The Celts

After 700 BC, Britain was invaded by the first wave of Celtic tribescoming probably from the coasts of modern France and Belgium. The first millennium BC was the time of massive Celtic migrationsall over Europe. They moved in large tribes consisting of free warriors under tribal chiefs, and they brought their womenfolk and children with them. Their object was conquest and settlement rather than pure aggression and plunder.

The name 'Celtic' covers a large ethnic group composed of at least three main tribes: Gaels, Britons (or Brythons) and Belgae (in order of their appearance in Britain). They represented the three 'waves' of the Celtic invasion.

In the first millennium BC, Celtic languageswere spoken over vast parts Europe; later they were absorbed by other Indo-European languageswith few traces left behind.

In Britain these traces are represented by several dialects or languages. Thus, the Gaelicbranch survives as Irish in Ireland (in the Republic of Ireland, or Eire, the Irish language is one of the two official languages of the country), as Scottish Gaelicof the Highlandsin Scotland (Alba in Scottish Gaelic) and as a dialect spoken by a few hundred people on the Isle of Man. The Brittonic branch exists as Cymric, or Welsh in Wales (Cymru in Welsh) and as the Cornish dialect which was widely spoken in Cornwall until the late 18^th century.

Celtic tribes were based on the kin (род) as their main unit. The kinwas of great social importance. A man was helpless without kin. It was the only possible framework for a man's existence. The kin protected its members from the numerous hazards of primitive life. Celtic kins joined together to form larger groups, also based on real or assumed kinship, rising to the tribe and, ultimately, nation.

The Celts practised agriculture and they were the first to introduce the plough in Britain. By the time Julius Caesarraided the British Isles in 55 BC, the south-east of Britain, according to Caesar himself, was a corn-growing country.

The Celts were pagans, and their religious rites were practised and maintained by their priests, called Druids. The Druidswere revered not only as priests, but also as sages (прорицатели) who could predict the future and who possessed the powers of magic and healing. The centre of the Druid cult was on the island of Anglesey off the coast of Wales.

During the last stage of the Celtic period larger settlements began to appear, which eventually grew into towns. The oldest of these were probably on the sites of St Albansand Colchester. The Belgae(the latest of all Celtic tribesto settle in Britain) maintained close relations with their native Gaul, with a regular tradebetween them and the Continent. With this came the first coined money. The Britons had used iron bars, but now gold coinswere struck in imitation of the Macedonian coins. They were crude, of course, but still it is important that gold coins came into use in Britain before the Roman occupation.

As agriculture, trade and towns grew and developed, powerful chiefs began to compete for power over large areas of land, and at the time when Caesar first raided the island in 55 BC, all south-east of Britain was in theory ruled by a certain Cassivellaunus.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11