United Celts

Gold pendants from a necklace, found in an underwater cave near Han-Sur-Lesse, in Walloonia, Belgium; 10th century B.C. 🇧🇪 The underwater caves and passages in the Lesse river were known to the Celts who inhabited the region. They appear to have viewed them as the abodes of deities and to have left votive offerings for them there, as significant amounts of treasure have been discovered in the caves. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Digital 3D model of a carved stone decorated in La Tène style, found near the Hill of Mullaghmast, in county Kildare, Ireland; 6th century AD. 🇮🇪 National Museum of Ireland; Dublin. The stone had been repurposed multiple times, being incorporated into the masonry of a FitzGerald castle, and later a local farm. It’s believed that the stone originally stood at the ritual inauguration site of Dún Áilinne, where kings of Leinster were traditionally inaugurated. The stone has several cuts, four on the left side and two on the top, which are believed to have been made with a sword or swords. It has been speculated that striking the stone with a sword, or using it to sharpen the weapon, may have been part of the inauguration ritual. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Stonehenge’s Altar Stone originated hundreds of kilometers away in Scotland, researchers report in Nature Read Full Article #Stonehenge #AltarStone #Scotland #Research #Nature

Digital facial reconstruction of medieval English knight who was killed in combat against Scots. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The man’s skeleton was one of many unearthed at Stirling castle in Scotland. The skeleton had signs of multiple injuries sustained throughout the man’s lifetime, including ankle injuries that probably indicated he took part in jousting and mounted combat throughout his life. He has been identified as Sir John de Stricheley, a Buckinghamshire knight who was killed in the year 1341 by Scottish archers who were besieging the castle. Stirling castle had been occupied by an English garrison during the Second War of Scottish Independence (1332-1357). Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

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An Irish chieftain prepares to mount his horse. 🇮🇪 Woodcut illustration by John Derricke, in his book The Image of Irelande, with a Discoverie of Woodkarne; year 1581. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Kynance Cove, Cornwall. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Digital reconstruction of the Celtiberian hill-fort of Castil de Griegos, in Guadalajara province, Spain. 🇪🇸 Castil de Griegos was first built during the 7th century B.C; and inhabited continuously until the early 2nd century B.C. In the 3rd century B.C. the site was expanded significantly and more robustly fortified, likely reflecting the increase in warfare during the 2nd Punic War (218-211 B.C.) between Carthage and Rome. Huge ditches were carved out of the rock, and new walls built with the extracted stone. A secondary fort was also built directly adjacent to the older one, the two connected to one another by a small foot bridge. Some years later, the settlement was destroyed by fire, probably during the military campaigns (182-179 B.C.) of the Roman governor of Hispania Citerior, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Digital facial reconstruction of a woman found buried at Whithorn Priory, in Galloway, Scotland; by the Cold Case Whithorn project. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The 20 year old woman was found buried on a bed of seashells near the priory’s high altar. She is thought to have lived at some point between the 12th and 14th centuries. The seashell burial is thought to indicate that she was a person of high status and likely a pilgrim who was visiting the tomb of St. Ninian, a 5th century Christian monk who was credited with founding the priory and converting the southern Picts to Christianity. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Seleucid troops, including a Galatian mercenary (in blue), during the Parthian campaign of king Demetrius II Nicator (“the victorious”), 139-138 B.C. Art by Angus McBride. King Demetrius II launched an invasion of Iran to try and recover the empire’s eastern territories, recently taken over by the nascent Parthian Kingdom. Contemporary sources indicate that he was initially successful and won several battles. However, he was later ambushed in the Zagros mountains, defeated, and taken prisoner by the Parthian king Mithridates I, a.k.a. “Arsaces”. The Seleucid Empire (one of the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian empire) then went into irreversible decline. The Galatian mercenary in the illustration is based on two terracotta figurines found by archaeologists among the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Myrina, in Izmir province, Turkey. 🇹🇷 One figurine still had remnants of blue paint on it. Some commentaries on this illustration confusingly identity the soldier on the far right as a “Jewish” auxiliary, while the original work by McBride identifies him more accurately as an Idumaean (a.k.a. Edomites). The confusion comes from the fact that these two peoples intermarried and merged during this general period of history. However, said merger didn’t begin until two decades after the time of Demetrius Nicator. It was at some point between 115 and 110 B.C; as told by the historian Josephus, that the Jewish king John Hyrcanus conquered the Idumaeans militarily and forcibly converted them to Judaism. Ironically, the intermarriage between the two would even enable an Idumaean, Herod, son of Antipater, to become king of Judea, thus founding the Herodian Dynasty. After the Romans crushed a series of Jewish revolts, particularly the First Jewish-Roman War of 66-74 AD and the Bar Kokhba Revolt of 132-136 AD, large numbers of Jews were deported —mostly to Europe— and the distinction between Idumaeans and Jews stopped being observed, so that the merger was completed through continual intermarriage. Strangely, rabbinical judaism would develop a myth of projecting this Edomite identity upon those who were perceived as enemies of the Jewish people, claiming that Rome and its vassal nations, and by extension European Christendom, are the descendants of the Edomites. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

“The Bard”; 1784 engraving by English artist John Hall (1739-1797). 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 The scene was inspired by a 1757 poem by Thomas Grey, titled “The Bard. A Pindaric Ode”. The poem depicts a fictitious event during the 1282-3 conquest of Wales by king Edward I of England. As Edward’s army marches into Gwynedd, it is confronted by a Welsh minstrel, who curses the English king from across the river Conwy, supposedly predicting the fall of the Plantagenet dynasty and rise of the part Welsh Tudor dynasty. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope