DOCSLIB.ORG

Celtic Mythology and Religion Pdf, Epub, Ebook

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Celtic Mythology and Religion Pdf, Epub, Ebook CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Alexander Macbain | 265 pages | 01 Aug 2012 | The Lost Library | 9781906621261 | English | Glastonbury, United Kingdom Celtic Mythology and Religion PDF Book Many individual goddesses are known only by their names, and were of a purely local character. But her popularity is seen in the continuation of her personality and cult in those of S. The Celtic peoples who maintained either political or linguistic identities such as the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland , the Welsh in Wales , and the Celtic Britons of southern Great Britain and Brittany left vestigial remnants of their ancestral mythologies that were put into written form during the Middle Ages. Manawyddan is not god-like in these tales in the sense in which the majestic Manannan of Irish story is, though elsewhere we learn that "deep was his counsel. The Fomorians had a tower of glass in Tory Island. Brigit were built under oaks, doubtless displacing pagan shrines of the goddess. To assist him in his amour , Gwydion, by a magical trick, procures for Math from the court of Pryderi certain swine sent him by Arawn, king of Annwfn. The greatness of Manannan mac Lir, "son of the sea," is proved by the fact that he appears in many of the heroic tales, and is still remembered in tradition and folk-tale. The story of the Llyr group is told in the Mabinogion of Branwen and of Manawyddan. Yale University Press. A common factor in later mythologies from Christianized Celtic nations was the otherworld. She is also associated with the waters as a water-nymph captured for a time as a fairy-bride by the Earl of Desmond. Or sometimes to the name of the Roman god is added a descriptive Celtic epithet or a word derived from a Celtic place-name. The sun-god with the wheel was not equated with Apollo, who seems to have represented Celtic sun-gods only in so far as they were also gods of healing. The squatting attitude of Cernunnos is natural in the image of the ancestor of a people who squatted. D'Arbois suggests that he may thus be an equivalent of the Gaulish god with the mallet. Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism , apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. If the mark of the club was seen in the ashes, this was an omen of a good harvest and a prosperous year. But do a few hundred skulls justify these far-reaching conclusions regarding races enduring for thousands of years? Folk-tales may also be inquired of, if we discriminate between what in them is Celtic and what is universal. See Grimm, Teut. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Isidore, Etymol. See p. The oldest attested Celtic calendar is the Coligny calendar , dated to the 2nd century and as such firmly within the Gallo- Roman period. Celtic Mythology and Religion Writer Maier, Bernhard. Shoreline Community College. What Ellis Davidson did in this book is assemble those clues and provide as close to a full or comprehensive picture of pre-Christian northern European religion as she could. He then marched his massive army across the Pyrenees and Alps into central Italy in what would be remembered as one of the most Persecuted by the French Catholic government during a violent period, Huguenots fled the country in the 17th century, creating Huguenot settlements all over Evidence is drawn from the archaeology of sacred sites, ethnographic accounts of the ancient Celts and their beliefs, medieval manuscripts, poetic and visionary literature, and early modern accounts of folk healers and seers. In addition to providing a rich and detailed look at a beautiful and compelling cosmology and philosophy, the book is often able to demonstrate that echoes of this cosmology and philosophy have resounded powerfully in folk traditions well into the modern era. American Libraries. Celtic burial practices, which included burying grave goods of food, weapons, and ornaments with the dead, suggest a belief in life after death. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. The historian Ronald Hutton however cautioned against automatically characterizing all Irish and Welsh mythological figures as former deities, noting that while some characters "who appear to be human, such as Medb or St Brigit , probably were indeed once regarded as divine At both of these sites, a large array of votive offerings have been uncovered, most of which are wooden carvings, although some of which are embossed pieces of metal. Two main types of sources provide information on Celtic religion: the sculptural monuments associated with the Celts of continental Europe and of Roman Britain , and the insular Celtic literatures that have survived in writing from medieval times. Given these circumstances it is remarkable that there are so many points of agreement between the insular literatures and the continental evidence. The early Irish myths are a blend of history and mythology, with tales of different groups of humans and deities who settled in Ireland. The Celts were a collection of tribes with origins in central Europe that shared a similar language, religious beliefs, traditions and culture. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to the Syrian rhetorician Lucian , Ogmios was supposed to lead a band of men chained by their ears to his tongue as a symbol of the strength of his eloquence. Celtic mythology is found in a number of distinct, if related, subgroups, largely corresponding to the branches of the Celtic languages :. The wisdom of the outlaw: the boyhood deeds of Finn in Gaelic narrative tradition. Later editions, coauthored with Christian Guyonvarc'h, are considerably expanded but not necessarily improvements on the original. Want more? Their legacy remains most prominent in Ireland and Great Britain, where traces of their language and culture are still prominent today. The son of a great military leader, he escaped family intrigues to take the throne, but his Main article: Welsh mythology. Celtic Mythology and Religion Reviews Another example is Gaulish Brigantia , cognate with Irish Brigid. Boreale , i. She is called Blodeuwedd, and later, at the instigation of a lover, Gronw, she discovers how Llew can be killed. Although the Irish gods are warriors, and there are special war-gods, yet war-goddesses are more prominent, usually as a group of three—Morrigan, Neman, and Macha. Oxford, Oxford University Press, , pp. Religion, Western Perceptions of World Religions. Holder, i. In his Hibbert Lectures, and in his later masterly work on The Arthurian Legend , however, he took the standpoint of the "mythological" school, and tended to see in the old stories myths of the sun and dawn and the darkness, and in the divinities sun-gods and dawn-goddesses and a host of dark personages of supernatural character. Uploaded by Unknown on August 6, Many place-names are derived from Borvo, e. One god is three-faced, the other has a cornucopia, which he offers to a serpent. See, however, p. Some are far superior to others in terms of the scope and accuracy of the information they present, as well as in writing style. He explains Nantosvelta as meaning "She who is brilliant in war. For all these titles see his PH ii. The speech of the Picts, perhaps connected with the Pictones of Gaul, also had this p sound. While Sjoestedt does retell a few of the most important tales of Celtic mythology, those stories are embedded within conceptual discussions of Celtic mythology and religion. If the Picts spoke a Brythonic dialect, S. The pleasures of love beckon him toward happiness, but a hostile world denies him the peace he craves. The fruits of the earth with their roots below the surface are then gifts of the earth- or under-earth goddess. One of the most notable examples is the river Thames in southern England, where a number of items had been deposited, only to be discovered by archaeologists millennia later. The pantheon of the continental Celts was a varied one. The prominence of these divinities shows that the Celts were more than a race of warriors. Topics include the presence of the Celtic Otherworld and its inhabitants, cosmology and sacred cycles, wisdom texts, mythological symbolism, folklore and legends, and an appreciation of the natural world. But the higher classes may have had varying skulls, as well as stature and colour of hair, 24 and Irish texts tell of a tall, fair, blue-eyed stock, and a short, dark, dark-eyed stock, in Ireland. Celtic Mythology and Religion Read Online Helsinki, Finland, Beside him is a goddess with a cornucopia, and a smaller divinity with a cornucopia and an apple. Intermarriage with the already mixed Neolithic folk of Central Europe produced further removal from the unmixed Celtic racial type; but though both reacted on each other as far as language, custom, and belief were concerned, on the whole the Celtic elements predominated in these respects. Two main types of sources provide information on Celtic religion: the sculptural monuments associated with the Celts of continental Europe and of Roman Britain , and the insular Celtic literatures that have survived in writing from medieval times. In early ritual, human, animal, or arboreal representatives of the god were periodically destroyed to ensure fertility, but when the god became separated from these representatives, the destruction or slaying was regarded as a sacrifice to the god, and myths arose telling how he had once slain the animal. If they could then effect a landing, Ireland was theirs. The significance of the torque is also doubtful, but the Gauls offered torques to the gods, and they may have been regarded as vehicles of the warrior's strength which passed from him to the god to whom the victor presented it.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Celticism, Internationalism and Scottish Identity Three Key Images in Focus
    Celticism, Internationalism and Scottish Identity Three Key Images in Focus Frances Fowle The Scottish Celtic Revival emerged from long-standing debates around language and the concept of a Celtic race, a notion fostered above all by the poet and critic Matthew Arnold.1 It took the form of a pan-Celtic, rather than a purely Scottish revival, whereby Scotland participated in a shared national mythology that spilled into and overlapped with Irish, Welsh, Manx, Breton and Cornish legend. Some historians portrayed the Celts – the original Scottish settlers – as pagan and feckless; others regarded them as creative and honorable, an antidote to the Industrial Revolution. ‘In a prosaic and utilitarian age,’ wrote one commentator, ‘the idealism of the Celt is an ennobling and uplifting influence both on literature and life.’2 The revival was championed in Edinburgh by the biologist, sociologist and utopian visionary Patrick Geddes (1854–1932), who, in 1895, produced the first edition of his avant-garde journal The Evergreen: a Northern Seasonal, edited by William Sharp (1855–1905) and published in four ‘seasonal’ volumes, in 1895– 86.3 The journal included translations of Breton and Irish legends and the poetry and writings of Fiona Macleod, Sharp’s Celtic alter ego. The cover was designed by Charles Hodge Mackie (1862– 1920) and it was emblazoned with a Celtic Tree of Life. Among 1 On Arnold see, for example, Murray Pittock, Celtic Identity and the Brit­ the many contributors were Sharp himself and the artist John ish Image (Manchester: Manches- ter University Press, 1999), 64–69 Duncan (1866–1945), who produced some of the key images of 2 Anon, ‘Pan-Celtic Congress’, The the Scottish Celtic Revival.
    [Show full text]
  • A Guide to Ten of the Best Pictish Symbol Stones in Aberdeenshire
    Pictish Symbol Stones The Pictish Period 300 AD – 900 AD MAIDEN STONE ST PETER’S CHURCH, FYVIE As one of the heartlands of the Pictish community, Aberdeenshire is home to a large The origin of the Picts can be found in the tribal society of the Iron Age. Their society was number of the elaborately decorated Symbol Stones for which the Picts are famed – around hierarchical, with a warrior elite and a lower farming class. They lived in Scotland, North of PICARDY STONE 20% of all Pictish stones recorded in Scotland can be found in Aberdeenshire. the Forth and Clyde rivers, between the 4th and 9th Centuries AD, with a particularly strong presence in what is now Aberdeenshire. This can be seen in the frequent occurrence of place The stones, incised or carved in relief, are decorated with a variety of symbols, ranging from names beginning “Pit”, thought to indicate the site of a Pictish settlement, as well as the BRANDSBUTT geometric shapes and patterns, to animals (real and mythical), human figures, objects, evidence from the archaeological record such as Symbol Stones and fortifications. and Christian motifs. Some earlier Pictish stones are also incised with a script known as Ogham, which comprises a pattern of short linear strokes crossing a vertical line. Said to They acquired the name Pict, or Picti, meaning “Painted People”, from the Romans – indeed, have originated around the 4th Century AD, it is an early form of the Irish language. Most much of what is known of the Picts is derived from historical writers from outside of examples of Ogham inscriptions are thought to represent personal names.
    [Show full text]
  • K 03-UP-004 Insular Io02(A)
    By Bernard Wailes TOP: Seventh century A.D., peoples of Ireland and Britain, with places and areas that are mentioned in the text. BOTTOM: The Ogham stone now in St. Declan’s Cathedral at Ardmore, County Waterford, Ireland. Ogham, or Ogam, was a form of cipher writing based on the Latin alphabet and preserving the earliest-known form of the Irish language. Most Ogham inscriptions are commemorative (e.g., de•fin•ing X son of Y) and occur on stone pillars (as here) or on boulders. They date probably from the fourth to seventh centuries A.D. who arrived in the fifth century, occupied the southeast. The British (p-Celtic speakers; see “Celtic Languages”) formed a (kel´tik) series of kingdoms down the western side of Britain and over- seas in Brittany. The q-Celtic speaking Irish were established not only in Ireland but also in northwest Britain, a fifth- THE CASE OF THE INSULAR CELTS century settlement that eventually expanded to become the kingdom of Scotland. (The term Scot was used interchange- ably with Irish for centuries, but was eventually used to describe only the Irish in northern Britain.) North and east of the Scots, the Picts occupied the rest of northern Britain. We know from written evidence that the Picts interacted extensively with their neighbors, but we know little of their n decades past, archaeologists several are spoken to this day. language, for they left no texts. After their incorporation into in search of clues to the ori- Moreover, since the seventh cen- the kingdom of Scotland in the ninth century, they appear to i gin of ethnic groups like the tury A.D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pictish Race and Kingdom Author(S): James Ferguson Source: the Celtic Review, Vol
    The Pictish Race and Kingdom Author(s): James Ferguson Source: The Celtic Review, Vol. 7, No. 25 (Feb., 1911), pp. 18-36 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30070376 Accessed: 13-03-2016 17:12 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 147.8.31.43 on Sun, 13 Mar 2016 17:12:53 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 18 THE CELTIC REVIEW THE PICTISH RACE AND KINGDOM JAMES FERGUSON I AOONG the obscure periods in history, there is none more alluring or more tantalising in the absence of authentic records than the two hundred years which followed the with- drawal of the Roman legions from the northern walls, and submerged an advanced state of civilisation in Britain under the waves of barbarian invasions. 'The frontier,' wherever it may be, always exercises a powerful.charm on the imagina- tion, but nowhere is the spell more felt than where the rude Roman eagle, carved on the native rock, faces the un- conquered shores of Fife, and on the long line of the fortified limes from the narrowing Firth to below the Fords of Clyde the legionary gazed across the central depression of Scotland to the Caledonian forest and the untamed Highland hills.
    [Show full text]
  • The Celtic Encyclopedia, Volume V
    7+( &(/7,& (1&<&/23(',$ 92/80( 9 T H E C E L T I C E N C Y C L O P E D I A © HARRY MOUNTAIN VOLUME V UPUBLISH.COM 1998 Parkland, Florida, USA The Celtic Encyclopedia © 1997 Harry Mountain Individuals are encouraged to use the information in this book for discussion and scholarly research. The contents may be stored electronically or in hardcopy. However, the contents of this book may not be republished or redistributed in any form or format without the prior written permission of Harry Mountain. This is version 1.0 (1998) It is advisable to keep proof of purchase for future use. Harry Mountain can be reached via e-mail: [email protected] postal: Harry Mountain Apartado 2021, 3810 Aveiro, PORTUGAL Internet: http://www.CeltSite.com UPUBLISH.COM 1998 UPUBLISH.COM is a division of Dissertation.com ISBN: 1-58112-889-4 (set) ISBN: 1-58112-890-8 (vol. I) ISBN: 1-58112-891-6 (vol. II) ISBN: 1-58112-892-4 (vol. III) ISBN: 1-58112-893-2 (vol. IV) ISBN: 1-58112-894-0 (vol. V) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mountain, Harry, 1947– The Celtic encyclopedia / Harry Mountain. – Version 1.0 p. 1392 cm. Includes bibliographical references ISBN 1-58112-889-4 (set). -– ISBN 1-58112-890-8 (v. 1). -- ISBN 1-58112-891-6 (v. 2). –- ISBN 1-58112-892-4 (v. 3). –- ISBN 1-58112-893-2 (v. 4). –- ISBN 1-58112-894-0 (v. 5). Celts—Encyclopedias. I. Title. D70.M67 1998-06-28 909’.04916—dc21 98-20788 CIP The Celtic Encyclopedia is dedicated to Rosemary who made all things possible .
    [Show full text]
  • Celtic Clothing: Bronze Age to the Sixth Century the Celts Were
    Celtic Clothing: Bronze Age to the Sixth Century Lady Brighid Bansealgaire ni Muirenn Celtic/Costumers Guild Meeting, 14 March 2017 The Celts were groups of people with linguistic and cultural similarities living in central Europe. First known to have existed near the upper Danube around 1200 BCE, Celtic populations spread across western Europe and possibly as far east as central Asia. They influenced, and were influenced by, many cultures, including the Romans, Greeks, Italians, Etruscans, Spanish, Thracians, Scythians, and Germanic and Scandinavian peoples. Chronology: Bronze Age: 18th-8th centuries BCE Hallstatt culture: 8th-6th centuries BCE La Tène culture: 6th century BCE – 1st century CE Iron Age: 500 BCE – 400 CE Roman period: 43-410 CE Post (or Sub) Roman: 410 CE - 6th century CE The Celts were primarily an oral culture, passing knowledge verbally rather than by written records. We know about their history from archaeological finds such as jewelry, textile fragments and human remains found in peat bogs or salt mines; written records from the Greeks and Romans, who generally considered the Celts as barbarians; Celtic artwork in stone and metal; and Irish mythology, although the legends were not written down until about the 12th century. Bronze Age: Egtved Girl: In 1921, the remains of a 16-18 year old girl were found in a barrow outside Egtved, Denmark. Her clothing included a short tunic, a wrap-around string skirt, a woolen belt with fringe, bronze jewelry and pins, and a hair net. Her coffin has been dated by dendrochronology (tree-trunk dating) to 1370 BCE. Strontium isotope analysis places her origin as south west Germany.
    [Show full text]
  • Anglo-Saxons, Picts and Scots Slide3
    Anglo-Saxons, Picts and Scots Learning Objective: ! To find out who the Picts and Scots were and where they lived. NEXT www.planbee.com What can you remember about who the Anglo-Saxons were? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com Jutes, Angles and Saxons invaded Britain after the Romans left. ! They came from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. ! Eventually they became known as the Anglo-Saxons. ! They conquered the Britons who were living in England and pushed them north. ! They settled and set up farms, homes and villages. BACK NEXT www.planbee.com The Anglo-Saxons managed to conquer a large part of Britain but there was one area that they couldn’t conquer straight away. In fact, it took a few hundred years. Where do you think this area might have been? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com Just like the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons were not able to conquer the people living in the north of Britain (in what is now Scotland) because it was settled by two groups of people: ! the Picts and the Scots. Do you know anything about the Picts and Scots? What do you think these groups of people might have been like? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com This map shows where the Picts and Scots lived when the Anglo-Saxons had Picts settled in Britain. You can see the Scots Grampian mountains on this map which acted as a natural barrier between the Picts and the Scots. The Picts had been in this area since the Mesolithic era. The first recorded mention of them was by a Roman writer in the 3rd century AD.
    [Show full text]
  • In My Defence, God Me Defend-Expression, Saying
    IN MY DEFENCE, GOD ME DEFEND-EXPRESSION, SAYING CLIMATE THE CLIMATE OF SCOTLAND IS TEMPERATE AND OCEANIC, AND TENDS TO BE VERY CHANGEABLE. IT HAS MUCH MILDER WINTERS AND COOLER WETTER SUMMERS THAN OTHER AREAS IN THE SAME LATITUDE (MOSCOW REGION IN RUSSIA, SOUTHERN SCANDINAVIA). HOWEVER, TEMPERATURES ARE GENERALLY LOWER THAN IN THE REST OF THE UK. IT HAD THE COLDEST EVER UK TEMPERATURE OF -27,2ºc IN THE GRAMPIAN MOUNTAINS ON 11TH FEBRUARY 1895. HEAVY SNOWFALL IS NOT COMMON IN THE LOWLANDS, BUT IT BECOMES MORE COMMON WITH THE ALTITUDE. BRAEMAR HAS AN AVERAGE OF 59 ANOW DAYS PER YEAR WHILE MANY COASTSAL AREAS AVERAGE FEWER THAN 10 DAYS OF LYING SNOW PER YEAR. THE WEST OF SCOTLAND IS USUALLY WARMER THAN THE EAST, OWING TO THE INFLUENCE OF ATLANTIC OCEAN CURRENTS. TIREE IS ONE OF THE SUNNIEST PLACES IN THE COUNTRY. RAINFALL VARIES WIDELY ACROSS SCOTLAND. THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND ARE THE WETTEST. RAINFALL IN A FEW PLACES EXCEEDS 3,000 MM ANNUALLY. THE LOWLANDS RECIEVE LESS THAN 800 MM ANNUALLY. HISTORY: IT STARTED WHEN THE ROMANS OCCUPIED WHAT IS NOW ENGLAND AND WALES, ADMINISTERING IT AS A PROVINCE CALLED BRITANNIA. ROMAN INVASIONS AND OCCUPATIONS OF SOUTHERN SCOTLAND WERE A SERIES OF BRIEF INTERLUDES. ACCORDING TO THE ROMAN HISTORIAN TACITUS, THE CALEDONIANS ATTACKED ROMAN FORTS AND FOUGHT WITH THER LEGIONS, IN A SURPRISE NIGHT-ATTACK. THEY VERY NEARLY WIPED OUT THE WHOLE 9YH LEGION UNTIL IT WAS SAVED BY AGRICOL’AS CAVALRY. THE ROMANS ERECTED HADRIAN’S WALL TO CONTROL TRIBES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE WALL, AND THAT WAS THE NORTHERN BORDER OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
    [Show full text]
  • Complexity of Celtic Culture and Museum Practices
    Complexity of Celtic Culture and Museum Practices Shannon Eileen Barry University of Oregon Masters in Arts Management 2014-2016 Research Capstone Barry, 1 Abstract: Presenting cultural communities in museums is challenging. Each of these groups has nuances that make them difficult to accurately display in an exhibit. I chose to look at this particular issue through the lens of Celtic culture. To be able to display Celtic culture in museums, those creating an exhibit need to have certain knowledge. Most people assume that the Celts only inhabited the British Isles, as they are most associated with that region today. In fact, the Celts emerged in what is now central Austria. Their history was one of expansion and movement. At its farthest, there were Celtic settlements from Turkey to Spain, yet the Celts were never a single, unified kingdom. This complicated history leads to a debate among scholars about how to define the term ‘Celt.’ Popular opinions include arguments that the Celts are a genetic group, a linguistic group, an artistic style, or a cultural group with shared beliefs and practices. Another important discussion that surfaces while researching these varied definitions is the ‘Anti-Celt’ idea, which argues that the term is not broad enough to describe the numerous Celtic groups spread across Europe. After gaining an understanding of Celtic culture by exploring its history and definitions, this knowledge can be incorporated into the phases of creating an exhibit – planning, display, text (writing and interpretation), and evaluation. All of this information comes together to create a strategic process for museums to implement a comprehensive exhibition on Celtic culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Pictish Ogam Stones As Representations of Cross-Cultural Dialogue
    Pictish Ogam Stones as Representations of Cross-cultural Dialogue Pictish Ogam Stones as Representations of Cross-cultural Dialogue Kathryn M. Hudson & Wayne E. Harbert The Pictish Ogham stones of eastern Scotland represent an interpretive conundrum. Their inscriptions visually match their Irish counterparts but do not align with traditional conventions of use, and the juxtaposition of foreign script and indigenous symbol suggests an ancient dialogue rooted in the visual register. This paper presents a survey of these stones and situates them in a broader archaeological and historical context. Their role as reflectors of a core-periphery mode of interaction and documents of cultural negotiation is considered, and their position in a changing cultural landscape is evaluated. Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology 1 Kathryn M. Hudson & Wayne E. Harbert Introduction Details of the emergence of the Pictish confederation – an admittedly problematic The Picts, as agents of a rich but term that nonetheless appears to accurately perennially perplexing and ill-understood reflect Pictish social organization – remain symbolic culture, confront linguists uncertain. Whatever its origins, the Pictish and archaeologists with a wealth of confederation is generally believed to have conundrums. No objects exemplify these encompassed multiple distinct kingdoms.3 problems more than the so-called Pictish The Poppleton Manuscript contains a ogam inscriptions. These inscriptions kinglist and sociopolitical observations visually match their Irish counterparts but that have been used to propose multiple do not align with traditional conventions of Pictish kingdoms;4 the Gaelic quatrains use, and the juxtaposition of foreign script in Lebor Bretnach as well as assorted Irish and indigenous symbol suggests an ancient legends have also been used in support dialogue rooted in the visual register.
    [Show full text]
  • A Genetic Signal of Central European Celtic Ancestry: Preliminary Research Concerning Y-Chromosomal Marker S28 (Part 2)
    A Genetic Signal of Central European Celtic Ancestry: Preliminary Research Concerning Y-Chromosomal Marker S28 (Part 2) Hallstatt Culture: 720 to 600 BC and 600 BC to 480 BC (Ha C and D) This interval represents a time of major changes in Europe, in the regions once characterized by the Pfyn and related cultures with roots extending back to the Neolithic, and the Urnfield groups which would morph into the peoples of the Hallstatt tradition with their characteristic elite burials. Artist rendition of typical rich Hallstatt inhumation burials Kristiansen (1998) proposes that the movement of Hallstatt C warrior elite spread across Central and Western Europe, at a time when trade routes to the north diminished. However those in the eastern tier maintained links to the Lusatian culture and the Baltic regions, with a continued emphasis on trade in amber and mining of salt in the immediate surrounds of Hallstatt in Austria. Hallstatt is actually at the southeastern tip of what was a very large oval shaped territory with the center of gravity northwest of the Alps. In Reinecke’s system of dating, this period is known as Hallstatt C and D. Hallstatt C (earliest phase) is characterized by rich horse and wagon burials (containing ornate horse tack) and includes the region from western Hungary to the Upper Danube. Hallstatt D is represented by a chiefdom zone and elite burials further to the west, with settlements concentrated near the headwaters of every major river from the Loire, to the Seine, Rhone, Rhine and Danube. The geographical re-alignment was likely a function of the establishment of a Greek (Phoecian) trading center in Massilia (Marseilles), circa 600 BC.
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of the Pictish Symbol System: Inscribing Identity Beyond the Edges of Empire
    The development of the Pictish symbol system: inscribing identity beyond the edges of Empire Gordon Noble1,*, Martin Goldberg2 & Derek Hamilton3 Research The date of unique symbolic carvings, from various contexts across north and east Scotland, has been debated for over a century. Excavations at key sites and direct dating of engraved bone artefacts have Rhynie allowed for a more precise chronology, Edinburgh extending from the third/fourth centuries AD, broadly contemporaneous with other non-vernacular scripts developed beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire, to the ninth century AD. These symbols were probably an elaborate, non-alphabetic writing system, a N Pictish response to broader European changes 0km 500 in power and identity during the transition from the Roman Empire to the early medieval period. Keywords: Scotland, Pictish, symbolism, carving, language, writing Introduction The origins and evolution of writing are one of the most critical and transformative developments in world history (Innes 1998: 3). Writing revolutionises the forms and possibilities of communication, and has been linked directly to state formation in many different social and chronological contexts across the world (e.g. Goody 1968: 4; Baines 1995: 471; Postgate et al. 1995: 459; Papdopoulos 2016: 1252). In Northern Europe, the alphabetic systems of the Greeks, and Etruscan and Roman derivatives in the west, inspired new forms of writing, with vernacular scripts developing on the fringes of the Roman Empire 1 Department of Archaeology, School of Geosciences,
    [Show full text]