Celtic Europe

Bronze belt-hook decorated in La Tène style from the burial-mound of a Gallic chief at Glauberg, in Hesse, Germany; 5th centyry B.C. 🇩🇪 Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

The Small Isles, Rum and Eigg viewed from Muck, in Garmoran, Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

The ruins of the city of Entremont, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southern France. 🇫🇷 Entremont was the capital city of the Salluvii, who were, according to Strabo, a people of mixed Gallic and Ligurian origin (Ligurians seem to have been a Celtic-speaking people, related to and hardly different from the Gauls). At the time Entremont was built, the Salluvii had formed a powerful tribal state that dominated southeast France and often clashed with the Greek colony of Massalia (now Marseille, France). The city was built on a grid pattern and protected by stone walls and bastions modeled on Greek designs. Archaeologists have found furnaces for metal-working, ovens, and oil-presses within the town. It was even outfitted with drainage systems. Many statues of warriors and sculptures of human heads were also found within the town, attesting the inhabitants’ warlike culture and the classic Celtic cult of the severed head. The town was eventually destroyed by the armies of the Roman Republic around 123 B.C. Roman consuls Marcus Fulvius Flaccus and Gaius Sextius Calvinus intervened in the region at the behest of the Massaliot Greeks, who were being consistently worsted in their conflicts with the native Celts and Ligurians. The Romans would later build the city of Aquae Sextiae (now Aix-en-Provence, France) to replace Entremont. The defeated king of the Salluvii, Teutomalius, fled to the Gallic Allobroges tribe for asylum. When the Roman Republic demanded that he be handed over, the Allobroges refused, leading to war. The Allobroges requested help from the neighboring Arverni tribe and their king, Bituitus, son of Louernius. There was a battle near Bédarrides, on the banks of the river Rhône on August 8, 121 B.C. The Roman consul Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus achieved victoey by using war elephants to shock the Gallic host. The following year, consul Quintus Fabius Maximus completed the defeat of the Allobroges and Arverni with another battle at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Isère. Bituitus and his son Congonnetiacus were taken as prisoners, paraded in a Roman triumphal procession and held for the remainder of their lives at Alba Fucens in Italy. This conflict resulted in the annexation of southern France and its reconfiguration as the Roman province of Gallia Transalpina. The power of the Arverni was greatly reduced and they lost their hegemony in France in favor of their neighbors the Haedui, who were Roman allies. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

The Dunaverney flesh-hook, discovered in a bog near Ballymoney in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland; dated to around 1,000 B.C. The flesh-hook would have been used to remove chunks of meat out of a cauldron and serve them up to guests during feasts. The metal sections went over an oak-wood shaft that kept them together, only a small piece of which still remains. The top of the metal shaft is rich with imagery from Indo-European myth and cosmology: Families of ravens and swans facing off. Being carrion birds, ravens were associated with death, while swans (and other types of water-fowl) were symbolic of resurrection and the renewal of life, as they often emerge flying out of watery places (water symbolized the underworld to many ancient cultures). The object thus depicts the dualistic nature of the cosmos and the cycles of death and rebirth that govern the natural world. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

The broch tower of Mousa, in Shetland, Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 At 13.3 meters high, the stone tower is the tallest and best preserved structure of its kind in Scotland. It was built around 300 B.C; probably a resistance for a prominent local chieftain. Centuries later, it wasn’t uncommon for people to use the abandoned structure for shelter. Scandinavian sagas mentioned Mousa broch more than once: Egil’s Saga described an episode in the 10th century when a young couple traveling from Norway to Iceland became shipwrecked nearby during a storm and took shelter in the broch. The Orkneyinga Saga also described an incident in the year 1153 in which the Norse jarl of Orkney, Harald Maddadson, besieged the broch because some enemies of his had abducted his mother and were holding her prisoner there.

Bracelet from the burial of a Gallic noblewoman in the Vins de Bruyère necropolis near Prosnes, in the Marne Department of France; 5th century B.C. 🇫🇷 Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Manx Loaghtan sheep (Manx: Lugh Dhoan; “Mouse-Brown”), a rare breed from the Isle of Man. 🇮🇲 Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

The silver spear of Olyndicus; by 19th-20th century anonymous artist “Navarrete”. 🇪🇸 The scene depicts the outbreak of the Numantine War (143-133 B.C.), the most famous conflict between the Celtiberian people and the Roman Republic. The Romans had been fighting (and losing) a war against the Lusitanian hero Viriathus since 147 B.C. (the so-called “War of Fire”). One of Viriathus’ master plays during the conflict was an expedition to Celtiberian lands, where he instigated his allies among them to revolt. The Celtiberian Arevaci tribe was keen to help Viriathus and throw off the Roman yoke; it didn’t take much to persuade them to revolt. According to the Roman historian Florus, they were led by a chieftain and priest by the name of Olyndicus (some copies of Florus’ text render the name Olonicus, others Salendicus). Olyndicus acted as a kind of prophet to galvanize his people. The narrative he used is unknown, but it included brandishing a silver spear that he claimed had been sent from heaven by the gods. At the outset of the war, the Romans nearly suffered disaster, but got lucky: Rome had dispatched consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus “Macedonicus” with a huge army to crush the revolt. Olyndicus led a surprise night attack on the Roman camp that came close to killing the consul himself. But the Celtiberian leader was killed in the battle by a lucky throw of a Roman javelin. Demoralized by this sudden reverse, the Celtiberians retreated and most of the tribes subsequently negotiated a surrender. But several towns, most notably Numantia, obstinately held out. For the next nine years, the Romans sent army after army to crush them, but suffered continual humiliating defeats. Only a protracted siege with a massive army led by consul P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus was able to finally break the Numantines, most of whom committed suicide rather than surrender. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Digital Reconstruction of the Iron Age hill-fort of Castell Dinas Brân, located in Denbighshire, Wales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Made for a video exhibit for the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Beauty website: https://www.clwydianrangeanddeevalleyaonb.org.uk/the-aonb/ The hill-fort of Dinas Brân was built around 600 B.C; it’s unclear when it stopped being inhabited. Later, it was reoccupied during the medieval period and became the principal residence of the rulers of Powys Fadog, who built a castle there.