1/1/2023 0 Comments Iron wandering willows![]() ![]() Instead, on the basis of broad-brush similarities in material culture, a pan-European “Celtic culture” continues to be imagined across Europe, acting historically via events-in-time mentioned in the texts (e.g., Cunliffe 2019a Cunliffe and Koch 2012, 2013 Hornblower et al. The result is construction of a static, romantic notion of “Celtic society” operating independently of regional-level archaeologies. Previous narratives on the Celts (singular) see a mixing together of classical ideas on “Celts” from across 1000 years (see Stopford 1987). ![]() Our main setback has been a reading of the historical sources that lacks temporal context. For this author, however, the problem lies only in how we have approached the evidence. The origin of “the Celts” is a problem that has eluded resolution for over 150 years, as “impossible” and “lost in the mists of time” (Chadwick 1971 Duval 1997 Karl 2012 Pauli 1980). First, I must set out the inherited problem. My aim is to more closely define what was meant in those first uses of the word “Celt,” which should assist in understanding its continued use through time. ![]() To this end, I use a large dataset and new method to produce an evidence-based narrative, one that foregrounds chronology, regional archaeological traditions, and the integration of evidence from contemporary historical texts. My primary aim is to further refine our knowledge of the historical Celts (Kελτoí, Keltoi)-their origins, the nature of their society (plural), and social change (between 700 and 300 BC). I do touch briefly on “Celtic” language, where the archaeology allows it, and I hope that this work, in combining archaeology and historical texts, will assist those interested in Celtic linguistics. I do not address modern “Celtic” identity (see Collis 2017 James 1999), nor do I consider “Celts” of the early medieval period (papers in Karl and Stifter 2007)-each has relatively little to do with the task of understanding the people of Iron Age Europe. A good place to begin is to state what this paper on Iron Age “Celts” does not do. ![]()
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