Celtic Europe

Scotland’s Aorta: The river Tay (Gaelic: Abhainn Tatha). 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Images: (1) At Dalguise, Perthshire, (2) Not far from the same location, (3) Further downstream overlooking the plains of Gowrie from Kinnoul Hill, with the hills of Fife in the distance. The Tay is Scotland’s longest river, and it waters Scotland’s most fertile lands, which are the plains of Gowrie, particularly the ‘carse’, which is the stretch of land east of the Sidlaw Hills between Perth and Dundee. The river originates in the deep Highlands, on the slopes of Ben Lui, where the provinces of Argyll and Atholl had a border. That first section is called the river Cononish, but the name changes not far from Tyndrum, that section being called the river ‘Fillan’. After Crianlarich the Fillan empties into Loch Dochart, continuing out the other side with yet another name: Abhainn Dochard. As the river Dochart it flows through the valley of the same name before emptying into Loch Tay. Continuing out the other end of the lake, the river is called the Tay throughout the remainder of its length, all the way to the Firth of Tay where it empties into the North Sea. https://t.me/CelticEurope

Gold torc found in an ancient Gallic settlement near Saint-Jean-Trolimon, in Finistère, Brittany; bronze age, uncertain date. 🇫🇷 https://t.me/CelticEurope

Another fire picture of the Forest of Dean in England; photo by Drew Buckley. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 https://t.me/CelticEurope

Make France Gallic Again ⚜️🇫🇷 https://t.me/CelticEurope

Vive la France de Vercingétorix, de Louis IX et de Jeanne d’Arc ! ⚜️🇫🇷 Vive Rouen!

Bronze buckler found near Athenry, in county Galway, Ireland; late bronze age. 🇮🇪 https://t.me/CelticEurope

Two bronze anklets found —part of a larger hoard of metal objects— at Ruisseau-des-Suées in the Aube departament of France; 4th or 3rd century B.C. ⚜️🇫🇷 https://t.me/CelticEurope

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 One of the most feared creatures of Celtic folklore is the Cirein Cròin, an enormous and deadly sea serpent said to inhabit the wild north Atlantic. The name would appear to mean “Reddish brown crest” (i.e. like modern Gaelic Cìrean Cròn) as apparently the animal has a spiny crest along its back that sometimes protrudes through the water. The first ever written record of the Cirein Cròin was made by a Scottish pastor from Argyll named John Gregorson Campbell (1836-91), who had a lifelong fascination with collecting Gaelic folk-tales and myths. From his accounts —collected while serving as minister on the Isle of Tiree— it was known that the Cirein Cróin was greatly feared by the inhabitants of the Western Isles and coasts of Scotland. Other folklorists such as Alexander Robert Forbes and Alexander Carmichael later recorded sayings common among people in Skye and Caithness, which alleged that the monster was able to devour seven whales in one sitting. Terrifyingly, some accounts describe the Cirein Cròin as having a supernatural element to it: It was believed by some to hunt fishermen through mind-bending hallucinations, appearing to them first as a tiny minnow. Once the unsuspecting men cast their nets after it, the Cirein Cròin would reveal itself to be a gargantuan monster and proceed to devour them boat and all. The creature was even considered as a suspect in the case of the mysterious disappearance of the three keepers of the Flannan Isles lighthouse, James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur, who vanished without a trace in December of the year 1900.

Autumn on the Alpine tundra; Chamonix, France. ⚜️🇫🇷🍂🍁 https://t.me/CelticEurope

Bronze helmet —found in fragments— of Greek or Etruscan type, found in the burial of a Celtiberian chieftain within the Aguilar de Anguita necropolis, in Guadalajara province, Spain; 5th century B.C. 🇪🇸 An artist’s hypothetical reconstruction shown in the second image. The typology of Iberian and Celtiberian military panoplies of the period shows heavy Etruscan influence. https://t.me/CelticEurope

Bronze collar found near Sion, in Valais canton, Switzerland; Rhone culture, 20th-17th centuries B.C. 🇨🇭 https://t.me/CelticEurope

Iron shears found among the ruins of the Gallic town of Manching, in Bavaria, Germany; 3rd or 2nd century B.C. 🇩🇪 https://t.me/CelticEurope

Native oak woodlands in the Forest of Dean; Gloucestershire, England. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Wee hieland coos near Desvres, in Pas-de-Calais, France. ⚜️🇫🇷 https://t.me/CelticEurope

🇪🇸 Tesera de hospitalidad con escritura Celtibérica, hallada entre las ruinas de la antigua ciudad de Arekoratas, hoy Muro de Ágreda, Soria. La tesera esboza un pacto de amistad entre un Sekilako, hijo de Melmuno, del clan Amikos, y los habitantes de Arekoratas; siglo III o II a.C. Los pactos de hospitium eran comunes en la Hispania prerromana, y típicamente consistían en una concesión de los mismos derechos legales que tenían miembros de una cierta comunidad a personas de origen ajeno.

Was the Isle of Skye a part of the Gaelic Kingdom of Dál Riata? The short answer for this is yes and no. Historical documents from later periods such as 13th century De Situ Albanie, seem to assume that Skye was part of Dál Riata. But more reliable sources such as the Annals of Ulster seem to contradict them, as they record the Cenél Gabráin sept of Dál Riata invading Skye and attempting to conquer it from the natives. This could only be the case if Skye had been an independent polity, one that likely controlled other nearby territories such as Wester Ross. The same source also records multiple individuals from Skye with Pictish names such as Gartnait, Talorg, and Cano, while the archaeological record attests to the Pictish culture predominant on the island. The Dál Riata are first recorded attacking Skye in the year 649 AD. After nineteen years of fighting, the ruling dynasty of Skye was dislodged and forced to flee to Ireland. The middle Irish tale Scéla Cano meic Gartnáin records the adventures of Skye’s Pictish king, Cano, son of Gartnait during his exile in Ireland. He was only there for two years, and returned with a fleet —of the Irish Corcu Loígde of Munster— to reclaim his kingdom. From them onward, constant fighting between Dál Riata and the people of Skye was recorded, which didn’t seem to abate until the early 700s. By that point, Skye seems to have become integrated into Dál Riata, although the original ruling dynasty —descendants of that same Cano, son of Gartnait— retained their position as rulers. This likely indicates a settlement through marriage alliances rather than a successful conquest. But Skye didn’t remain a part of Dál Riata for long. The growth of the Gaelic kingdom seems to have attracted the ire of the Pictish king of neighboring Foirtriu, Óengus I, who conquered first Skye, then Dál Riata in a series of campaigns between the years 730 and 740 AD. The last known ruler of Skye, Cano’s great grandson Talorgan, son of Congus, was defeated in battle by Óengus’ son Bruide in 731, then captured by his own unnamed brother and handed over to Óengus in the year 734; he was executed by drowning. With that, Skye was brought back into the Pictish orbit as a satellite of Foirtriu, where it would remain until the end of the century, at which point it was conquered by Norse Vikings. https://t.me/CelticEurope

Gyptis offers the bowl of wine to Protis; art by Sandrine Duval. 🇬🇷⚜️🇫🇷 Around the year 600 B.C; a marriage between a Gallic chieftain’s daughter and a Greek merchant led to the foundation of the city of Massalia —now Marseille— in southern France. Protis, son of Euxenus came to Gaul from the Greek city of Phocaea (modern Foça in Turkey) and established contact with a local Celtic tribe, the Segobriges. The local chief, Nannus, is said to have held a feast in which his daughter, Gyptis, was allowed to choose a mate by presenting the man with a bowl of wine. She chose the Greek adventurer, and an alliance was sealed between the two people whereby the Greeks were allowed to build a settlement within the territory of the Celts, that settlement of course, being Massalia. The relationship brought prosperity to both peoples, but within about twenty years it broke down. The new chief of the Segobriges, Nannus’ son Comanus, began to fear the growing power and wealth of the Greek settlers, whose numbers increased day by day. He is said to have initiated a war, during which an attempt was made to infiltrate the city in carts full of victuals that were being brought in for a religious festival. The plot was betrayed by one of Comanus’ own nobles, enabling the Greeks to foil it and launch a counterattack in which Comanus was defeated and killed. From then on, the relationship was inverted, with Massalia becoming a fully independent and powerful state and the Segobriges reduced to being its vassals. Soon, the Greek colony had built a small empire in southern Gaul and the western Mediterranean. The foundation of satellite colonies throughout southern France, such as Nice (Greek: Níkaia; “victory”), attest to territorial expansion and successful battles against the natives. But Massalia’s power did not last long. The city was defeated by an alliance of Carthage and the Etruscan League at the naval Battle of Alalia (~535 B.C.), thus losing its dominance in the Mediterranean. Massalia then went into decline, and soon found itself beleaguered by the resurgent natives of Gaul. By the year 387 B.C; the Segobriges were on the rebound and led by a king named Catumandus, besieged the Greek city. Fortunately for the Massaliotes, the conflict ended with a peace treaty. Still, Massalia never recovered its initial power, and constantly found itself confronted by aggressive natives. At some point, the Segobriges were displaced in the area by the Celto-Ligurian Salluvii, who proved to be much dreaded bullies to the Greek settlers. Unable to defeat them or free themselves from their yoke, the Massaliotes were eventually forced to beg Rome for intervention, which came in the late 120s B.C; and resulted in the conquest of southern Gaul. Ironically, this would eventually lead Massalia’s final undoing, as the consequent period of tranquility and security didn’t even last a century. In 49 B.C; the Massaliotes made the mistake of taking the side of Gnaeus Pompey in the civil war against Julius Caesar. The result was the Siege of Massalia by Caesar, which ended in a humiliating surrender and the confiscation of all Massalia’s surrounding territories.

Doon ring-fort in county Donegal, Ireland. 🇮🇪 The construction of Doon fort is dated to the 5th century AD. It was likely a residence for local chiefs of the Cenél mBógaine sept of Cenél Conaill for many centuries. https://t.me/CelticEurope

Artistic reconstruction of the Pictish fortified homestead (or “dun”) of Torr-Dhuin in the Highlands of Scotland; art by Chris Mitchell. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Torr-Dhuin is located near Auchteraw in the Great Glen, between Loch Ness and Loch Oich. It has not been extensively and therefore is undated; typology alone suggests late iron age to early medieval period.

Left: Iron horse-hoof scrapers discovered in a Celtiberian burial at Bronchales, in Teruel province, Spain; 5th century B.C. Right: Iron horse-shoe discovered in the Celtiberian necropolis of Aguilar de Anguita, in Guadalajara province, Spain; 3rd century B.C. 🇪🇸 Celtiberian horse-shoes are among the earliest known in archaeology, rivaled only by Etruscan finds from northern Italy dating to ~400 B.C. Recent finds of hoof-scrapers from Bronchales are the earliest evidence of the practice of shoeing horses in existence. It therefore appears quite likely that the horseshoe is a Celtiberian invention. The six burials unearthed at Bronchales were also revelatory, as they contained much material from Andalusia, which to archaeologist Francisco Burrillo suggests that Celtiberian herdsmen used to regularly take their herds of cattle south to trade with the Iberian civilization (think how every summer Scottish Highlanders used to travel with their cattle to Crieff in the Strathearn Lowlands for trade); indeed, the men buried at Bronchales may just be the earliest known “vaqueros” (i.e. ‘cowboys’). https://t.me/CelticEurope