Preservation is, in certain individuals, so good that we can tell what their last meal was. In the case of Lindow Man, his stomach contained traces of mistletoe. To the extent that sources are available, they depict a pre-Christian Iron Age Celtic social structure based formally on class and kingship, although this may only have been a particular late phase of organisation in Celtic societies. Patron-client relationships similar to those of Roman society are also described by Caesar and others in the Gaul of the 1st century BC. [ citation needed] The name ‘Camulodunum’ (Colchester) appeared on the coins of Celtic rulers such as Cunobelinus, whom the Romans called ‘Great King of the Britons’. The capital of the Trinovantes tribe, Camulodunum was the main target of the invading Roman army in AD 43, later becoming the first town in the new province.(Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images) Food Because Classical writers did not call the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland Κελτοί ( Keltoi) or Celtae, [5] [8] [9] some scholars prefer not to use the term for the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands. [5] [8] [9] [10] However, they spoke Celtic languages, shared other cultural traits, and Roman historian Tacitus says the Britons resembled the Gauls in customs and religion. [11] Modern The Dumnonii seem to have accepted the Roman conquest without resistance and as a result, few garrison forts were placed in their territory, although this area never fully adopted Roman ways of life. Lifestyles and types of settlements remained little changed from the Iron Age through the Roman period. Exeter already the Legionary Fortress Isca Dumnoniorum was also transformed into the capital of Civitas.

A Latin name for the Gauls, Galli ( pl.), may come from a Celtic ethnic name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during the Celtic expansion into Italy from the early fifth century BC. Its root may be Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning "power, strength" (whence Old Irish gal "boldness, ferocity", Welsh gallu "to be able, power"). The Greek name Γαλάται ( Galatai, Latinized Galatae) most likely has the same origin, referring to the Gauls who invaded southeast Europe and settled in Galatia. [35] The suffix -atai might be a Greek inflection. [36] Linguist Kim McCone suggests it comes from Proto-Celtic *galatis ("ferocious, furious"), and was not originally an ethnic name but a name for young warrior bands. He says "If the Gauls' initial impact on the Mediterranean world was primarily a military one typically involving fierce young *galatīs, it would have been natural for the Greeks to apply this name for the type of Keltoi that they usually encountered". [28] Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 5,121 articles in the main category, and specifying |topic= will aid in categorization. The Celts ( / k ɛ l t s/, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( / ˈ k ɛ l t ɪ k/) were a collection of Indo-European peoples [1] in Europe and Anatolia, identified by their use of Celtic languages and other cultural similarities. [2] [3] [4] [5] Major Celtic groups included the Gauls; the Celtiberians and Gallaeci [6] [7] of Iberia; the Britons and Gaels of Britain and Ireland; the Boii; and the Galatians. The relation between ethnicity, language and culture in the Celtic world is unclear and debated; [8] for example over the ways in which the Iron Age people of Britain and Ireland should be called Celts. [5] [8] [9] [10] In current scholarship, 'Celt' primarily refers to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to a single ethnic group. [11] The La Tène-style ceremonial Agris Helmet, 350 BC, Angoulême city Museum in France It is only really within the last few centuries that the term ‘Celtic’ has taken on a more political dimension, being linked with concepts of Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Cornish, Gallician or Breton independence in the face of perceived English, Spanish or French political domination. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.

For at least 1,000 years the name Celt was not used at all, and nobody called themselves Celts or Celtic, until from about 1700, after the word 'Celtic' was rediscovered in classical texts, it was applied for the first time to the distinctive culture, history, traditions, language of the modern Celtic nations – Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man. [37] 'Celt' is a modern English word, first attested in 1707 in the writing of Edward Lhuyd, whose work, along with that of other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages and history of the early Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain. [38] The English words Gaul, Gauls ( pl.) and Gaulish (first recorded in the 16–17th centuries) come from French Gaule and Gaulois, a borrowing from Frankish * Walholant, "Roman land" (see Gaul: Name), the root of which is Proto-Germanic * walha-, "foreigner, Roman, Celt", whence the English word 'Welsh' ( Old English wælisċ). Proto-Germanic *walha comes from the name of the Volcae, [39] a Celtic tribe who lived first in southern Germany and central Europe, then migrated to Gaul. [40] This means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia (which should have produced * Jaille in French), though it does refer to the same ancient region. [ citation needed]

The distinctive Celtic cross, with a circle around the intersection, remains a clear symbol of the Celtic world. (Image by Getty Images) Q: How and where did the Celts live? Boudicca, Queen of the British Iceni tribe, a Celtic tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire. After the Roman conquest of most Celtic lands, Celtic culture was further trampled by Germanic tribes, Slavs and Huns during the Migration Period of roughly 300 to 600 A.C. As a result, few if any people living in Europe and the British Isles identified as Celts until the 1700s, when the Welsh linguist and scholar Edward Lhuyd recognized the similarities between languages like Welsh, Irish, Cornish and the now extinct Gaulish, and labeled them “Celtic.” 8. The embrace of a Celtic identity is relatively recent and tied to opposition to British rule. The Gaulish name Vercingetorix literally means 'great/supreme king/leader of warriors/heroes'. It is a compound of the prefix ver- ('over, superior'; cf. Old Irish for, Old Welsh/ Old Breton guor, Cornish gor), attached to -cingeto- ('warrior, hero', from a PIE stem meaning 'tread, step, walk'; cf. Old Irish cinged), and -rix ('king'; cf. Celtiberian reikis, Old Irish rí, Old Welsh ri). [5] [6] [7] Scholar Maigréad Ní C. Dobbs has proposed to see an Irish cognate of the name in the form Ferchinged an rí. [8] In his Life of Caesar, Plutarch renders the name as Vergentorix (Ουεργεντοριξ). [9] According to Florus, he was "endowed [...] with a name which seemed to be intended to inspire terror". [10] History [ edit ] Context [ edit ] Celtic Gallia and the Roman Republic in 58 BC Vercingetorix statue by Frédéric Bartholdi, on Place de Jaude, in Clermont-Ferrand, FranceMost written accounts of the Ancient Celts are from the Romans and Greeks, though it is not clear how accurate these are. Roman historians Ammianus Marcellinus and Tacitus mentioned Celtic women inciting, participating in, and leading battles. [145] Plutarch reports that Celtic women acted as ambassadors to avoid a war among Celtic chiefdoms in the Po valley during the 4th century BC. [146] Posidonius' anthropological comments on the Celts had common themes, primarily primitivism, extreme ferocity, cruel sacrificial practices, and the strength and coura For Venceslas Kruta, Galatia in central Turkey was an area of dense Celtic settlement. [ citation needed]