Who Were The Celts?

I'm Karen Bellinger Anthropologist and archaeologist and your guide back through time to uncover the wonderful world of one of Europe's Most Fascinating and mysterious people the Kelts the Kelts a society that thrived over 2,000 years ago a culture shrouded in mystery a people who continue to Fascinate us today but what is their true story the name kelt has been used for years by Scholars and the general public alike for different tribes modern cultures and whole National identities much in the same way European explorers grouped Myriad Native American peoples under the single banner Indian but an explosion in Iron Age archaeology in Central Europe alongside incredible discoveries of Celtic burials are challenging many widely held misconceptions of the Kelts dispelling myths and shedding new light on their Mysterious World the K shared a couple of similar cultural traits and surely a similar material culture they for example wore the same jewelry have the same dresses used the same weapons and used the same tools that above all they developed a similar artistic style who were they and something we've too seldom stopped to ask where where did they come from in this series we uncover the true story of the [Music] Kels the Kelts are one of the most remarkable people in all of European history the ancient Greeks and Romans immortalized them as proud and fearless Warriors rough barbarians a world apart from their own civilized societies their fascination with them was tinged with fear and a grudging degree of respect but they were so much more than their enemies would have us believe for centuries they've been much misunderstood why they relied on oral history communicating everything by Word of Mouth through song story and conversation they left no written record and that's why so much of what we think we know about the Kelts is wrong the information that we do have comes from the Greeks and Romans who had their own agenda [Music] and so myths and misconceptions are established and they endure right up until the present day there are thousands of cliches about ancient Celtic culture today for example Halloween as having its roots in ancient Celtic times is just blank nonsense we tend to think of them as people from the far reaches of Western Europe in Ireland Scotland Wales or England in fact they arrived on the map in Mainland Europe then expanded all across the continent even spreading as far as Asia their legacy can be seen even today in music and art in both folk and spiritual traditions in modern languages and whole National identities millions of people around the world are proud of their Celtic Heritage but the question remains where did the Kels come from I'm traveling to the place where archaeologists now believe it All Began deep in the Austrian mountains in a beautiful sleepy Alpine Village called halat [Music] in the early Iron Age the people living here had enormous power and wealth because of what they found when they ventured deep inside the [Music] mountains salt a cheap and common commodity today but near nearly 3,000 years ago an ingredient both precious and [Music] vital even today very few of us could live without adding salt to almost any meal but besides its value in adding or masking taste salt is an excellent preservative espe especially for meat in a time when Refrigeration was not even a distant dream salt was a critical mineral for a growing population without it food could easily spoil or rot causing illness or at worst starvation it's no exaggeration to say that at this time Salt could be the difference between life and death halat is one of the the oldest salt mines in the world and it's been in continuous use for up to 7,000 years with its prehistoric usage peing in the early Iron Age in 1846 the director of mining operations at halad made an extraordinary discovery on the mountain slopes a huge burial ground over 2500 Graves of men women and children draped in weapons jewels and other treasured personal belongings to accompany them into the Afterlife a local artist recorded the graves in a series of remarkable drawings and archaeologists begin to piece together the story of these people who prospered here around 700 BC ironically it's the lifeblood of hallad salt that is preserved organic materials like cloth leather and wood which normally decompose in the ground unique to hellat and thanks to these highly preserved objects archaeologists have a deeper understanding of how these first Kelts lived more than 25 centuries ago what the people wore the tools they used to work how they tended to their sick and wounded even what they ate and thanks to finds how they ate it could give us an idea of how they used to celebrate and socialize when historians consulted ancient records they discovered that the classical Creeks had a name for the people they were trading with from this area and they called them the ktoy here in halad amongst breathtaking Mountain Lakes lived some of the very first people who would later be known as Kelts they had settled here because they recognized the value of the rich salt deposits hidden in the mountains they had literally struck white [Music] gold fortunately for them it was in very short supply a supply they controlled in this region there were relatively few places from where salt could be imported it came from either the seashore or salt mines so it became necessary to create longdistance roots in order to import quantities of salt and those roots enabled a cultural phenomenon of an interconnected Europe to emerge the Kelts hit the road their bags loaded with salt they used already established long-distance trade routes like the legendary Amber Road a thousand km Corridor that connected the Baltic in the north with the Mediterranean in the South and crossed the territories under their influence and before long evidence of Celtic culture was found far beyond their Homeland artifacts excavated over a vast area are so similar in type to those found in the hellack graves that this proves that there must have been contact and cultural exchange between these distant communities thanks to the supply of salt these mining towns were at the center of a large commercial and cultural web from which Celtic culture grew that's why historians refer to these far-flung Celtic sites from the first half of the Iron Age in Central Europe as the hellack culture long-distance trading has always had the additional benefit of allowing for cultural exchange we didn't just trade goods opinions and political ideas were also exchanged thanks to trade alliances were forged either by marriage or through the use of force the Kelts have arrived salt has literally sprinkled them across the continent and stamped ktoy on the map of Europe sadly though hstat home to those very first Kelts Fades away IC records show the activity at halat ceased around the middle of the 5th Century BC and despite the large salt mines the artifacts and the necropolis we have no lived settlements and so this birthplace of Celtic culture slips from our grasp a victim of its location washed away by flood waters and covered by landslides the settlement was covered by meters of thick mud and debris which run down from the mountains this is why we don't have remains of any settlement at [Music] halad perched on the mountain side their homes would have been highly vulnerable to extreme weather the secrets of the world's earliest Celtic settlement are lost forever but this wasn't the end for the Kel the story's just beginning for the next chapter we have to head West the salt mine at halat may have been washed away but other salt mining communities would soon step up to fill the Gap durber Austria just 40 km west of hallad and as that old settlement dies a new one surfaces this time archaeologists find what they're looking for in this area behind me there are traces of bur mounts and also settlement structures which are preserved still after 2,500 [Music] years there are three main categories of sites there are first the salt mines second the settlement and third the abundance of graves this is the difference to halad dber gives archaeologists a rare glimpse into life there I always call it assault Metropolis because during the Iron Age dunber was one of the main suppliers of salt for Central Europe here using a reconstruction based on their excavations life in a thriving Celtic mining community 25 centuries ago is [Music] simulated it must have had a huge population working in the salt mines and supplying the workers in the mines with tools and other features it's Celtic life on an industrial scale metal shards show a blacksmith at the forge remains of fires and ceramic pots show Cooks busy in the kitchen and petrified seeds reveal granaries and Bakers at work and the grave excavations reveal how Society was being shaped through its trade in salt a thriving working class of salt miners was established here ruled over by a very wealthy trading Elite who were constantly seeking ways to stand out from the crowd we have a lot of textiles because they are preserved there in the salt and we can reconstruct the patterns the colors and the structures of the textiles and then we combine everything to get very nice picture on how people might have looked like and it's not only the look of the textiles the colors the patterns and also the shiny metal it's also about the sound it makes a very distinctive sound that means the overall appearance of the people what did they want to tell to others is where you come from from Rich region and also from which part of society you are the wealthy are the select few with Prestige and power they conduct the all important trading by virtue of a sophisticated Network and a black book of contacts across the ancient world and just like today they have to dress to impress that said life wasn't all Easy Street and other key clues about everyday life come from less attractive archaeological sources waste human waste these feces that were found in these mines give us very very good and important information about everyday life and living conditions in the Iron Age the hygienic conditions on Dunbar were far from excellent people suffered from a whole variety of diseases we know this from analysis of the bones and most important from the analysis of the human feces in the salt Minds which preserved eggs of various parasites presented with these challenges the Kelts begin to develop a rudimentary Health Care system steeped in Magic and ritual and likely overseen by some of the wealthiest in their tribe it relied on traditional herbalis but also Incorporated more interventionist practices that we might associate with modern medicine we find instruments surgical instruments in Grace of the dunar which show us that operations surgical operations were made on the open skull these so-called trations indicate that out of magical reasons or of medical reasons people were operated and and got medical treatment trepanation is an ancient surgical procedure in which a whole is drilled in the skull to relieve pain to treat trauma even to release evil spirits burials at dber show that trepanation is just one of many medical procedures practiced by the Kelts the young woman from grave 308 gives us a quite good and direct view into life and living conditions on dunberg she obviously died with birth complications because a skeleton a tiny skeleton of a young child a fetus was found in position of the pelvis she also shows us quite interestingly um different features that give us information about uh their living conditions and their life and their health care she has an arm which was broken but very good fixed together again and also what we see is some kind of burning mark on her [Music] forehead the Kelts are a highly ritualistic people their gods are many all around them in nature gods of Thunder animals food fertility and they appeal to them for wisdom and advice for protection good luck honor healing but the gods also hold tremendous fear over the Kelts the power of good good and of evil of life and death to them the material and spiritual worlds coexist side by side 19th century Europe saw a huge surge of interest in Celtic culture impacted by the Industrial Revolution Romantic Era writers intellectuals and artists wanted to reconnect with the natural world which is how in 1872 Keen romantic and amateur archaeologist yendri vonle made an extraordinary [Music] Discovery Dr vanle had somehow stumbled upon a truly chilling scene from the ancient world Von excavated this amazing Iron Age site inside the be Scala finding many objects from early Celtic origin and sacrificed animals he also found a kind of alter Stone placed upon it were a human skull and the bones of two severed hands there were more bodies found spread throughout the cave some of the bodies were missing limbs vonle Unearthed the skeletons of one man men and 40 young women some missing legs and hands and some apparently having been beheaded in true Romantic Era style he interprets this grizzly scene as a chieftain's burial for which horses and young maidens were sacrificed on the stone altar to the gods ensuring the chieftain a comfortable journey into the Afterlife all quite dramatic but in fact plausible and why did vonle think this bull Rock cave lies in the middle of the very same Amber road that the Kelps traversed selling Amber salt and other precious Goods all the while spreading Celtic culture and ideas leaving their mark on the landscape as they passed vono was digging in an area where a series of Celtic shrines had already been discovered dotted all along the Amber Road religious stopping points for early Celtic traders to pay their respects to the gods imagine you're trekking North from the danu as you start out the warm Topography is low and overgrown with oak trees but as you move north the landscape changes dramatically Rock covered hillsides appear and the oak Groves are replaced with tall mature beach trees for those so connected to Nature this AR houses fear you looking to get to a shrine which is relatively close to the road but still a little further a field tucked away somewhere nearby like the modern Monastery the shrine is not in the main square but in the corner of the city once you reach the shrine you make a sacrifice to the local gods for the success of your journey this may be why vono believed he'd stumbled onto a rare an extravagant sacrificial burial in the bull Rock cave the ultimate Shrine a place of mass human sacrifice to ensure good Omens ritual violence was indeed a key part of Iron Age culture right across Europe and contemporary Greek and Roman texts suggested human sacrifice was practiced by the Kelps given all this it's understandable that his theory has generally been accepted for 150 years but a mass sacrifice at a single location would make the bull Rock cave a uniquely maob site in Celtic history utterly different from anything anyone had seen before or since which led experts to ask what if fun got it wrong a new team of archaeologists decided to investigate this unique burial site can they discover anything new as they reexamine the human remains they realize that Von's interpretation just doesn't stack up with their evidence only one individual had signs of an unhealed wound but there was nothing like that on the others it is quite interesting to note the ages of the deceased we have bodies that were 40 50 and even 60 years old when they died that's quite unusual for this period you don't find individuals age like this in the ordinary burial ground this points to the fact that they were very well treated and to live into old age at this time would have indicated one lived a life of relative luxury and not unlike today that would have been reserved to a privileged few not the archetypal sacrificial virgins vonle had imagined and the objects buried with the bodies confirm their wealth and worldliness we looked into where the artifacts from the Bull rock cave were made where they came from of course Amber came from the Baltic and other finds may be from the Mediterranean we even found a small glass flagin which we think had its origin in Greece the origin of everything that was found covers practically all of Europe from north to south and from east to west to rest see rather than a place of human sacrifice this was a burial site which connected wealthy Kelts over vast distances Kelts who had traded widely who had their own sophisticated culture which differed from their trading partners who had returned home to be buried as Kelts in the Celtic way so how can we explain the sheer number of bodies if these people weren't sacrificed what could have happened at this site more than 25 centuries [Music] ago the most common activity that took place at The Shrine were those who came to make sacrifices with various objects and those there to bury their dead in Bei Scala or Bull rock we have records of both of these activities here people buried their dead along with various objects so these were not sacrifices of people but simply their burials however they were burials of the highest order and they were accompanied by sacrifices to the gods but of material objects not people and as they continued to excavate it became clear that the best was yet to come a new discovery so spectac acular so rare it reveals just how wealthy and important these particular Kels really were this is a part of the tire belonging to the wagon we just excavated during our work here these wagons are completely covered by Metal Sheets only 13 of these extraordinary wagon burials have ever been found and archaeologists found six of them right here at Bull rock the decorations and craft workk are stunning this is the resting place of some of the very wealthiest people in the Celtic World whose names and social status would have been known far and wide definitely not the sort of people offered up for sacrifice fun Uncle may have been off the mark But if it weren't for his groundbreaking work we wouldn't be standing here today that's [Music] archaeology as the team continued their investigations another intriguing fact came to light each of the wagons in the cave was from a different generation here was not just one Epic burial but a whole succession of them each one a generational event of huge significance the existence of at least six wagons indicates that the bull Rock cave was used over a period of about 125 years burials here were not uncommon could bull Rock cave be a mum the resting place of an elite and once proud Dynasty from the ancient world most likely wooden tombs entering the elite were placed in this chamber the dead were brought in on wagons that also carried the bronze objects weapons and jewelry of the deceased which would be placed in the Tomb with the body the wooden tomb was sealed with a wooden lid and covered with large amounts of stone we know these people were successive generations of a wealthy Dynasty from the Celtic Iron Age but why their interment here in this cave the dead were placed in parts of the cave that were known to be vulnerable to flooding they did not try to protect the bodies they could have tried for example to place them in elevated areas of the cave we conclude they saw the flood as the final point just after each funeral the flooding water carried away into the unknown both the bodies as well as the sacrificed objects the bull Rock cave is a spectacular and unique burial site far from being the scene of a brutal Mass sacrifice it's a testament to the sophistication of this emergent Celtic culture culture a people who not only had a deep understanding of the natural world but integrated it into their beliefs in an afterlife using it to guide them into the great beyond these new discoveries are crucially important because they show just how consistent Celtic craftsmanship was across a vast area the Bull rock wagon burials bear a striking resemblance to other iconic early Celtic archaeological Treasures the hawk dor grave was discovered in southern Germany in the late 1960s it's perhaps the most spectacular of all the burials discovered from this chapter of History inside a burial chamber dating back to the 6th century BC archaeologists found the body of an unusually tall man who lived well into his 40s a very respectable age for that time he was laid to rest on a beautifully decorated bronze recliner wearing gold and Amber jewelry gold plates were even stitched onto his shoes many of his personal objects were laid on a richly ornamented iron-plated wagon all very similar to the burials at the bull Rock cave leading archaeologists to an exciting idea when you have two almost identical Wagons at a distance of about 800 km it means that these wagons were likely made by the same Craftsmen or at a minimum these people knew each other very few metal workers would be capable of such sophisticated craftsmanship their skilled labor highly sought after by the few who were Rich enough to afford it perhaps this wagon could have been a gift from one Elite to another in the halab period Rich Elites emerged who had profited from long-distance trade and the wheels of trade need to be oiled from time to time and the exchange of goods between not only Celtic tribes but other dominant tribes of the Mediterranean World helped to do this an object like this Exquisite wine crater found in a princely grave in vixs in France is not necessarily a trade good to be bought and sold but more a diplomatic gift used to establish and consolidate these valuable contacts between the Kelts and their trading partners such as the tribes of southern Italy it wasn't just expensive gifts payoffs and inducements that went between these ancient cultures knowledge moved both ways too and the Kels were quick learners the Kelts borrowed from other cultures but as great innovators they in turn made improvements many Mediterranean pots depict young men on chariots racing competing against each other during rights of Passage the wealthy leaders of the halat period liked what they saw and wanted a piece of it for themselves the hernberg South Germany site of one of the earliest Celtic settlements and here archaeologists have found wonderful objects that clearly show The Passion of the Kelts for Chariot racing [Music] a few years ago we found the oldest human representation in the entire hyberg region it is a bronze equestrian figure on a double-headed horse furthermore in the grave of the famous princess of babula a forehead armor was also found a unique forehead armor which served to protect the head of a horse this shows that in the region around herberg riding and driving were highly valued by hallad period two wheeled Chariots of the Celtic age were the most prominent military vehicle of the time they were invented as military vehicles similar to the modern day hry which is a military vehicle which is then transformed into the um civil vehicle the hmer fast lightweight and practical they could be used in transporting goods in travel and in Warfare and what's more they were an exciting New Way for Kelts to show off their Newfound wealth and physical prowess so it was perhaps inevitable that men began to compete just a few kilometers away archaeologists discover a striking feature a giant man-made Hill the alberg Bears no trace of human occupation at all there are none of the telltale signs no houses were built here no nearby water sources essential for everyday life and the walls of this Strange Hill are not the traditional fortifications designed to protect Celtic settlements with a height of up to 10 m and a width of 30 m the walls at the alberg are not functional at all we actually assume that the construction of this complex was intended to demonstrate outward power but probably inward power as well there are traces of roadways and track lines that would have offered access to the summit but what would people be doing on top of this huge hill was the alberg some kind of ritual assembly point on the plateau there's a kind of platform or Podium about 8 by 8 m in size which has been carved out of the bedrock in the middle of this Podium there's a 5 m deep shaft a so-called cult shaft several humans were deposited in that 5 m shaft perhaps these are human sacrifices these peculiar characterist itics LED archaeologists down blind alleys and false hypotheses leaving the real purpose of the alberg a deep and enduring mystery until they took another look and realized that its shape was just like something that we normally associate with ancient real the plateau of alberg has a very regular elongated shape with a rounded end or top and it is divided longitudinally into two halves by a Ledge in the middle it may sound rather absurd and strange but the alter Berg has the shape of an ancient Hippodrome historical records suggest that Chariot racing was introduced at the ancient Greek Olympics in the 7th Century around 680 BC in the last decade however archaeological investigations at the alberg have revealed a date for this elusive structure almost 100 years earlier between the 8th and 7th centuries BC no one knows when the first Hippodrome was built and that raises an intriguing possibility what if it was the Kelts who built the first ever Hippodrome now that may sound like wild speculation but it's not to find out why we'll have to go back to the Citadel at [Music] hernberg this was one of the largest of the first Celtic settlements it could even be called a Celtic City it was divided into three parts the main Citadel on the Castle Hill for the Chie and his closest subjects below this was the so-called outer Ward which was like the Castle Hill heavily fortified with Mighty ramparts and deep ditches and outside the Fortified settlements to the West stood an outer settlement of at least 100 hectors which would have been home to the majority of the city's 10,000 inhabitants so big that the Greek historian Herodotus reported in the fth century BC for the Easter flows from the land of the Kelts and the City of pin through the very middle of Europe the question of whether this settlement could the legendary City mentioned by Herodotus has been debated for a long time and if that would be the case then we would be dealing with the oldest named city north of the Alps [Music] and the danu was probably already navigable from here at that time over 2500 km also it could have been used for trade and the transport of goods and merchandise to the Black Sea these longdistance contacts are reflected in many objects found in local excavations broaches from south of the Alps bracelets from Great Britain pots from Greece M4 for carrying olive oil and wine from the Italian Peninsula Mediterranean influence isn't limited to only wine drinking symposia or Banquets celebrations or individual import fines but also to the transference of knowledge and techniques for example the clay brick wall of the heinberg must have been built under very strong Phoenician or NE Eastern influence it is even possible that a Mediterranean region master builder or architect was active here to build this city wall it doesn't take a huge leap to think that a Greek architect helping to design this large Celtic City could have attended a chariot race at the alberg and inspired by the structure could have thought we should build one of these at home what all of this tells us is that the early Kelts were not just simple Clans living in tiny settlements dotted across Central Europe nor were they Noble Savages they were every bit as sophisticated as their Mediterranean counterparts people who engaged in trade and cultural exchange across vast distances with the knowledge wealth and social organ organization to build a huge complex like hernberg but much like hallat before it hur's place in Celtic history was shortlived and by 450 BC it was no longer a thriving Metropolis it had been abandoned a relic of the past was this the end of the Kelts no they were just getting started between the 7th and fth centuries BC a wave of sorts swept across Central Europe from the south bringing huge social change and leading to the founding of various early centers of a new Celtic power these would come to be known as the princely seats of power and a good example of that is glauberg Germany No Other Place witness these new beginnings better than this one making it a key location in the study of the Kelts for any Iron Age archaeologist glauberg is certainly an incredibly fascinating place it's not just because of the Fantastic Finds that occur and the exciting structures that surround the mountain but it's also because of the many research questions that are still unanswered and one of these unanswered questions relates to this mysterious structure 16 post holes lined up in a peculiar manner were discovered at the foot of a burial mound intriguing local researchers we standing here on the reconstructed burial land that contained two tombs from 2400 years ago looking down there are two ditches that archaeologists have named procession Ro different theories both practical and spiritual have been Advanced by experts could it be the base for the construction of a bridge or a place for congregation and ritual but observations by an astrophysicist produced a new and exciting hypothesis these trenches lead to a point on the horizon where every 18.6 years the Moon Rises to its southernmost things these trenches form a calendar structure so to speak which is unique in all of Europe that's what makes this place so special if this was indeed a lunar calendar structure it would have enabled people to divide measure and even to plan time about 2,400 years ago control of this knowledge would certainly have provided a key Advantage at this time in order to recognize something like the moonrise point of the Great Southern moard turn and to be able to use it as a calendar one must observe the Horizon over many years in fact over many generations and several people over different Generations needed time to be able to recognize and document this people from the surrounding settlements and even further a field would have met here for religious and spiritual celebrations showing how advanced and respected the community that lived in this area was but this Reliance on spiritual guidance was being challenged by the rise of princely power and glauberg would become the backdrop for dramatic events that would would abruptly change the course of Celtic history there is some evidence at the glow that social conditions may have changed in the period around 450 BC in that time the ramp part surrounding the whole Plateau burns down at the same time three of the four statues that were erected around the mountain were almost completely destroyed and we might consider that possibly this is to a change in who was ruling lber and coincidentally or not it was around this same time that archaeologists believe activity ceased both in hallad and hernberg ushering in a period of seismic changes across the Celtic world and splitting the central European Iron Age into two distinct periods now is the time for a new era an era in which the Kelts would enter their Golden Age establishing themselves as one of the most brilliant and influential cultures of the ancient world

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 130,921

Keywords: history documentary, medieval history documentary, middle ages, medieval history, the middle ages, the dark ages, the celts, who were the celts

Id: iunVxIlAGkI

Length: 49min 59sec (2999 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2024