Origins of British Celts
The Celts are a fascinating Iron Age culture who came to Britain around 1000BC. They were well known to the Greeks and the Romans especially as the continental cousins of the British Celts looted Delphi in 279BC. The earliest reference to the British Celts is in Pytheas who wrote of a journey he took to explore the western coast of Europe. An exciting journey which involved dodging the Carthaginians! He learnt that the people of Britain were called the ‘Petanoi’ from which the Romans gained the word Bretani and called the province Britannia. Petanoi is thought to mean ‘painted people’ and maybe a reference to the Celts painting themselves with woad.
Superstitions & druids
Woad is a plant that when processed produces a vibrant blue paint. The Celts themselves might have thought that it was magical and recent studies have shown that it has useful properties including coagulation. If a warrior were wounded, he might thank his magic paint that his bleeding stopped. Magic and superstition were very important aspects of Celtic life. Julius Caesar reports in his diaries of how he was ambushed by a great host of Celts who would have defeated him if the rain had not started, and the Celts just left and went home. Caesar was relieved to learn that Celts did not fight in the rain. Maybe their paint would wash off and the spell would be broken? The spell was probably be cast by a Druid. Druids were the famous priests of the Celts and references to them are found throughout classical literature from the 4th century BC to 750AD. Despite leaving no accounts by themselves the Druids were known as high status religious leaders, medical professionals, and political advisors. Their networks would have spanned the entire continent and were centred on Anglesey off North Wales.
Culture & language
Celts were famous for wearing bright colours which denoted their status in the tribe. Clothing tended to be a tunic, a cloak and famously trousers. Celts are thought to be the first Europeans to wear trousers much to the disgust of the Romans who thought trousers silly.
The Celts spoke a language that has was derived from Proto-Indio-European. From this language we get Welsh, Cornish, and Bretton. Very few words have come from Celtic into modern English, but an honourable mention goes to the ‘-ing’ ending, for example bringing.
Prehistory in general and the Iron Age in particular comes to an end in Britain with the Roman invasion of 47AD. The invasion of Claudius was a significant event that brought the British Celts into the Roman Empire and formalised relations that had been growing for decades. The celts did resist and the invasion was only completed by 84AD. The celts themselves have retained their identity despite repeated attempts to assimilate them into Roman and later Anglo-Saxon culture. Today in Britain the Cornish, Welsh and Scots remain proudly Celtic as do their cousins over the sea in Brittany.