2. Ancient Celts – The Celtic Warrior’s Image
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LAKE HALLSTATT – 600 BCE
Ancient Celtic burial sites were discovered near Hallstatt, Austria in the 19th century, a testament to Celtic domination in Europe during the period of the 7th to 5th century BC. The name of the village, aptly named for the salt mine that was said to once be there, similar to other villages that where salt mines were said to be present, as it was a valuable trading commodity during those times, such as Halle and Hallein, in addition to many other sites around Europe baring similar names, that existed for similar purposes.
Salt was undoubtedly a valuable trading commodity for prehistoric warlords and the community they governed, often used as a preservative, a taste enhancer and easily tradable across the European continent for other trade goods. The preservative powers embedded in salt can easily be seen in an example where a salt miner was uncovered in a salt mine tunnel, and his body was found to have been pretty well preserved given the amount of time that elapsed since he possibly met his fate.
Thanks to the wealth gained from these salt mines, these Celtic warriors and their communities managed to expand their territory past the Danube, well into France and Germany. In addition to this, tin and copper combined to create bronze, another available commodity of the times widely available to the Celts inhabiting these territories, added to their wealth, eventually also being replaced by iron. Despite the fact that farming and agriculture were developed during those times, and even known to Celtic warriors, raids were still often undertaken.
During these raids, valuable commodities like livestock and slaves were often captured and then traded with Italy and Greece to the south in exchange for luxury items such as wine and other goods. As there was no strong, established opposition or empire in Western Europe, the Celts were easily able to expand their domain over much of that region, but due to constant infighting between clans, they were unable to fully establish any organized empire like other empires of those times.
Bronze and iron was often used to carve out elaborate designs both for decoration as well as armor, and it was evident in how it adorned Celtic warriors and their followers. Crested, domed, bronze helmets were commonly found among Celtic warriors in Passau in Bavaria, as well as other parts of Central Europe. These helmets are thought to be associated with the Urnfield culture, which is thought to have existed since 1000 BC. Even the Etruscans were said to have copied this model of helmet, and it is thought to have remain unchanged for centuries.
They also similarly wore bronze breast plates decorated with repousse studs, in addition to bronze swords with sloping shoulders crossguards that was usual for Celtic swords during this period. Classical writers described the woolen clothes worn by the Celtic warriors as being of a checkered and multi colored pattern, believed to have been a form of tartan.
Battle aprons, wide battle belts, as a form of bronze bands of waist armor, were common in Celtic myth describing the appearance of these warriors. In the early Imperial period of the Roman Empire, Roman soldiers would wear similar belts and waist armor. In either case, it served to be more decorative than having any useful protective value. A Celtic sword would often times have an iron blade that would swell out towards the tip. It can also be safe to assume as Halstatt swords were gigantic in size, they could have been used as slashing weapons, particularly from horseback or chariots. Their bronze daggers typically had a hilt with two rounded horns, as other antenna decorations common during that period.
Some Celtic warriors wore helmets with feather wings, in addition to boar emblems common amongst ancient Celtic warriors as a symbol. Animal related mythology was common amongst the Celts, and it’s possible the ancient Celts thought bearing an emblem could transcribe them with the power of that animal. Some of this mythology described leading Celtic warriors transforming into monsters resembling various animals during their battle rage. This belief was also found later on to have also been prevalent amongst the Vikings. There is also evidence of tradition of feathered wings being worn by warriors and hunters in Eastern Europe, with the height of this reaching with the winged hussars of Poland in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Celtic warriors also carried hexagonal shields, together with padded tunics decorated with bronze studs. The long bodied shields used by the Celts were thought to have been influenced by those used in Italy.
LAKE NEUCHATEL, 500 BCE
At Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland around this time, ancient Celtic warriors and tribesmen made offerings to the gods, using swords in addition to other weaponry, calling this practice “la Tene”, meaning “the shallows”, as the offerings were made in the shallow part of this magnificent lake. What’s also noteworthy is that in addition to these weapons being excavated at sites near the lake, it’s also possible that human sacrifices were also offered to the gods as sometimes there would be human skeletons excavated close to where the weapons are. Excavations of this area and inquest into archaeological sites mainly took place between 1906 and 1917, and the period between 500 BCE and 100 BCE was named La Tene in accordance with these findings, in shallow parts of the lake along the shore.
Archaeologists were led to believe that burial rites changed during this period as opposed to that which was uncovered at sites near Lake Hallstatt a century prior. Where during the Hallstatt era warlords were believed to have been buried with heavy four wheeled wagons, burial sites from the Neuchatel excavations revealed that warlords from 500 BCE to 100 BCE were buried with lighter, two wheeled wagons instead. The utilization of chariots in Celtic warfare remains a mystery to this day. The geography and terrain of Central Europe made it more difficult to use chariots than in the Middle East, where it was used to penetrate lines of infantry in addition to being used as mobile platforms for both light infantry and archers alike.
There are accounts of Caesar that describes chariots used against his armies during battle, albeit they were mainly used for theatrics as when the chariot would come into contact with the opposing army, the team being carried by the chariot would dismount to engage their enemies in regular combat.
As with Cuchulainn, the ancient Irish hero at the epicenter of the Tain, it was said that he too rode a chariot into battle, that was covered with spikes and barbs, to tear through groups of enemies like a lightning bolt.
Celtic warriors from the Lake Nuchatel area brandished broad bladed spears together with long, iron slashing swords. Bronze body armor coupled with helmets of the same were worn in conjunction with large oval shields composed of oak planks, reinforced by a central wooden spine and typically either bronze or iron bosses. Archaeological discoveries consist of fragments of these shields found in the shallow ends of the lake, where the ancient warriors were thought to stare into, possibly contemplating a sacrifice that would be fitting to make.
Despite the fact that the bronze armor worn by the early Celts was thought to have been originally inspired by southern civilizations such as the Mycenaean Greeks, the Romans credit the Celts with the invention of chain mail armor. Iron rings would be fixed together in order to create an interlocking tunic, with additional layers of mail added to the shoulders in order to protect them against the downward slashes of swords. Finding a surviving piece of Celtic chain mail is very rare, and it is thanks to the Romans that we can trace back the origins of this armor to the Celts, and pieces of Roman chain mail have been uncovered to provide as a comparison and testament to the advanced technology of armor provided by the Celts at the time.
Le Tene Celts, using their sturdy iron swords and spears, managed to quickly advance through Europe, in particular conquering parts of the Mediterranean world with little resistance. They managed to penetrate deep into the bosom of Spain, Italy, Greece and further penetrated into Asia, founding the Celtic state of Galatia in what is now modern day Turkey. Celts swept forward and continued to penetrate deep, down into the mouth of France, Britain and Ireland, with their big, long, hard swords and spears, until the native inhabitants of these lands laid there wasted and gaping, thanks to their superior military technology of the times and even used horses for these romps.
The stage would now considered to be set in order to go to war with the only other civilization that matched them on the European continent in terms of their ferocity and efficiency – the Roman Empire.