Were The Ancient Celtic Warriors Really Barbarians? | Warriors Way | Odyssey

[Music] the soldier above all others prays for peace for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of War General Douglas MacArthur that's as true today as it was when MacArthur said it and yet in the midst of violence and destruction of War we can see heroism endurance and willpower that goes beyond the Call of Duty they lived by The Sword and they died by the sword they followed the warriors's way the Kelts a people without a nation or a king a network of Waring tribes that only ever United when fighting a common enemy maybe they weren't barbarians but they sure did fight an awful lot what would it have taken to be a leader of men in such a warrior Society duwon the man who would be Chief is born in what today is the Czech Republic in the 4th Century BCE referred to to as Lattin culture this was a high point for the Celtic peoples despite continually fighting among themselves and never uniting as a people under one leader 2300 years ago the Kelts occupied vast amounts of territory across Europe and even the Middle East from the grave of a Celtic Warrior found in mitosi Bohemia in the modern-day Czech Republic in Central Europe we can try to reconstruct what his life might have been like one of the things that has developed especially since the the 20th century although there was a huge find also in the 17th century are the Celtic remains bodies that have been inhumed in Graves with grave goods and so not only do we see the stature of the bodies and perhaps some of the wounds that may have done them in but we also have a very very nice array of weapons and defensive armaments sometimes food stuffs and preparations maybe even a horse and maybe even a boat the archae ologists have been able to deduce quite a lot about this corpse dead before he turned 40 well that was pretty typical for this era be that as it may he was definitely someone of importance we know because he was buried in his fine cloak we would like to think he might have been a Celtic [Applause] Chieftain the males that could have been the Warriors of the so-called warrior class Elite this social class is quite wide it accounts for almost 20% of the of the Deadtime society and those account for males being buried with their weapons and those weapons this the whole military equipment which counts with swords with [Music] spear and with with shield and with the personal ornaments what we can infer from these burials is of course the age when the so-called or alleged Warrior has died if it has become due to some military or violent encounter or as if he has died from the natural causes and surprisingly he mostly did cic Warriors get the fal reputation from nobody but their opponents they don't write don't know have much knowledge about what they thought of themselves but we know that the people who fought against them didn't like fighting against them they defeat the Romans when the Romans don't think anybody can defeat [Music] them Celtic warriors on the attack are as ferocious a band of killers as ever existed or at least that was their reputation there is no doubt they were brutal in combat but so were many many other Warrior [Applause] Creeds they have been labeled as the boaster and threateners and very fearsome Warriors which without any kind of warrior eque or ethos beside their own without any rules and with very strong feeling for the personal individual bravery so there's a general image they've got so this may give you an idea how they were looked and described by the classical authors as well part Legend part historical fact the image of the Celtic Warrior has stayed with us through the centuries if the Legends have any truth to them Celtic warriors certainly looked the part some were tattooed and the Kelts of Legend had their bodies painted in blue wode some even fought Buck Naked the Cs Especial in some parts of Europe Europe for example what is noway SC so they they used to to depict themselves not to pain themselves with these bluish colors so for this reason they were named [ __ ] The Painted ones by the Romans so all these elements put together highlight how the Celtic warriors used to appear as something completely different to the eyes of the Romans and also to the eyes of the Greeks perhaps what made the Kel so fearsome at least in the minds of others was their independence and we must Reserve judgment and recall that history is written by the Victorious later on when they have been fighting for their territories back with Romans the emphasis has been put on how great the Roman victories against them were so they needed again be Des Des cribed as fearsome and very dangerous enemy but obviously mortal and ultimately being defeated by the Romans sometimes it's believed women she Devils accompanied them into battle and may have even fought beside them this sort of thing could send a shiver down the spine of many a Roman or Greek who considered the Kelts [Applause] barbarians and it wasn't just down to appearances the Kelts deserve their reputation for violence and ferocity but recently the kelt's place in history has been undergoing a bit of revision the Kelts were all fine crafts people who granted their women more rights and all that well maybe so but it's Celtic warriors were interested in male or female and the more warlike the better they were really aggressive really unrefined as well so their nature as a military beings their nature as Warriors was completely different uh from that of more civilized and more technically oriented [Music] armies all cultures all people they evolve in time and same as the that the Latin culture Latin civilization as we called it it evolved from the 4th century when we encountered them fighting against the Romans on the capital to the first century when they are disappearing from the archaeological record in Central [Music] Europe [Music] it's said that the black Smith the Druid and the poet were all valued in Celtic lore for the roles they played in Warfare The Druids for reading Omens The Poets for composing battle songs and the blacksmith for making [Music] weapons this is drw's Father Goin a man of good standing in the tribe he has come to pick out a sword for his son he wants the best for his boy and the day has come to order a sword from the blacksmith a man he's known for many years he care carefully chooses which sword will be drw's [Music] first the craftsmen who made those beautiful Celtic weapons were highly prized somewhere between Alchemists and magicians metallurgists were seen as something we would call Shaman because they worked with fire and had access to procedures and technologies that were inaccessible to Ordinary People we know that from many sources both written and archaeological for example in citic languages at the place where iron smithing actually originated the verbs Forge and sing have the same origin which implies that the black Smiths recited or sang some magical formulas during their work which were almost certainly in verses and very much shows how close the cult efforts of the blacksmiths and their craftsmanship were in short work with fire was related to the Cults of all early civilizations and the Kelts were no exception the production of one blade takes me about 100 to 2 200 hours of work but of that work the sword is about half or third and the rest is pre-preparation of the material which was previously done by someone other than the sword possibly since the Early Middle Ages but definitely by the Middle Ages so if we wanted to say how much work there was to produce one sword from say melt to final product one blade could take hundreds of hours we can't say that they were highly valued or at least they were valued more than the other skilled Craftsmen we know that in the Latin culture in the later Iron Age they were very skilled bronze makers making magnificent things there were impeccably skilled glass makers doing personal [Music] ornaments treat yourself to the best gift in history this holiday season enjoy unlimited access to award-winning podcasts and thousands of hours of original history documentaries released weekly exclusively on History hit there are topics for all history lovers from Pompei to D-Day sign up via the link in the description for an exclusive discount don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to explore the past like never before with history [Music] hit swords play a big part in Celtic mythology and spirituality just think of Arthur and [Music] Excalibur the Laten swords are very beautiful it can be said that the Celtic feeling of beauty as we can observe those artifacts including swords was very similar to ours regarding the decoration plant ornaments and various symbols used by the Kelts they are very similar to our art Nuvo [Music] which is about a 100 years old and therefore they seem close to us with their preference for nature which in fact only with modern times is again in our minds the Cs also used different weapons as well they had long thin spearheads that would be on the end of uh Spears or maybe even what we would call lances although they were never as long as the Greeks they had uh weapons that they would attach to clubs we would later call them Maes and certain groups especially those that were found in Gul had these throwing axes that were quite fun they were oddly shaped and they were perfectly weighted and they loved to throw them in a great distance couldn't be a the length of a arrow for example but in a medium difference as they're closing in on the Romans they would heave one or two of these throwing axes in the Romans and if nothing else theyd get stuck in the Shields and weigh the Roman Shields down most of often they made it through and in that case they would penetrate pretty much anything the Romans woring the Celtic throwing axe probably doesn't get its do can you imagine how much practice it took to throw it so it hit its Target right and yet when people think of the Celtic weapons it is usually a sword or a dagger that Springs to mind it's important to understand these weapons were seen as merely tools of the trade some took the way of the plow and the sheath and some picked up an Axe and a sword and followed the Warrior's Way whether on the battlefields or in the pastures a kelt's tools were the clearest indicator of his or her social standing what we have here is a very distinct social class of men with weapons and women with very fine jewelry and then the rest of the population which is the remaining 60 to 80% of people which were living their probably normal agricultural based [Music] life the Kelts made weapons that were minor works of art setting them apart from the other weapons of this period but not every kelt got to use weapons of such quality duwon is lucky to have a father who can afford to buy him such a fine sword the young man will soon find out how hard he must work to earn such a gift when duwen is still a boy he is presented with his first real sword double-edged and super sharp the Celtic sword was as handsome as it was deadly much is made in popular histories of Warriors and their trusty swords but the Kelts were one of the few Warrior Creeds whose weapons and armaments were genuine Treasures works of art consider the Celtic Shield like the sword a thing of beauty as well as having great practical use Celtic warriors depended on their Shields almost as much as their weapons one of the nice things about uh studying the Kels and again we usually do it only from the perspective of them fighting the Romans is that their artwork is somewhat different Romans have big Grand artwork pretty much I guess ex exemplifying the big Grand Empire that was the Romans the Kelts were much smaller much floral animalistic all these other uh motifs that were put and they were great metal Smiths their swords which were of course metal the hilts of their swords would be immaculately decorated from the material evidence we know that the warrior uh military equipment consisted mostly of a sword of a spear and of a shield then Shield was mostly organic so what we find mostly is iron reinforcement of the piece where your fist would have been and of the edges uh what we know also and this is very interesting to say that this uh military equipment was standardized according to the military uh customs of that era to the way of fighting but on the contrary they were very individualized according to the personality of the better so you wouldn't probably find two same weapons on the same Cemetery in the in in the same area and the whole territory of the Latin culture you can find very similar weapons but not to exactly the same this is probably due to the thing that the weapons were very personal to their owner and they stayed with him for his whole life so sometimes you can encounter very large swords for example or very little swords very large Spears or very little of them and different kinds of shapes of shields as well like all Celtic warriors young Tron must learn how to use this sword and other weapons while still a lad and as you can see his father is a hard Taskmaster but we must remember that this is a tough world duwen is a natural anyway the kind of kid that looks forward to the day when he has grown up and can show the old man a thing or two well some things never change we don't know a lot about the Celtic youth we don't know a lot about Celtic home life actually uh all of that comes from excavations even tasses who writes a great book on on the Germans the Kelts of his day uh doesn't tell us a lot about the young but we do know that from a very early age a Celtic boy was raised in the use of arms uh probably using wooden uh replicas initially although none of these have been found in Graves and their skills and techniques their education would be placed in that area but by and large they just grew up with the weapons and they knew to defend against wild animals against opposing forces and sometimes against a Roman or two duwon changes from boy to man and already has his work cut out for him he will fight as a soldier For Hire on foreign soil he begins making a name for himself as a brave resourceful Soldier and good fellow to know generally he chooses his opponent well then again this is a dangerous life chain mail saves his life in combat more than once the invention of a chain mail in a continent at least is being attributed to the Kels and they were very precise in their construction because the pieces the individual Rings were connected by little rivets which were reinforcing the whole structure and this is counted as a Celtic invention actually but can you imagine joining all the circles all the rings that might take a life time for you to create one such a chain mail that's why it has been limited only to the as members of elite to wear such a chain mail Roman scribes including Livy and varo all mention that the Kelts use chain mail virro States explicitly that the Kelts invented it the Kels also wore Leno thorax a type of armor created from leather linen and felt so it was that the Kelts these illiterate barbarians created the finest armor of their age and forced their enemies to change tactics the Romans had to change the weapons when they encountered the Kelts their own weapons were small swords that they thrust things we call Gladius a Gladius is a thrusting sword it's not very long and it's used mostly to be to be used behind his shield the Kelts were on Horseback and so their swords were longer and the Romans actually had to develop swords that were longer to make sure that they could hit the Kelts in their Saddles cuz the Kelts would actually fight with these swords that were a bit longer and could reach down if the Romans couldn't reach up then that meant there was only death on one [Music] side the quiet life was definitely not for the Kelts duwen embodies that Warrior Spirit he can see clearly that in the world in which he lives being a skilled practitioner in the ways of war is almost the only way to get ahead in life after all the many Celtic foms and tribes fought constantly among themselves for centuries who exactly the Kels were is is defined by the Romans they seem to be all over Europe the Kelts of Britain fought pretty much the Kelts of Britain uh if there was somebody who had the capability maybe a French group that had the capability going across the channel then they would fight if it was one from Ireland they would fight but otherwise it was a one group in this Forest one group on that Forest they would fight against each other over whatever we don't know KS were at War among themselves because we we need to highlight also this aspect the Celtic world was never a unified type of world from the political point of view so the Celtic entity or the Celtic eum as we could say used to be divided split into several factions into several tribes and so very often these tribes were at War one against the other but also the important uh the strugging point from here is that these uh KS used to spread all over Continental Europe from one side to the other of east to west and also onto the British Islands only in the face of a mighty common enemy would the Waring Kelts unite to defeat their territories from the 4th Century bcee these included the dacians Germanic tribes Greeks and macedonians including the most famous Macedonian of all Alexander the Great but the Celtic world's Arch Enemy was the Roman Empire the Kelts sacked the city of Rome in three 90 BCE a humiliation neither forgiven nor forgotten by the Romans who remained at war with the Kelts for the next 400 [Applause] years they invaded Germania Gul and finally Britannia the Romans could subdue the Kelts for long periods of time but they could never Crush their rebellious [Music] spirit so I say that at least from the year uh 390 before Kera when brenos managed to defeat uh Roman troops the battle of the alley and then to sack Rome uh which was a huge kind of outd for that important City Rome developing uh as a Republic from that time the ks had numerous encounters with the Romans with different kind of consequences is it's also true that uh basically in the 2 Century before Kon er uh the Romans started to develop a very specific and tailored anti- Celtic strategy so they began to push the Celtic tribes up to the north and uh you know even farther beyond the Alps so Rome after the Second Punic War that means in 2019 turn their attention back to the territories they have lost to Kels 200 years before or 150 at least and they started offensive campaigns against Kel with the purpose of adjacent the territories in the Northern Italy back to Rome and they have succeeded after several years of military campaigns and the local KS that were settling there were being either killed off subordinated or mostly turned away from the territory so it was a matter of an existence and something which they were fighting for it takes luck and all his speed and skill as a warrior to survive but Dron survives life on the frontier and finally returns home from his battles against the marauding Romans older tougher and a little richer from The Spoils of War he brings with him gruesome trophies from his [Applause] victims their heads to take someone's head was to absorb all the strength of the Fallen enemy but was head hunting really so common in the Celtic [Music] world we have quite the difficulties of finding an Evidence of Warriors actually taking heads of their enemies but we have one very interesting example it's in today's France as well it's in Champagne I believe and it's called Monsour Anka it's a site in France probably a site of an ancient Battlefield when the army of defeated was on a display on a some wooden Construction and archaeologists have found many dozens of corpses and those corpses were headless so their head were severed they were taken away and the rest of the curses were mounted on a certain sort of a wooden kind of a display Legend Hazard the Kelts would tie the heads of their enemies around their waists before going into battle but that may be one tall tail too far a head is what 10 lbs 20 lbs uh probably 10 pounds let's put 20 heads around you got 200 lb around your waist now you going to go in battle with 200 lb around your waist probably not so the Romans may have been making this whole thing up or they may have seen individuals within who were making this as a parade as theater against them to show look this is what we've killed and by the way don't you see your brother Sam is there something along those lines because they wanted the Romans to go away the Romans want to fight them they probably took that belt off it takes a bit of imagination and a strong stomach to consider how a society that believed the head to be something sacred could also cut them off and stick them on pipes violence sped through into so many aspects of Celtic [Music] life even the kelt's spiritual leaders practiced it The Druids are believed to have presided over not only animal but human sacrificial [Music] rights this is the mishik zarovich head a sculpture found at the same site as drw's Grave the tonser the bald strip on his skull indicates that he was probably a druid the Celtic holy [Music] man [Music] The Druids constitute a very specific a very specific social class within the context of the Celtic world so they were many things at the same time they were cotal class so they were basically priests uh mainly dealing with the forces of nature uh with the trees especially with the oct trees more specifically uh they could also be sort of Masters also poets sometimes I mean so they were related to all that was untangle spiritual so they took care of that side uh of human life for the Cs I would say um so also because of this and because of other maybe stories or methologies such as the ones referring to human sacrifices for example The Druids were seen pretty much with suspicion by by the Romans for example who managed to wipe them out uh from the face of the Celtic World forest ring Forts and stone opms were the Fortified compounds where settled Celtic tribes live together this ring of trees is the remains of a ring fort in Western Bohemia officially called jcel hza remains like this may not be as Majestic as a ruined medieval castle but opods or ring forts were strategically located and built to withstand enemy onslaughts jel hottia was inhabited during the late period of Laten culture the 2 Century before the Common Era it became part of the Amber Road the commercial traveler's route of the Celtic world [Music] this is where dren grew up and where all his dreams of becoming a great Chieftain [Music] began an opom as we know it from the Continental Europe has a very typical and very specific form of fortification the fortification con consist of a stone facing wall with the upright wooden beams and the earn rampar which is adjacent to it from the back and with the stone facing wall the ramp part is being connected by the horizontally laid beams because there was so much Warfare and because so many people were Raiders versus actual farmers and maybe 100 gatherers uh there need to be some protection and the easiest protection to build was an Earth and Rampart you put wood on top of it and that would help make it larger but a wooden Rampart created both a ditch in front of it and a wooden [Music] wall following his bloody skirmishes with the Romans duwon turns his attention closer to home after showing himself to be a dab hand at slaughtering their foreign enemies he needs to cement his position and Prestige by imposing his will on his nearby Neighbors after all every fighting man's body needs a head he may never become a Bren or a vers joric but dren will be a leader of men no matter who stands in his way vers joric karakus Bren they were all great Celtic warriors and Chieftains but the most famous warrior from the Roman Celtic Wars is a woman Boda The Story Goes that Boda or budika both are correct was the Celtic Queen who in first century CE led a lightning speed Guerilla campaign against the Roman Empire but this is also something interesting that once uh you actually manage to defeat the ks they never really surrender for good so they always managed to find another solution after bod's Chieftain husband died she had expected the Romans to respect her status as his widow but Nero the infamous Roman Emperor had other plans for her instead of providing security the Romans seized her lands stole from all her Chieftains they even had Boda flogged while they raped her daughters Boda swore Vengeance waiting until the Roman governor was absent she raised a rebel Army which between 60 and 61 CE destroyed Roman fortifications in London Colchester and St Albin killing an estimated 880,000 people bodika is from the historical point of view a remarkable figure of a Female warrior for sure uh so she dared to confront herself and the ien tribe which was her tribe her ethnicity with the Roman so she was brave enough to put together and to start a revolt against the Romans once the Romans actually showed that they wanted to concer the territory of the tribe after the death of bik's husband prasutagus so she was a remarkable figure of a of a Female warrior she was a leader she was very strong the description that we get from the storian casuso she was tall she had this Fier si side she was very strong and very brave for sure so the Romans were almost terrorized by ha and at the head of the Revolt she managed to sack to to conquer to almost destroy two or three Roman C this among which we can un least also London londinium the end came when Governor paulinus met and routed bod's Rebel Army at a point near present day Milton King to avoid capture and further indignities at the hands of the Romans Boda and her daughters took poison but even in defeat her Legend grew she had shown that Rome could be defeated and had cemented her Legend as the greatest of all female [Music] warriors B to rides in a chariot there's no question I've seen at all monuments there's tons of monuments to her all throughout England she's wearing it she's riding a chariot actually we do know the Chariots were prolific at the time there would have been no way that she would have ridden anything else in fact the strange thing is is that the British using chariots when they're long gone from the Roman society Romans read writing or their in cards for VY to WR in The Chariot that's something somewhere along the line and I don't think it was the Romans but somewhere along the line said you know what those Scythe chariots that the Persians had in the Bible that must have been what she was using up in England and Bodo was not the only one a Celtic grave in the Czech Republic was found to be that of a woman buried with her sword only celebrated warriors were buried with their weapons and shields the sword was worn on a belt around her waist suggesting it might not have been a ceremonial weapon this is a female grave from the 3D Century BC and we know she was a female because we have the anthropological evidence we have genetic evidence and we also know and we saw that she was buried in a full female costume which was very rich for that era but she had a sword and this is very exceptional find and we cannot quite safely interpret what happened maybe she carried a sword of her dead husband maybe she inherited the sword from her father maybe she took upon herself to perform some social roles suited for the Warriors or for men and this reflected as a the presence of a sword in her grave but we cannot say for sure whether she herself was engaged in a military encounters the woman was about 50 years old when she died and apparently spent a lot of time on Horseback she was also buried with some Exquisite Celtic jewelry which had come all the way from [Music] France but though there are one or two honored Celtic women warriors it is the Celtic men who were expected to literally fight all the time even while feasting we find duwon a bit older and meaner than the last time he was here in another staring contest with an old Tormentor and rival for the chieftain's throne his rival is being honored with the hero's portion of the feast their eyes divert to the mound of food in the middle of the table a veritable Celtic feast or kedir as it's known in Celtic the hero's portion or the Lion's Share this was the best cut of meat the choicest part of the feast and it was given to the bravest of the Brave at a victory [Music] Feast but worth fighting and maybe dying for you be the judge so we have written accounts that they were fighting at feasts they were fighting over over piece of meat they were fighting over anything basically according to the Britain sources so it's a matter of the personal courage of a personal standing the way how you treat your opponent how bravely you treat your opponent how you react to the conflict as well and these all encounters has very binding set of rules which were connected to the rituals obviously [Applause] Kelts have their own Legends but they seem to be written by somebody else and they tell us that honor is the most important thing among a warrior This Is Not Unusual see Elite forces the Warriors way if you will the Warriors way is that you go out on Battle and you do what the Spartan mother says to her son either you come back with your Shield or on it it is easy to imagine how fighting for the hero's portion or kedir could be a dangerous fool hearty [Applause] Enterprise the loser could also bring disgrace upon himself and his kin on the other hand in this Warrior Society winning the kured Mir could help make a man's reputation and Fortune as they say favors the Bold in this case duwon is the [Music] [Applause] winner [Music] he has won the hero's portion but where can this happy warrior go from [Music] [Applause] here like all Celtic warriors he has only a short time to realize his ultimate [Applause] ambition well there a there's a thing we are talking about a very short period of time in fact where the Kels as we can call them were in offensive it was the beginning of the so-called Celtic expansion which took place in from the beginning of the 4th Century BC we do not know what happened in the original territory the original territory spent across Central Europe basically the southern part of Germany bohimia Moravia and Slovakia parts of parts of Austria and Hungary this is the area which is associated with the so-called halad culture from the early Iron Age between the 8th and the 4th Century BC duwon was lucky enough to live during what was a golden age for the Kelts in Central [Music] Europe when the tribes flourished but the Romans and later Germanic tribes would soon once again be at his Gates one of the most curious things about studying premodern society and warfare is how much there was most of these guys fought about little things I we're not talking about Alexander the Great going all the way to the end of the world we're not talking about the Mongols sweeping across Asian into Europe and uh and in the Middle East we're not talking about Crusaders on their way to free the holy land so to speak we're not even talking about the Romans making a a huge uh Empire we're talking about tribes on this side of the lake going around and beating up on tribes on the other side of the lake and why who knows is the fishing better in the middle are they having problems of that we have no idea but it seems that men cannot be at peace for whatever reason that you have to fight over some sort of aspect and what is the aspects that we fight over now probably the same that we fight over over then religious aspects economic aspects sexual aspects everybody's fighting everybody for whatever reason and you want to say you're both the same people can't you get [Music] along in a few years the Celtic Druid presides over drw's initiation ceremony as chief he has become tribal Chieftain not exactly by winning a scrap over the hero's portion at dinner but by being more aggressive more Territorial and more ruthless than his Rivals let him Revel in it since he won't have long to enjoy it we can't say for sure how our Czech Celtic Warrior Chieftain would have lived out the rest of his [Music] days but we do know he would have defended his homeland to his very last breath ironically some 500 years later it would be the fall of the Roman Empire that would signal the beginning of the end for the Celtic peoples but give them their due they had had a long and glorious ride in the Warriors [Music] [Music] Way [Music] [Music]

Channel: Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries

Views: 107,110

Keywords: Ancient conquerors, Ancient legends, Archaeological findings, Celtic culture, Celtic tribes, Documentary series, Historical analysis, Legendary battles, Odyssey - Ancient History Documentaries, Roman soldiers, ancient Rome, ancient artifacts, barbarian stereotypes, battlefield tactics, historical battles, historical evidence, uncovering history, warrior authenticity, warrior legends, warrior pride

Id: 6nZ2svrBOWQ

Length: 48min 45sec (2925 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2023