Celtic Europe

The Norrie’s Law Hoard, a 5th-6th century AD stash of Pictish silver, found in a small mound near the village of Upper Largo, in Fife, Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The hoard originally contained 12.5 kg of late Roman and Pictish silver, including two Roman coins. After discovery, large amounts of it were pilfered, melted down and sold, so that currently there is less than 1kg remaining. Given that the hoard belongs to a time period of extreme turmoil, and that it contains late Roman items and hack silver, it’s likely that the silver was obtained as plunder taken in raids on sub-Roman Britain, and/or as tribute paid to avert the same. Obviously, some of the silver was then melted down by a Pictish craftsman and worked into pieces of fine jewelry. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Sheath for a dagger, found in a cremation burial within the Celtiberian necropolis of Miraveche, in Burgos province, Spain; 4th century B.C. 🇪🇸

Bronze fixture for a chariot yoke, decorated with stylized bull and bird heads. Found among the ruins of the Gallic town of Manching, in Bavaria, Germany; 2nd century B.C. 🇩🇪 Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Spanish Oak (Quercus Pyrenaica) forest in autumn. Sierra de Guadarrama, Segovia province; Spain. 🇪🇸

A map of medieval Ireland (10th century), with the Gaelic Kingdom of Arigíalla highlighted. 🇮🇪 Initially much larger, much of Airgíalla’s territory was taken over by the Northern Uí Néill, of whom, ironically, the Airgíalla were vassals and allies. According to legend, the kingdom was founded in AD 331 by brothers known as the “Three Collas”. That year, they supposedly invaded Ulster with an army from Connacht, winning the Battle of Achadh Leithdeircc and killing king Fergus Foga. They then burnt Emain Macha and carved out a new kingdom for themselves. Years before, they’d killed their uncle, High King Fíacha Sroiptine in battle and taken his throne. But Fíacha’s son Muiredach Tíreach overthrew them and forced them to flee to Britain. They returned with 300 warriors, seeking to provoke Muiredach to battle, but Muiredach took them into his service and persuaded them to invade Ulster instead. Modern genetic studies suggest the legend of the Three Collas might be pure fiction. DNA analysis of men tracing their descent from the clans of Airgíalla (supposedly descendants of the Three Collas) has been yielding surprising results: Most of the Y-chromosome lineages trace back to eastern England, meaning the Airgíalla are primarily descended (in the male line) from Celtic Britons, probably from around Colchester (i.e. the Celtic Trinovantes tribe). Interestingly, the same Y-chromosome haplogroup is commonly found in men of the Scottish Clan MacDonald. This appears to confirm ancient lore and genealogies tracing the MacDonalds back to Airgíalla ancestors. A Scottish text, the Senchus Fer n-Alban, mentions Airgíalla as vassals of the Cenél Loairn tribe of the Kingdom of Dál Riata. It would thus appear that some Irish Airgíalla were among the colonists who settled Scotland when Dál Riata was founded (6th century AD). Their territory, and Clan MacDonald’s ultimate place of origin, seems to have been the southern Outer Hebrides islands. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Landscapes of Somerset, England. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The region was formerly known as Glastening, from which Glastonbury gets its name. Glastening was named after a Welsh chieftain named Cyndrwyn Glas(t) (i.e. “the grey”), son of Elnaw, who hailed from the chiefdom of Dogfeiling in north Wales, which was part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. He was a descendant of Gwynedd’s founder, Cunedda Wledig, who hailed from Manaw Gododdin in Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 After the Welsh king of Powys, Selyf Sarffgadau (“Solomon Battle-Serpent”) was killed by the Angles of Northumbria at the Battle of Chester (AD 613), Cyndrwyn seems to have opportunistically invaded Powys and enthroned his son Elfan there. Part of Powys’ territory in central England was carved out to form another kingdom called Pengwern, where Cyndrwyn’s other son Cynddylan was enthroned. Another son, Morfael, gained renown fighting against the Angles of Mercia, when he stormed and took the town of Caer-Luitcoyt (now Lichfield) from them. Subsequently, an alliance was made with Mercia, and the Pengwern Welsh were instrumental in the defeat and killing of king Oswald of Northumbria at the Battle of Maserfield (AD 642). However, Penda’s Welsh allies would eventually have a falling out with him, and they notably abstained from fighting the Battle of Winwaed (AD 655), where he was killed by Oswiu of Northumbria. The victorious Oswiu then attacked Pengwern unexpectedly, killing Cynddylan and Elfan, and forcing the elderly Cyndrwyn, his son Morfael, and many of their people to seek refuge in Dumnonia. There, they were apparently given Glastening as a chiefdom. Tragically, they lost half of it almost immediately, as the West Saxons invaded and defeated the Britons at the Battle of Peonnum (AD 658), pushing the border to the river Parrett. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Sheep and heather in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. 🇮🇪 Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope

Artistc reconstructions of the Gallic city of Bibracte as it would have looked in the 1st century B.C. Bibracte was the capital of the Celtic Aedui tribe, one of the most powerful in all Gaul and one of Rome’s principal allies in the region. The city was located on the top of Mont Beuvray, in Burgundy, France. Art by Jean Claude Golvin. 🇫🇷

The hill of Allt Cunedda, near Kidwelly, in Carmarthenshire, Wales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Local tradition has it that the founder and first king of Gwynedd, Cunedda Wledig, son of Edern, was killed here. Cunedda was a chieftain from the northern region of Manaw Gododdin, located around present day Falkirk in what’s now Scotland. In the 5th century AD, he was invited by the rulers of southern Britain —possibly even Vortigern himself— to come to Wales and re-conquer large parts of it from Irish invaders who’d taken over and colonized the area. After many years of fighting, Cunedda and his people were successful in either killing or driving out most of the Irish from northern and western Wales. They carved out two kingdoms from the territories they had acquired: Gwynedd and Ceredigion. The old folk tale recorded around Kidwelly held that later on, Cunedda came to the area with his army, seeking to make additional conquests in south Wales (the area was part of the Kingdom of Dyfed at that time). At the hill that bears his name, he was met by a large band of locals (presumably includingIrish colonists), who fought a battle against him in which he was finally defeated and killed. Cunedda was said to have been buried nearby, and his sons Einion Yrth and Ceredig followed him as kings of Gwynedd and Ceredigion respectively.

Recreated burial of an Indo-European prince, unearthed near Fuente Olmedo, in Valladolid province, Spain. 🇪🇸 On display at the Museum of Valladolid. The Fuente Olmedo burial is dated to ~1,650 B.C. It contained a young man between 16 and 18 years of age, buried with elite-status items such as bell-beaker pottery, a copper dagger, copper arrows, a golden diadem, and a stone wrist-guard to protect his forearm when engaged in archery. His young age and diadem suggest he was a ruler who inherited his position, but died prematurely. Archaeological and genetic studies have shown that the people to whom the Fuente Olmedo prince belonged were in part derived from Central European migrants who came to central Spain at some point around 2,500 B.C. They were apparently mostly males, who then intermarried with native Iberian women. DNA extracted from skeletons of these people has so far all reflected the paternal lineages R1b-P312 and DF27, which would mean that these people were of the same stock as the later attested Celts. Their autosomal DNA however, was almost entirely native Iberian, as the central European component was diluted through generations of inter-marriage. These people were culturally different from the non-Indo-European Iberian civilization of the southern and eastern peninsula. The latter were urban, agricultural, and matriarchal, while the former were male-ruled semi-nomadic livestock-herders. These Indo-European herders were ancestral to later attested peoples of Iberia, such as the Vettones and Lusitanians, while others of their descendants inter-married with the Celts who arrived in the peninsula from southern France around 1,200 B.C; going on to form hybrid cultures such as the Celtiberians, Berones, Autrigones, and others. In the case of northern peoples such as the Astures, Gallaecians, and Cantabrians, trade and some migration from the British Isles seems to have also contributed to the mix. Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): https://t.me/CelticEurope