. They carried about 50% steppe-related ancestry. A genetic study published in iScience in April 2022 examined 49 genomes from 27 sites in Bronze Age and Iron Age France. The study found evidence of strong genetic continuity between

5928-596: Was given to them by others or not, it was used by the Celts themselves. Greek geographer Strabo , writing about Gaul towards the end of the first century BC, refers to the "race which is now called both Gallic and Galatic ", though he also uses Celtica as another name for Gaul. He reports Celtic peoples in Iberia too, calling them Celtiberi and Celtici . Pliny the Elder noted the use of Celtici in Lusitania as

6006-433: Was originally divided into "early", "middle" and "late" stages based on the typology of the metal finds ( Otto Tischler 1885), with the Roman occupation greatly disrupting the culture, although many elements remain in Gallo-Roman and Romano-British culture. A broad cultural unity was not paralleled by overarching social-political unifying structures, and the extent to which the material culture can be linguistically linked

6084-608: Was preeminent in central Europe during the late Bronze Age , circa 1200 BC to 700 BC. The spread of iron-working led to the Hallstatt culture (c. 800 to 500 BC) developing out of the Urnfield culture in a wide region north of the Alps. The Hallstatt culture developed into the La Tène culture from about 450 BC, which came to be identified with Celtic art . In 1846, Johann Georg Ramsauer unearthed an ancient grave field with distinctive grave goods at Hallstatt , Austria. Because

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