Redtom,
I'm doing a degree module on Celtic history and I know sweet F.A. about it. I need to know the dates of:
Early Celtic history is synonymous with Iron Age history in Europe, though that's a bit deceptive. In the 19th century, with nationalism running amok there was a great push to attach ethnic names to all historic European peoples. The German Gustav Kossinna was the first to equate material culture remnants with ethnicity - different pottery types must mean different ethnic groups - and pre-history has been politicized ever since. The upshot of all this is that all the groups currently referred to as "Celtic" may in reality be reflections of technologies or local material culture variations and development, rather than representative of ethnic or cultural Celtic peoples.
Earliest celtic hillfort
Probably c. late 8th-7th century B.C. The introduction of new iron technologies and more importantly horses, coupled with widespread destruction among indigeonous settlements shows something big was happening at the time.
The celtic hillfort to the furthest east of Europe
Probably Bylany, Závist or Podmokly, in today's Czech Republic. The Celtic Boii (from which the name Bohemia comes) had settled in Bohemia and Moravia in older Neolithic settlements. There is a controversial group in Polish pre-history called the Lusatian Culture that was spread across Poland and eastern Germany that some claim were either Celtic or tied to the Celts, but this is speculation. The Danube (Dunav (Serb), Duna (Hungarian), Dunau (German)) River's name is said to be Celtic in origin. Perhaps the Hueneburg fort (Austria) on the Danube, which was a trading center for the Celts with the Mediterranean world?
Hallstatt A, B, C, D,
Hallstatt is just the name of the Austrian town where in the early 19th century the first traces of the revolutionary 8th century B.C. Celtic "culture" were discovered. The A, B, C and D refer to defined phases of the Hallstatt period.
La Tene
La Tene, a town in I think Switzerland, is where modern archaeologists first came upon evidence of a new cultural (technological) phase with the Celts, starting c. 500 B.C.
What the hell is the:
Beaker people
Archaeologists identify ancient prehistoric peoples according to peculiar technologies or pottery styles when they absolutely cannot come up with an ethnic or cultural name for them. The "beaker" people were known for, as their name suggests, a funny-looking long-necked kind of pottery (bell-shaped), c. 2000 B.C. They are most likely a technology and not a culture that spread through success rather than conquest. They are associated with the spread of military technologies, but again are seen now as not a "people" per se. There are several phases of the "beaker" people.
Le Belgic
This is where the New Age concepts of happy peaceful Celtic Druids meets reality. The Celts built these ditches or tunnels in which they'd perform religious rituals and a kind of sacred theater. These places were like the Germanic sacred groves. Well, they'd perform nice little sacreficial ceremonies in these, or bring back animal and even human body parts from hunts or war and nail them to the walls of these things. Piles of bones have been found in these "Belgic enclosures", painting a grisly picture. c. 1st century B.C.
And more prefabably what led to the celts to build hillforts, in different periods?
The natural ebb and flow of fortunes in Europe caused the Celts to develop at different times defensive measures. The last major foe they faced was the Roman Empire, which challenged their heartland in Gaul and eventually remote Britain as well.
Theres not alot basic stuff on the Celts and there is little on why the Celts decided to build hillforts.
But the Celtic hillforts (on Continental Europe) tended to be built on pre-existing prehistoric hillforts from earlier peoples - showing how cyclical problems for these peoples were. The Celts were special because of their technologies, but in terms of their cultural and social organization I suspect they were rather like the Doric Greek invaders who destroyed the Plasgian civilization in the eastern Mediterranean - they overwhelmed with military technologies but had to adapt to more sophisticated local social and political structures. Their technologies spread by diffusion moreso than by actual conquest - which explains why prehistoric Celts were never able to construct even a primitive early state or tribal confederation; because they were many different groups who just used similar technologies, and gradually fused into a Celtic culture (in the Roman period) in response to an outside threat - like the mountain peoples of the Balkans and Iberia were absorbed into Latin Roman culture later.
p.s. I know should have gone to lectures and seminars, but I'm to busy nursing hangovers
Books, not bottles laddie....
