What is it about Asterix? Did the Celts live like this?

The Celtic era, which dates back more than two thousand years, is still part of our lives today. Halloween, which is often attributed to the Americans, has its origins in the Celtic festival of Samhein. Some rivers and places are based on the deities of the Celts (Danube, Attersee or Mogontiacum, today's Mainz). What else is there to discover about them?

The Celts were at home in large parts of Europe. However, it is difficult to determine the exact period of their era. Most scientists assume that it began around 800 BC. The Celts reached their peak around 450 BC until the birth of Jesus. During this time, they began to spread as far as Spain, Italy and even Asia Minor.

However, the Celts are not a single people, but rather a collective term. It stands for many different tribal groups that lived north of the Mediterranean during the Iron Age. What is particularly fascinating is that they had so much in common, despite their widespread distribution from Portugal to Turkey. They all used the same language, had a similar understanding of art and almost identical burial rites. Their religion and even their methods of warfare were also almost identical.

Where did they come from?

Their origins can be traced back to three closely interwoven groups. Special burial sites on the Austrian Upper Danube are part of one of these cultures. The "original Celts" living there date back to the late Bronze Age. They cremated their dead and buried them in urns. Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about these settlers near the urn fields, as there are only a few archaeological finds of them.

There were also the followers of the Hallstatt culture. Their empire extended across what is now western Austria, southern Germany, Switzerland, eastern France and even parts of the Balkans. They most likely spread through trade, marriages and migration. Due to the rich deposits of raw materials such as salt, iron ore and copper, they lived in prosperity. Grave goods found prove that these ancestors of the Celts moved around a lot. The deceased were given gold and amber jewelry from Italy and the Greek colonies in southern France. This era came to an end in the 5th century BC. It is assumed that the main reason was the depletion of local resources. However, increasing competition with other tribes or a shift in trade routes could also have played a role.

The Latène culture is the last group that could be described as pre-Celts. They were named after a place (La Téne) on Lake Neuchâtel (Switzerland). They lived in a wide range across Western and Central Europe. Traces of them have been found from Ireland to Romania. They worked iron and gave their dead weapons and works of art on their last journey. However, the Latène culture was not a purely Celtic culture. This can be seen from the fact that its influence was also noticeable in non-Celtic areas such as Germanic-speaking Denmark. Nevertheless, the Latène culture is still often used as a representative of the early Celts.

The faith of the Celts

We only know about their religion through the works of classical authors. Unfortunately, the Celts themselves left no written records. Over the centuries, there have naturally been a number of different accounts of Celtic beliefs. What they all had in common was a reverence for nature. In particular, groves, rivers and springs were considered sacred. According to their beliefs, the Celtic gods appeared in nature. A spring was often regarded as the incarnation of a god. According to records, there were around 400 gods, although some of them were mentioned more than once. Thus, one and the same god had a different name in different tribes. Some of these names are still used today. For example, the rivers Seine (river goddess Sequana) and Danube (mother goddess Danu) are clearly of Celtic origin.

A certain fear seems to have been omnipresent in society. They had a concrete idea of what the end of the world would look like. In writings by Arrianus (Greek writer) and Strabo, they mention a conversation between Celtic envoys and Alexander the Great. They describe how they were very afraid that the sky would simply fall over them.

To appease the gods or to ask for something, the Celts also made offerings. In addition to food and weapons, living creatures were also sacrificed to the gods. Sometimes even human sacrifices were made. Grave goods have been found in the graves of the Celts, which suggest that they believed in life after death. Jewelry, weapons and even animals such as horses and dogs were intended to ensure that the deceased lacked nothing.

The Celtic tribes wore jewelry to ward off evil. They preferred deer motifs or the image of a wild boar as a protective amulet. If the amulet alone no longer helped or a natural disaster such as a drought was on its way, they turned to a druid. Thanks to their extensive training over a period of 20 years, they were able to hold the right ceremony for any kind of problem. The Celts were convinced that only with their help could they win back the favor of a god.

Unfortunately, druids left no written records of their work with the gods. What is known, however, is that one of the most revered gods was Cernunnos. It is assumed that he represented nature and fertility. Lugus was worshipped as an all-knowing and all-seeing deity. He most likely represented the sun. But female deities were also worshipped: Epona, who was associated with horses, or Brigid, the protector of the harvest and livestock. According to legend, she taught people everything they needed to survive.

Some of the gods were regarded as a trinity. Brigid (with her two sisters of the same name) or the "matrons" are an example of this. The matrons stand for strength, power and fertility. Other sources report three main gods: the sky god Taranis, the tribal god Teutates and Esus, the god of wealth and war. The world of the Celtic gods therefore continues to pose many mysteries. When the Roman influence became stronger in the 2nd century BC, some of their gods also found their way into the Celtic faith.

Celtic society was hierarchical.

The most important people were rulers and elite warriors, then came religious leaders and the keepers of the collected knowledge - the druids. They were exempt from taxes and military service. Craftsmen, traders, farmers and slaves were the largest group and brought up the rear.

With the exception of slaves, children could certainly join another social group. There was nothing to prevent the son of a craftsman from later becoming a druid. One prerequisite for this was, of course, the necessary brains.

Caesar wrote in a report on the Gallic War that Celtic women brought their husbands a dowry. If the husband died before her, this dowry was inherited by the wife. According to his observations, the men had power over the life and death of their wives and children. However, it is unclear whether this observation from Gaul applied to the entire Celtic empire.

At the top of the hierarchy were monarchs and, in later eras, elected leaders or a small council of elders. This was made up of free men and women. The clan was the smallest unit among the Celts. They were mostly people who were related to each other by blood. Families grew through marriage and joined together with others to form tribes. This made them stronger. At the end of the era, there were several large tribal associations that fought against the common threat in the form of the Romans. However, the leaders of these formations were not necessarily men. The Brigantes tribe in the north of England was led by the warrior Cartimandua. Boudicca, leader of the Icenians, also fought hard and led an uprising against the Roman occupation.

Celts and trade

They imported tin from Britain, amber from the Baltic and horses from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. They themselves had salt, iron, gold and slaves on offer. They apparently had a preference for wine, which they exchanged in large quantities for their goods. But also silver. Silk, pottery and other art objects were also popular barter goods.

The Celts used ceramics, stone, iron, bronze and gold for their works of art. However, they were also keen to experiment and decorated their works with amber, coral and glass. They used them to make cauldrons, which the Celts regarded as a symbol of fertility. But also human figures. Shields for battle were also decorated and animal figurines were made as votive offerings. They also liked to decorate the objects with messages that were supposed to give strength or convey religious ideas.

The so-called "rainbow bowls" appeared around 300 BC. These artfully crafted, shell-like objects made of gold were used as a means of payment. They could certainly be described as Celtic coins. Many of them were found in what is now Hungary, Austria and southern Germany.

In the course of trade relations, the Celts learned a lot from other cultures. It influenced their world view and they adopted some things into their own culture. For example, they switched from burials in burial mounds to shallow graves. As trade increased, so did competition between the tribes - and envy of their rich trading partners.

The Celts - a warlike people

Due to the large number of weapons found in Celtic graves, we know that warfare was very important to them. Another indication of this is the number of gods associated with war. Qualities such as bravery and courage on the battlefield were an important criterion for social status. In Gaul, Celtic warriors bleached their long hair in lime water and painted designs on their bodies. Various writers report that the warriors went into battle naked and cut off the heads of their victims. As the Celts believed that the head was the seat of the soul, this action makes sense. But not only men went to war, there is also evidence that women were also involved in battles.

To achieve their goal, the armies used slingshots, chariots and cavalry. Spears and long swords were mainly used in direct combat. Rectangular and oval shields offered a certain degree of protection. Standards and war horns were used to coordinate with each other over long distances. They fought against Rome and Delphi in various wars. They were also allied as mercenaries with the city of Carthage during the Punic Wars (264 - 146 BC).

The Romans took revenge for the repeated Celtic attacks and attacked the Arvernian tribe in Gaul (125 BC) Less than a century later, Caesar's troops marched into Gaul. Despite resistance from tribal princes such as Vercingetorix, the region was conquered. This was immediately followed by direct attacks on important figures in society (druids). Thus the Celts on the mainland and in southern Britain were finally absorbed by Roman culture.

The era ended with Caesar's conquest in 52 BC. However, they did not disappear, they just adapted to the Roman Empire. Some of the Celts remained untouched by this influence. In some places in Ireland and parts of northern Britain their culture lived on into the Middle Ages. It can still be admired today on elaborately decorated stone crosses with Celtic inscriptions in cemeteries.