Ancient Celts. Historical myths about the Celts The place of the Celts where there is a lot of fried pork

The ancient Greeks gave the name celtoi to the barbarian peoples of Central Europe, who, from the fifth century BC, terrorized the city-states of the Mediterranean with their raids. By the end of the fifth century BC, the Celtic tribes settled in the west in Gaul, Britain and Ireland, reached Iberia in the southwest, northern Italy in the south, and the Balkans and Asia Minor in the east. “Celts” were now called the Helvetians, who lived in the territory now occupied by Switzerland, and the Boii, who lived in the lands of present-day Italy, and the Averns, who lived in today's France, and the Scordixes of present-day Serbia. Nineteenth-century historians wrote many works looking for alleged differences between their "Celtic" and "Germanic" roots, but modern research leads us to the conclusion that they all originally belonged to a common northern European tradition and broke up into separate linguistic groups only after as were geographically separated by the Romans. We understand by the word "Celts" the various local peoples of northwestern Europe, colonized, with the exception of the Irish, by Rome, and therefore "cut off" by the borders of the Roman Empire from the "Germanic" tribes living east of the Rhine and north of the Danube.

The Celtic civilization took shape around 700 BC. e. on the territory of present-day Austria - the so-called Hallstatt culture. Its main wealth was salt, which the population exchanged for various goods from the Greeks and Etruscans. Around 500 BC e., at the beginning of the Laten period, islands of Celtic civilization appeared in the north-east of France and in the middle reaches of the Rhine. Shortly thereafter, the Celtic tribes were on the move. They invaded the Apennine Peninsula, drove the Etruscans out of the Po Valley, in the fifth century BC. founded the city of Milan and in 390 BC n. e. sacked Rome. Their influence reached its highest limits by about 260 BC. e.; and they were considered one of the three largest barbarian peoples of Europe, along with the Scythians and Persians. From the seventh century BC, the Celts began to settle in Gaul, where, starting from the third century, they led, under Roman influence, a semi-sedentary lifestyle in cities, and began to trade, traveling all over Europe, buying, selling, and often simply taking away goods . In the sixth century BC and in some periods after the Celts settled Britain, in the third - part of Spain. Then they colonized the coast of Dalmatia (part of the territory until recently occupied by Yugoslavia), Thrace (modern Bulgaria) and part of Asia Minor, where they became known as the Galatians. Strabo reports that the Celts were distinguished by their temper, courage, readiness to fight at any moment, and were by no means so uncouth and rude (Strabo, XII. 5). Under the name of the Galatians (?), they served as mercenaries, for example, with the Sicilian tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse (early fifth century BC), with the Macedonians, including Alexander the Great (336-323 BC), and, later, Hannibal (247-182 BC).

The third century BC witnessed the fierce struggle of the peoples of the Mediterranean against the Celts. In 225 BC. e. the population of Italy, under the leadership of Rome, repelled the invasion of the Celts, and in 201 BC. e., after the defeat of the Carthaginians by Hannibal, Rome cleared the valley of the Po River from the Celtic settlers and began to exterminate or enslave the barbarian tribes: the Caenomani, the Insubres, the Boii. Roman expansion in Spain and Gaul began after the capture of the Carthaginian garrisons in Spain and southern France during the Second Punic War and ended two centuries later with the final conquest of the northwest of the peninsula in the reign of Augustus. At the beginning of the third century BC, the Celts attacked Macedonia and Greece, but in 279 they were defeated at Delphi, after which Apollo, the Delphic god, became the eternal symbol of the victory of civilization over barbarism.

Nevertheless, the nomadic Celts and the sedentary cultures of the south were in contact with each other. Cultural exchange with the Mediterranean civilizations at first, apparently, proceeded exclusively in a one-sided form. Starting around 650 BC. e., the Celts, in contact with the Greeks and Etruscans, gradually absorbed elements of the Mediterranean culture. This is how a special Celtic style of art arose, which combined the original Central European Hallstatt style and modified Greek (Etruscan) motifs. Apparently, the plastic art of the Greeks and Etruscans had a much less significant influence on the unique Celtic style than its more abstract decorative elements. Despite contacts with the Greeks and Etruscans, who already had a written language, the Celts did not acquire their own written language. Therefore, the names of the Celtic gods and the religious meaning of works of art are known to us only from a relatively late period, after the Roman conquest. The Celts were distinguished by a deep reverence for the spoken word: bards were revered members of society, the druids preserved and transmitted knowledge, possessing a superbly developed memory. In the first century BC, after the final conquest of the Po Valley by Rome, this previously Celtic land gave birth to many outstanding writers, including Catullus, Cato, Varro, Virgil and many others. Much later, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, the provinces of Spain and present-day southern France, which were ruled by the Visigothic kings, could also become real strongholds of Roman art, literature and culture.

There are various hypotheses for the formation of the Celts as a historical community. According to an earlier one, the ancestors of the people came to Central Europe from the Black Sea region. (In favor of their ties with the East, in particular, the shape of combat helmets speaks. The peoples of Western Europe are characterized by rounded helmets, for example, the Greeks, Romans, medieval knights and Vikings. The gunsmiths of the Slavs, Iranians, Indians preferred a pointed shape. The Baltic people of the Prussians , located between the Germans and the Slavs, used both types.Many helmets of the Celts, in fact the westernmost group of Indo-Europeans, were pointed!).

Now most researchers are inclined to the hypothesis of the autochthonous origin of the Celts in the area between the Middle Rhine and the Middle Danube. The origins of their culture are seen in the so-called Hallstatt C (7th century BC) - the beginning of the Iron Age. M. Schukin gives a vivid description of the periods of Celtic history. “At the beginning of the path, the clan aristocracy probably played the leading role. In the southern part of Central Europe, in the Alpine zone, burials of its representatives are known with luxurious golden hryvnias and bracelets, with chariots in the graves, with bronze vessels. It was in this aristocratic environment that a peculiar style of Celtic art, the Celtic La Tène culture, was born.” (Shchukin, 1994. - p. 17). In the 6th century BC e. hordes of fiery-red Celts shocked Europe, sweeping on their war chariots through the territory of modern France, Spain, Britain. The lands of present-day France began to be called by their name Gaul (Celts, Gauls, Galatians - all these are different forms of the same ethnonym). This country became the core of the Celtic lands and the base of a new expansion, this time to the east. “In the valiant reign of Ambigata, both he and the state became rich, and Gaul became so abundant in both fruits and people that it turned out to be impossible for her to manage. As the population rapidly increased, Ambigath decided to rid his realm of excess people. Belovez and Segovez, the sons of his sister, he decided to designate for settlement those places that the gods indicate in fortune-telling ... Segovez got the wooded Hercynian Mountains, and Bellovez ... the gods showed the way to Italy. He led all those who lacked a place among his people, choosing such people from the Bituriges, Arverni, Sennons, Aedui, Ambarri, Carnuts and Aulerci. (Livy, 5, 34 - according to Shchukin, 1994. - p. 80). In this phrase of the source, the mechanism of mobility of the Celts is perfectly shown.

The surplus population of various tribes, gathering together, captured new lands without breaking ties with their homeland. The people of Bellovese defeated the Etruscan towns in the Po Valley (about 397 BC). Their sensational but unsuccessful assault on Rome, the episode with the Capitoline geese and the phrase: “Woe to the vanquished” (about 390 BC) entered history. Then the war in Italy acquired a positional character. More promising were the actions of those Gauls who settled in the Hercynian mountains. They occupied Bohemia and the Middle Danube basin (due to the fact that the army of Alexander the Great acted in the East). Then, taking advantage of the weakening of Macedonia after the war of the Diadochi, the Celts destroyed the army of its king Ptolemy Keravnus and plundered Greece. At the invitation of the king of Bithynia, they crossed over to Asia Minor. It must be said that the Hellenistic kings willingly hired the Celts, appreciating their specific military skills (perhaps similar to those used in oriental martial arts). But the Celts (here they were called Galatians) unexpectedly formed their own state in the center of Asia Minor, organizing themselves on the model of Gaul. Finally, around the same period, the Celts settled Ireland.

During the 3rd century BC. e. the Celts began to suffer defeat. The very ease of conquest was fraught with danger. The vast distances weakened the lines of communication. The Celts were unable to develop their own statehood. The rulers of the organized powers (Rome, Macedonia, Pergamum, Syria) who had recovered from their defeats began to repulse them. “After a series of military failures, having lost part of the conquered lands, the Celtic population is concentrated in Central Europe from the Danube to the Carpathians. During the period of “Central European consolidation” there is an internal restructuring social structure. The war chiefs have probably lost their authority. The “industrial revolution” begins - they are made in droves, for the sale of tools of labor, those forms of them that have survived in Europe until the Middle Ages, and sometimes to the present day, a coin appears, proto-cities of oppidum arise - fortified centers with developed production ”(Shchukin , 1994. - p. 18). Cities (the first in Europe north of the Alps!) and villages were connected by a network of roads. There was a developed river navigation. The Gauls in Brittany built large wooden ships, equipped with leather sails and anchor chains, much better suited to sailing on the high seas than the ancient galleys. Politically, Celtica was still a conglomerate of tribal associations, led by "kings" and aristocracy, who lived in fortified areas and, like the medieval nobility, passionately loved horses and dog hunting. But the highest power belonged to the class of priests who had a single organization and gathered annually in the territory of present-day Chartres. They fell into three categories. Druids formed the highest caste - the compilers of myths and performers of rituals. Philides performed the functions of jurists, they also kept in memory ancient history country, closely intertwined with mythology. Finally, the bards glorified military leaders and heroes in their poems. According to Caesar, the Gallic druids did not trust the written word and retained a huge amount of information in their memory. Not surprisingly, the training period of the druid reached 20 years. In Ireland, the same period was shorter - seven years.

Possessing a developed handicraft technology, the Celts had a strong influence on the neighboring “barbarian” peoples. Perhaps the disseminators of the culture of Latena, homogeneous throughout the vast expanses of Western and Central Europe, were groups of itinerant craftsmen, passing from one leader to another. The existence of a strong sacralization of the craft and participation in such groups of priests is also likely.

Such was the Celtic civilization. “In many respects, it is closer to the new than to the Greco-Roman culture thanks to its sailing ships, chivalry, church system, and above all, its imperfect attempts to make the support of the state not the city, but the tribe and its highest expression - the nation.” (Mommsen, 1997, vol. 3. - p. 226). However, the Celts had to pay for the structural “perestroika” and “Central European consolidation” with the loss of combat skills. And the dominance of the priests, far from the tasks of real politics, had negative consequences. From the east, the Celts were pressed by wild Germanic tribes. In the south, Rome was gaining strength more and more. In 121 BC. e. The Romans occupied southern France, creating the province of Gallia Narbonne. At the same time, two tribes, the Cimbri and the Teutons, invaded Celtic Gaul from across the Rhine. The Romans also got it - they were defeated in two battles. But Rome was able to draw conclusions from the defeats, Marius spent military reform by creating a professional army. Gaul was ruined. And then came the fatal for the Celts 60-50 years. BC e. Burebista, the king of the Dacians destroyed or expelled them from Central Europe; Ariovistus, the German leader drove them out of Germany. And finally, Caesar made his dizzying campaign and in a few years conquered Gaul - the core of the Celtic lands. This country quickly succumbed to the influence of Roman civilization. Its population was called the Gallo-Romans - that is, the Gauls living according to Roman law. Gaul became one of the most developed and populated provinces of the empire. The class of priests who were champions of independence was destroyed. But the veneration of the Celtic gods continued, albeit within the framework of increasing syncretism.

A similar fate befell all the other mainland Celts. Their culture survived only in the British Isles among the Britons (England) and Scots (Ireland). So Celtica entered the Middle Ages.

G. ALEKSANDROVSKY. According to the materials of the magazine "Der Spiegel".

Tribes close in language and culture, known in history under the name of the Celts (this name comes from the ancient Greeks, the Romans called them Gauls), about three thousand years ago settled almost throughout Europe. Their stay on the continent was marked by many successes in the field of material culture, which were also enjoyed by their neighbors. Early European literature, or rather folklore, learned a lot from the monuments of the creativity of this ancient people. The heroes of many medieval tales - Tristan and Isolde, Prince Eisenhertz (Iron Heart) and the wizard Merlin - all of them were born by the fantasy of the Celts. In their heroic sagas, written down in the 8th century by Irish monks, the fabulous knights of the Grail, such as Percifal and Lancelot, appear. Today, little is written about the life of the Celts and the role they played in the history of Europe. They were more fortunate in modern entertainment literature, mainly in French comics. The Celts, like the Vikings, are portrayed as barbarians in horned helmets, lovers of drinking and feasting on wild boar. Let this image of a rude, albeit cheerful, carefree savage remain on the conscience of the creators of today's tabloid literature. A contemporary of the Celts, Aristotle, called them "wise and skillful."

Ritual feast of the modern followers of the Druids.

A Celtic warrior fighting an Etruscan horseman (c. 400 BC).

Bronze image of a chariot filled with people doomed to sacrifice to the gods. 7th century BC

Reconstruction of an altar dating back to the 2nd century BC.

The figurine of the 1st century BC depicts a druid - a Celtic priest.

Bronze jug. 4th century BC

A jug with a double handle is an example of typical ceramics from one of the periods of Celtic history.

The painting, painted in 1899, depicts the capture of the Celtic leader Fercingetorix by Julius Caesar. Two million Celts were killed and taken into slavery as a result of Caesar's campaign in Gaul.

This is how historians imagine a Celtic settlement. This reconstruction was carried out on the site where the capital of the Celts, Manching, once stood.

Statue discovered near Frankfurt. This sandstone sculpture made it possible to understand a lot about the life of the Celts.

Items found by archaeologists studying the history of the Celts: a vessel, a boar figurine, a richly decorated helmet, a hairpin (fibula) for clothes, a round buckle, amber jewelry, a bronze head of a man.

Wise and skillful

The skill of the Celts is confirmed today by archaeological finds. As early as 1853 a harness was found in Switzerland; the art with which its details were made made scientists doubt: was it really made in ancient times by the Celts or is it a modern fake? However, the skeptical voices have long been silenced. According to modern researchers, the Celtic masters were capable of the finest execution of magnificent artistic ideas.

The German researcher Helmut Birkhan, in his book on Celtic culture, speaks of the genius of the then technicians who invented the carpentry workbench. But they also own a much more important matter - they were the first to lay salt mines and the first to learn how to get iron and steel from iron ore, and this determined the beginning of the end of the Bronze Age in Europe. About 800 B.C. bronze in Central and Western Europe displaces iron.

Birkhan, studying and analyzing the latest trophies of archeology, comes to the conclusion that the Celts, who first settled in the center of Europe, in the Alps generous with fossils, quickly accumulated wealth, created well-armed detachments that influenced politics in the ancient world, developed crafts, and their masters possessed high technologies for that time.

Here is a list of production peaks that were available only to Celtic craftsmen.

They were the only people among other peoples who made bracelets from molten glass that did not have seams.

The Celts received copper, tin, lead, mercury from deep deposits.

Their horse-drawn carts were the best in Europe.

The Celts-metallurgists were the first to learn how to obtain iron and steel.

Celtic blacksmiths were the first to forge steel swords, helmets and chain mail - the best weapons in Europe at that time.

They mastered the laundering of gold on the Alpine rivers, the extraction of which was measured in tons.

On the territory of modern Bavaria, the Celts erected 250 religious temples and built 8 large cities. For example, the city of Kelheim occupied 650 hectares, another city, Heidengraben, was two and a half times larger - 1600 hectares, Ingolstadt was spread on the same area (here are the modern names of German cities that arose on the sites of the Celtic). It is known how the main city of the Celts, on the site of which Ingolstadt grew up, was called - Manching. It was surrounded by a rampart seven kilometers long. This ring was perfect in terms of geometry. For the sake of the accuracy of the circular line, ancient builders changed the course of several streams.

The Celts are a numerous people. In the first millennium BC, he occupied the territory from the Czech Republic (according to the modern map) to Ireland. Turin, Budapest and Paris (then called Lutetia) were founded by the Celts.

Inside the Celtic cities there was a revival. Professional acrobats and strongmen entertained the townspeople on the streets. Roman authors speak of the Celts as born horsemen, and all emphasize the panache of their women. They shaved off their eyebrows, wore narrow sashes that accentuated their thin waists, adorned their faces with headbands, and nearly all wore amber beads. Massive bracelets and neck rings made of gold rang at the slightest movement. Hairstyles resembled towers - for this, the hair was moistened with lime water. Fashion in clothes - bright and colorful in an oriental way - often changed. Men all wore mustaches and gold rings around their necks, women - bracelets on their legs, which were shackled as early as a girl's age.

The Celts had a law - you have to be thin, and therefore many went in for sports. Whoever did not fit the "standard" belt was fined.

Morals in everyday life were peculiar. In military campaigns, homosexuality was the norm. The woman enjoyed great freedom, it was easy for her to get a divorce and take back the dowry she brought with her. Each tribal prince kept his squad, which defended his interests. A frequent reason for fights could be even such a small reason - which of the elders would get the first, best piece of deer or wild boar. For the Celts, this was a matter of honor. Such strife is reflected in many Irish sagas.

The Celts could not be called one nation, they remained fragmented into separate tribes, despite the common territory (more than one million square kilometers), a common language, a single religion, trade interests. Tribes numbering about 80,000 people acted separately.

Journey into the past

Imagine that in a helmet equipped with a miner's lamp, you are descending a sloping working into the depths of a mountain, into a mine where, from time immemorial, the Celts mined salt in the eastern Alps. The journey into the past has begun.

A quarter of an hour later, a transverse working is encountered, it, like the drift along which we walked, is trapezoidal in cross section, but all four sides of it are five times smaller, only a child can crawl into this hole. And once there was a full-length adult. The rock in the salt mines is very plastic and, over time, seems to heal the wounds inflicted on it by people.

Now salt is not mined in the mine, the mine has been turned into a museum where you can see and learn how once people got the much-needed salt here. Archaeologists are working nearby, they are separated from the sightseers by an iron grate with the inscription: "Attention! Research is in progress." The lamp illuminates the sloping wooden tray that goes down, along which you can sit down to the next drift.

The mine is located a few kilometers from Salzburg (translated as Salt Fortress). The city's history museum is overflowing with finds from the mines scattered around the area called the Salzkammergut. Salt from this region of the Alps was delivered to all corners of Europe thousands of years ago. The pedlars carried it on their backs in the form of 8-10-kilogram cylinders lined with wooden slats and tied with ropes. In exchange for salt, valuables from all over Europe flocked to Salzburg (in the museum you can see a stone knife made in Scandinavia - the mineral composition proves this - or jewelry made from Baltic amber). This is probably why the city in the eastern foothills of the Alps has been famous for its wealth, fairs and holidays since ancient times. They still exist - the whole world knows the annual Salzburg festivals, which every theater, every orchestra dreams of visiting.

Findings in salt mines step by step reveal to us a distant and in many ways mysterious world. Wooden spades, but at the same time iron picks, leg wraps, the remains of woolen sweaters and fur caps - all this was found by archaeologists in long-abandoned adits. An environment containing an excess of salt prevents the decomposition of organic materials. Therefore, scientists were able to see the cut ends of the sausage, boiled beans and fossilized waste products of digestion. Beds say that people did not leave the mine for a long time, they slept next to the face. According to rough estimates, about 200 people worked in the mine at the same time. In the dim light of the torches, people sooty with soot cut down blocks of salt, which were then pulled to the surface on sleds. The sleigh glided along the damp wood tracks.

The drifts cut by people connect the shapeless caves created by nature itself. According to rough estimates, people walked more than 5,500 meters of drifts and other workings in the mountain.

Among the finds made by modern archaeologists in the mines, there are no human remains. Only chronicles dating back to 1573 and 1616 say that two corpses were found in the caves, their tissues, like those of mummies, were almost petrified.

Well, those finds that now fall to archaeologists often make you rack your brains. For example, the exhibit under the code "B 480" resembles a fingertip made from a pig's bladder. The open end of this little pouch could be tightened with a cord attached. What is it - scientists guess - is it protection for a wounded finger or a small purse for valuables?

Sacred plant - mistletoe

"In the study of the history of the Celts," says the historian Otto-Hermann Frey of Marburg, "surprises pour in like raindrops." A monkey skull was found in the Irish cult site "Emain Maha". How did he get there and what role did he play? In 1983, a board with text fell into the hands of archaeologists. It was partially deciphered and understood to be a dispute between two groups of rival witches.

Another sensational discovery made in recent months has added to the speculation about what the spiritual culture of the Celts is. A stylized figure of a man above life size, made of sandstone, was discovered 30 kilometers from Frankfurt. In the left hand is a shield, the right is pressed to the chest, a ring is visible on one of the fingers. His costume is complemented by neck ornaments. On the head - something like a turban in the form of a mistletoe leaf - a plant sacred to the Celts. The weight of this figure is 230 kilograms. What does she represent? So far, experts have two opinions: either this is a figure of some kind of deity, or it is a prince, also invested with religious duties, perhaps the main priest - a druid, as the Celtic clergy are called.

It must be said that there is no other European people that would deserve such gloomy assessments when it comes to the druids, their magic and commitment to human sacrifice. They killed prisoners and fellow criminals, they were also judges, they were engaged in healing, taught children. They also played an important role as predictors of the future. Together with the tribal nobility, the druids made up the upper stratum of society. After the victory over the Celts, the Roman emperors made them their tributaries, forbade human sacrifices, took away many privileges from the Druids, and they lost that halo of significance that surrounded them. True, for a long time they still existed as wandering soothsayers. And now in Western Europe you can meet people who claim that they have inherited the wisdom of the druids. Books like "The Teachings of Merlin - 21 Lectures on the Practical Magic of the Druids" or "The Celtic Tree Horoscope" are published. Winston Churchill joined the Druid circle in 1908.

Not a single grave of a druid has yet been met by archaeologists, so information about the religion of the Celts is extremely scarce. It is understandable, therefore, with what interest historians study a figure found near Frankfurt in the hope that science will advance in this area.

The statue with a turban, apparently, stood in the center of the funeral complex, which is an earthen hill, a 350-meter alley led to it, along the edges of which there were deep ditches. In the depths of the hill, the remains of a man about 30 years old were found. The burial took place 2500 years ago. Four restorers carefully freed the skeleton from the soil and moved it to the laboratory, where they gradually remove the remaining soil and the remains of clothing. One can understand the impatience of scientists when they saw the complete coincidence of the equipment of the deceased with the one depicted on the statue: the same neck decoration, the same shield and the same ring on the finger. It can be thought that the ancient sculptor repeated the appearance of the deceased, as he was on the day of the funeral.

Workshop of Europe and dark rituals

Elizabeth Knoll, a historian of the prehistory of Europe, highly appreciates the level of development of the Celts: "They did not know writing, they did not know an all-encompassing state organization, but nevertheless they already stood on the threshold of high culture."

At least in technical and economic terms, they were far superior to their northern neighbors - the Germanic tribes who occupied the marshy right bank of the Rhine and partially populated the south of Scandinavia. Only thanks to the neighborhood with the Celts, these tribes, who did not know either the account of time or fortified cities, were mentioned in history shortly before the birth of Christ. And the Celts in these times just reached the zenith of their power. To the south of the Main, trading life was in full swing, large cities for that time were erected, in which forges rang, circles of potters spun, and money flowed from buyers to sellers. This was a level that the then Germans did not know.

The Celts raised their ritual temple in the Carinthian Alps near Magdalensberg by 1000 meters. In the neighborhood of the temple, even now you can find slag heaps two hundred meters long, three meters wide - these are the remains of iron ore processing. There were also blast furnaces in which ore was turned into metal, there were also forges where shapeless castings, the so-called "crits" - a mixture of metal and liquid slag - became steel swords, spearheads, helmets or tools. No one in the Western world did this then. Steel products enriched the Celts.

An experimental reproduction of Celtic metallurgy by the Austrian scientist Harold Straube showed that these early furnaces could be heated up to 1400 degrees. By controlling the temperature and skillfully handling molten ore and coal, the ancient craftsmen obtained either soft iron or hard steel at will. Straube's publication of the "Ferrum Noricum" (of the "Northern iron") prompted further research into Celtic metallurgy. The inscriptions discovered by the archaeologist Gernot Riccochini speak of a brisk steel trade with Rome, which bought steel in bulk in the form of ingots resembling bricks or strips, and through the hands of Roman merchants this metal went to the armory workshops of the eternal city.

All the more monstrous against the backdrop of brilliant achievements in the field of technology seems to be the almost manic passion of the Celts to sacrifice human lives. This theme runs like a red thread in many writings of the time of the Caesars. But who knows, maybe the Romans deliberately focus on this in order to obscure their own crimes in the wars they waged in Europe, for example, in Gallic?

Caesar describes the group burnings used by the Druids. The already mentioned researcher Birkhan reports the custom of drinking wine from a goblet made from the skull of an enemy. There are documents that say that the druids guessed the future by the sight of blood flowing from a person's stomach after being stabbed with a dagger. The same priests instilled in the people the fear of ghosts, the transmigration of souls, the resurrection of dead enemies. And in order to prevent the arrival of a defeated enemy, the Celt decapitated his corpse or cut it into pieces.

The Celts treated dead relatives with the same distrust and tried to ensure that the deceased did not return. In the Ardennes, graves were found in which 89 people were buried, but 32 skulls are missing. A Celtic burial was found in Durrenberg, in which the deceased was completely "dismantled": the sawn-off pelvis lies on the chest, the head is separated and stands next to the skeleton, the left hand is completely missing.

In 1984, excavations in England brought scientists evidence of how the ritual murder took place. Archaeologists are lucky. The victim lay in the soil saturated with water, and therefore the soft tissues did not decompose. The dead man's cheeks were clean-shaven, his nails well-groomed, his teeth too. The date of this man's death is about 300 BC. After examining the corpse, it was possible to restore the circumstances of this ritual murder. First, the victim was hit in the skull with an axe, then he was strangled with a noose, and finally his throat was cut. Mistletoe pollen was found in the unfortunate stomach - this suggests that the druids were involved in the sacrifice.

The English archaeologist Barry Gunlife notes that all sorts of prohibitions and taboos played an exorbitant role in the life of the Celts. The Irish Celts, for example, did not eat crane meat, the British Celts did not eat hares, chickens and geese, and certain things could only be done with the left hand.

Each curse, and even a wish, according to the Celts, had magical powers and therefore instilled fear. They were also afraid of curses, as if uttered by the deceased. This also led to the separation of the head from the body. The skulls of enemies or their embalmed heads adorned temples, displayed as trophies for veterans, or kept in their chests.

Irish sagas, ancient Greek and Roman sources speak of ritual cannibalism. The ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo writes that the sons ate the meat of the deceased father.

An ominous contrast is archaic religiosity and high technical skill for those times. "Such a diabolical synthesis," concludes Huffer, a researcher of the morals of ancient people, "we still meet only among the Mayans and Aztecs."

Where did they come from?

Who were the Celts? Scientists learn a lot about the life of ancient people by studying their funeral ritual. Approximately 800 years ago BC, the inhabitants of the northern Alps burned their dead and buried them in urns. Most researchers agree that the ritual of burial in urns among the Celts slowly changed to the burial not of ashes, but of bodies, however, as already mentioned, mutilated. Oriental motifs can be seen in the clothes of the buried: pointed shoes, the nobility wore trousers. We must also add round conical hats, which are still worn by Vietnamese peasants. The art is dominated by an ornament of animal figures and grotesque decorations. According to the German historian Otto-Hermann Frey, there is an undoubted Persian influence in the clothing and art of the Celts. There are other signs pointing to the East, as the homeland of the ancestors of the Celts. The teachings of the Druids about the rebirth of the dead are reminiscent of Hinduism.

Whether or not the Celts were born horsemen is an ongoing debate among modern scholars. Proponents of an affirmative answer to the question turn their attention to the inhabitants of the European steppes - the Scythians - these hunters and born riders - did the ancestors of the Celts come from there? One of the authors of this point of view, Gerhard Herm, commented on it with such a playful question: "Are we all Russians?" - meaning by this the hypothesis according to which the settlement of the Indo-European peoples came from the center of Eastern Europe.

The Celts gave the first material signal of their presence in Europe in 550 BC (At that time, Rome was just being formed, the Greeks were busy with their Mediterranean, the Germans had not yet emerged from prehistoric darkness.) hills for the repose of their princes. The hills were up to 60 meters high, which allowed them to survive to our times. The burial chambers were full of rare items: Etruscan castanets, bronze beds, ivory furniture. In one of the graves they found the largest (for ancient times) bronze vessel. It belonged to Prince Fix and held 1100 liters of wine. The prince's body was wrapped in a thin red cloth. Threads with a thickness of 0.2 millimeters are comparable to the thickness of a horsehair. Nearby stood a bronze vessel with 400 liters of honey and a wagon assembled from 1450 parts.

The remains of this prince were transferred to the Stuttgart Museum. The 40-year-old ancient leader was 1.87 meters tall, the bones of his skeleton are striking, they are extremely massive. By order of the museum, the Skoda factory undertook to make a copy of a bronze vessel in which honey was poured. The thickness of its walls is 2.5 mm. However, the secret of the ancient metallurgists was never discovered: the bronze of modern masters was constantly torn when making a vessel.

trade routes

The skillful Celts were of interest to the Greeks as trading partners. Ancient Greece by that time she had colonized the mouth of the Rhone and named the port of Massilia (now Marseille) founded here. Around the VI century BC. the Greeks began to climb up the Rhone, trading in luxury goods and wine.

What could the Celts offer them in return? Blonde slaves, metal and fine fabrics were the hot commodity. Moreover, on the path of the Greeks, the Celts created, as they would now say, "specialized markets." At Manching, Greek goods could be exchanged for metal products made of iron and steel. In Hochdorf, the Celts textile workers offered their goods. Magdalensberg not only produced steel, but also traded alpine stones - rock crystal and other rare wonders of nature.

Greek merchants paid special attention to Celtic tin, an indispensable element in the smelting of bronze. Tin mines were only in Cornwall (England). The entire Mediterranean world bought this metal here.

In the VI century BC, the brave Phoenicians reached the shores of Britain across the Atlantic, overcoming six thousand kilometers of the sea route. The Greeks got to the "tin islands" in a different way, as England was then called. They moved north along the Rhone, then crossed into the Seine. In Lutetia (in Paris) they paid tribute for passage through the Celtic territory.

Arrows with three points, like a fork or a trident, found on the banks of the Rhone serve as confirmation of such distant trade contacts. This weapon is typical of the Scythians. Maybe they accompanied the merchant ships as a guard? And in ancient Athens, the Scythians served as hired law enforcement officers.

Industry and trade highly, by the standards of that time, raised the economy of the Celts. The princes of the tribes oriented the population towards the production of products that had a market. Those who could not master the craft, just like the slaves, performed auxiliary and hard work. The mentioned salt mine in Hollein is an example of the conditions in which people were doomed to slave labor.

A joint expedition of four German universities explored finds in salt mines, where the lower strata of Celtic society worked. These are her conclusions. The remains of fires in the workings speak of a "big open fire". Thus, the movement of air in the mine was excited, and people could breathe. The fire was bred in a mine specially dug for this purpose.

Found underground toilets say that the salt miners had a constant indigestion.

It was mostly children who worked in the mines. The shoes found there speak of the age of their owners - even six-year-olds worked here.

South Invasion

Such conditions could not but give rise to discontent. Researchers are convinced that serious riots shook the Druid empire from time to time. Archaeologist Wolfgang Kittig believes that it all started with the demand of the peasants to give them freedom. And around the 4th century BC. the tradition of magnificent funerals disappears, and the entire Celtic culture undergoes radical changes - the big difference between the standard of living of the poor and the rich has disappeared. The dead were again burned.

At the same time, there was a rapid expansion of the territory occupied by the Celtic tribes, who moved to the south and southeast of Europe. In the IV century BC. they crossed the Alps from the north, and before them appeared the heavenly beauties of South Tyrol and the fertile valley of the Po River. These were the lands of the Etruscans, but the Celts had military superiority, thousands of their two-wheeled carts stormed the Brenner Pass. The cavalry used a special technique: one horse carried two riders. One controlled the horse, the other threw spears. In close combat, both dismounted and fought with lances with helical points, so that the wounds were large and torn, as a rule, leading the enemy out of the fight.

In 387 B.C. the colorfully dressed tribes of the Celts, led by Brennius, began to march on the capital of the Roman Empire. The siege of the city lasted seven months, after which Rome surrendered. 1000 pounds of gold tribute was paid by the inhabitants of the capital. "Woe to the vanquished!" cried Brennius, throwing his sword into the scales measuring the precious metal. "It was the deepest humiliation that Rome suffered in its entire history," historian Gerhard Herm assessed the victory of the Celts.

The booty disappeared in the temples of the victors: according to the laws of the Celts, a tenth of all military booty was supposed to be given to the druids. Over the centuries that have passed since the Celts appeared in Europe, tons of precious metal have accumulated in the temples.

In geopolitical and military terms, the Celts had reached the pinnacle of their power by this time. From Spain to Scotland, from Tuscany to the Danube, their tribes dominated. Some of them reached Asia Minor and founded the city of Ankara there - the current capital of Turkey.

Returning to long-established areas, the druids renovated their temples or built new, more ornate ones. In the Bavarian-Czech space, more than 300 cult, sacrificial places were erected in the third century BC. All records in this sense were broken by the funerary temple in Ribemont, it was considered the central place of worship and occupied an area of ​​150 by 180 meters. There was a small area (10 by 6 meters) where archaeologists found more than 10,000 human bones. Archaeologists believe that this is evidence of a one-time sacrifice of about a hundred people. Druids from Ribemont built monstrous towers of bones human body- from legs, arms, etc.

Not far from the current Heidelberg, archaeologists discovered "sacrificial mines". A man tied to a log was thrown down. The found mine had a depth of 78 meters. Archaeologist Rudolf Reiser called the Druid fanaticism "the most terrible monuments in history."

And yet, despite these inhuman customs, in the second and first centuries BC, the Celtic world flourished again. North of the Alps they built great cities. Each such fortified settlement could accommodate up to ten thousand inhabitants. Money appeared - coins made according to the Greek model. Many families were well off. At the head of the tribes was a man chosen for a year from the local nobility. The English researcher Cunleaf thinks that the entry of the oligarchy into government "was one of the important steps on the road to civilization."

In 120 B.C. the first harbinger of misfortune appeared. Hordes of barbarians - Cimbri and Teutons - from the north crossed the border along the Main and invaded the lands of the Celts. The Celts hastily built earthen ramparts and other defensive structures to shelter people and livestock. But the onslaught from the north was remarkable for its incredible force. Trade routes passing through the Alpine valleys were cut by advancing from the north, the Germans ruthlessly plundered villages and cities. The Celts retreated to the southern Alps, but this again threatened the strong Rome.

Rome's rival

As already mentioned, the Celts did not know writing. Maybe the druids are to blame. They claimed that letters destroy the sanctity of spells. However, when it was necessary to consolidate an agreement between the Celtic tribes or with other states, the Greek alphabet was used.

The Druid caste, despite the fragmentation of the people - in Gaul alone there were more than a hundred tribes - acted in concert. Once a year, the druids gathered together to discuss topical issues that concerned not only the religious sphere. The assembly had high authority in secular affairs as well. For example, the druids could stop the war. Very little is known about the structure of the religion of the Celts, as already noted. But there are suggestions that the supreme deity was a woman, that the people worshiped the forces of nature and believed in the afterlife and even in the return to life, but in a different way.

Roman writers left impressions of contacts with the Druids in their memoirs. These testimonies are mixed respect for the knowledge of the priests and disgust for the bloodthirsty essence of Celtic magic. For 60 years BC, the arch druid Diviciacus peacefully conducted conversations with the Roman philosopher-historian Cicero. And his contemporary Julius Caesar two years later went to war against the Celts, capturing Gaul and the territory of present-day Belgium, Holland and partly Switzerland, later he conquered part of Britain.

Caesar's legions destroyed 800 cities, according to the latest estimates of French scientists, the legionnaires exterminated or enslaved about two million people. The Celtic tribes in the west of Europe have left the historical scene.

Already at the beginning of the war, when attacking the Celtic tribes, the number of victims among them struck even the Romans: out of 360,000 people, only 110,000 survived. In the Senate of Rome, Caesar was even accused of destroying the people. But all this criticism was drowned in the flow of gold that poured from the fronts to Rome. Legions plundered treasures accumulated in places of worship. For his legionnaires, Caesar doubled the salary for life, and the citizens of Rome built an arena for gladiator fights for 100 million sesterces. Archaeologist Haffner writes: "Before the military campaign, Caesar himself was in debt, after the campaign he became one of the richest citizens of Rome."

For six years the Celts resisted Roman aggression, but the last leader of the Gallic Celts fell, and the finale of this shameful war of ancient Rome was the collapse of the Celtic world. The discipline of the Roman legionnaires, coming from the south, and the pressure from the north of the Germanic barbarians, ground the culture of metallurgists and miners - salt miners. In the territories of Spain, England and France, the Celts lost their independence. Only in the far corners of Europe - in Brittany, on the English peninsula of Cornwall and in part of Ireland, did Celtic tribes survive, escaping from assimilation. But then they adopted the language and culture of the coming Anglo-Saxons. Nevertheless, the Celtic dialect and myths about the heroes of this people have survived to this day.

True, even in the 1st century AD, wandering druids, carriers of the Celtic spirit and the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bresistance, were persecuted by the Roman state for "political reasons".

In the writings of the Roman authors Polybius and Diodorus, the Roman Empire is glorified as the initiator of civilization, and the Celts are assigned the role of stupid people, who know nothing but war and arable farming. Later authors echo the Roman chronicles: the Celts are invariably gloomy, clumsy and superstitious. And only modern archeology has refuted these ideas. It was not the miserable inhabitants of the huts that Caesar defeated, but the political and economic competitors, who, several centuries before, were far ahead of Rome in technical terms.

However, the panorama of Celtic life today is far from fully open, it still has many white spots. Many places where the Celtic culture once flourished have not yet been explored by archaeologists.

By the middle of the 1st millennium BC, Celtic tribes inhabited the basins of the Rhine, Seine, Loire and the upper Danube. This area was later named Gaul by the Romans. During the VI-III centuries, the Celts occupied the lands of modern Spain, Britain, Northern Italy, Southern Germany, the Czech Republic, partly Hungary and Transylvania.

Separate Celtic settlements were to the south and east of these territories in the Illyrian and Thracian regions. In the III century BC. e. the Celts undertook an unsuccessful campaign in Macedonia and Greece, as well as in Asia Minor, where part of the Celts settled and later became known as the Galatians.

In some countries, the Celts mixed with the local population and created a new, mixed culture, such as the culture of the Celtiberians in Spain. In other areas, the local population was quickly Celticized, such as the Ligurians who lived in the south of France, and insignificant traces of their language and culture were preserved only in some geographical names and vestiges of religious beliefs.

There are almost no written sources about the early period of the history of the Celts. For the first time they are mentioned by Hecateus of Miletus, then by Herodotus, who reported on the settlements of the Celts in Spain and on the Danube. Titus Livy testifies to the campaign of the Celts in Italy during the reign of the Roman king Tarquinius Priscus in the 6th century BC. e.

Celtic warriors. Relief frieze from Civito Alba. 3rd century BC e. Terracotta.

In 390, one of the Celtic tribes raided Rome. At the beginning of the 4th century, the Celts offered the tyrant of Sicily Dionysius I an alliance against Locri and Croton, with whom he then fought. Later they appeared in his army as mercenaries. In 335, the Celtic tribes that lived along the shores of the Adriatic Sea sent their representatives to Alexander the Great.

These meager written data are supplemented by archeological materials. The spread of the so-called La Tène culture created by them is connected with the Celts. The name comes from the Gulf of La Tène on Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a fortification and a large number of Celtic weapons characteristic of this culture were discovered.

Monuments of La Tene culture, which in the middle of the VI century BC. e. is replaced by Hallstatt, allow us to trace the gradual development of the Celtic tribes and the history of their penetration into various regions of Europe.

At the first stage of its development, in the middle of the 6th - the end of the 5th century, the La Tène culture spread from France to the Czech Republic. A large number of swords, daggers, helmets, bronze and gold jewelry indicates that even then the Celtic craft reached a high level.

Art was also at a high level, which is proved, for example, by artistically decorated dishes. At the same time, Greek things appeared in the burials, which penetrated to the Celts through Massalia along the Rhone and Saone rivers. Greek art had a noticeable influence on Celtic art, although local craftsmen did not blindly follow Greek patterns, but reworked them, adapting them to their tastes and traditions.

In the 5th-3rd centuries, in connection with the settlement of the Celts, the La Tène culture gradually spread to other regions of Europe. The products of Celtic artisans are being improved more and more. The Greek influence is less and less felt. In the west, typical Celtic enameled items appear. Ceramics made on the potter's wheel are gaining popularity.

Celtic agriculture reaches a high level. It was the Celts who invented the heavy plow with a chisel. This plow could plow the earth to a much greater depth than the light plow that was used at that time by the Italics and Greeks. In agriculture, the Celts used a three-field system, which ensured good harvests. In Italy, they willingly bought flour from the Celtic regions.

Moving into new areas, the Celts handed out lands to pagas - tribes or clans. In Britain, little connected with the outside world, ancestral tribal ownership of land persisted for a long time.

On the continent, where the Celts entered into commercial relations with Greek and Italic merchants, private ownership of land gradually arose. The tribal community was replaced by a rural one, and from among the community members stood out the nobility, which managed to seize more land.

Weapons and household items from the burial grounds of the La Tène culture (Middle Moravia).

From this nobility formed the Celtic cavalry, which constituted the main force of the army. The cavalry supplanted the war chariots, which had been common among the Celts, which survived only in Britain.

The high skill of the Celts in fortification is evidenced by the remains of their fortifications - huge walls of stone blocks fastened with oak beams. These so-called Gallic walls were later borrowed by other peoples.

By the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd century, trade among the continental Celts reached such a level that they began to mint their own gold and silver coins, similar to the coins of Massalia, Rhodes and Rome, as well as the Macedonian ones. At first, the coin appears among the tribes that were closely connected with the policies of the Greek and Roman world, but by the 1st century, more distant tribes began to mint it, including the tribes of Britain.

The development of trade led to the disintegration of primitive communal relations, which proceeded especially rapidly among the tribes that were in direct contact with the ancient world. In the II century, the expansion of the Celts stops. One of the reasons is the meeting with such strong opponents as the Germans, advancing towards the Rhine, and the Romans, who in 121 captured the southern, so-called Narbonne, Gaul and increasingly asserted their influence and dominance in the Danubian regions.

The last major movement of the Celtic tribes was the arrival of the Belgian tribe from the trans-Rhein regions, who established themselves in the north of Gaul and in some Rhine regions of Germany. By the end of the 2nd century BC. e. the Celts had already reached the last stage of the decomposition of the primitive communal system. The tribal nobility owned vast lands and slaves who were used as servants.

Many tribal community members became dependent on the nobility and were forced to cultivate its lands, paying a certain fee, as well as join squads and fight for their leaders. Separate pagi by this time had already united into more or less large tribal communities. The most significant of these were the communities of the Aedui and Erverni.

Communities subjugated less powerful tribes, which fell into dependence on them. Cities began to appear, which were centers of crafts and trade, and in some cases - political centers. Cities were usually well fortified.

Most of the Celtic tribes developed a kind of aristocratic republic, somewhat similar to the early Roman Republic. The former tribal leaders, whom the ancient authors called kings, were expelled. They were replaced by a council of the aristocracy and magistrates chosen from its midst - the so-called Vergobrets. The main task of the Vergobrets was the introduction of the court.

Often, individual representatives of the nobility tried to seize sole power. They were supported by the squad and the people, who hoped that they would limit the power of the landowners who oppressed him. But such attempts were usually quickly stopped.

Along with the nobility, which the Romans called horsemen, the priesthood, the druids, also played an important role. They were organized into a corporation headed by an archdruid, exempted from military service and paying taxes, and revered as the keepers of divine wisdom and some, however, rather meager knowledge. Representatives of the aristocracy who mastered their teachings were accepted among the druids.

Druids met annually and held court. The decisions of this court were strictly binding on all Gauls. The recalcitrant Druids were forbidden to participate in religious ceremonies, which separated them from society.

The teachings of the Druids were secret and were taught orally. It took up to 20 years to master it. Little is known about its contents. Apparently, the basis of the teachings of the Druids was the idea of ​​the immortality of the soul or the transmigration of souls and the idea of ​​the end of the world, which will be destroyed by fire and water. It is difficult to determine how much this teaching influenced the religion of the Celts, about which very little is also known. Along with the cult of the spirits of the forest, mountains, rivers, streams, etc., there was also a cult of the gods of the sun, the thunder of war, life and death, crafts, eloquence, etc. Human sacrifices were made to some of these gods.

Not all Celtic tribes stood at the same stage of development. The northern tribes more distant from Italy, in particular the Belgae, still lived in a primitive communal system, just like the British Celts. Attempts of Roman penetration were met with a sharp rebuff here. On the contrary, the tribes of Southern Gaul, especially the Aedui, were already on the verge of transition to a class society and state. The local nobility, in the struggle with their fellow tribesmen and other tribes, sought the help of Rome, which subsequently facilitated the conquest of Gaul and its transformation into a Roman province.

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6 158

Normanists believe that the Celts belong to the Germanic tribes. Let's look at how the term "Celts" arose. Neither the Romans nor the Greeks indicate this. The Romans first mention them and call the Celts "Selts". In more recent times, under Julius Caesar, the Celts were characterized as "a ferocious people, terrible with their axes," which were difficult to defeat. They were a harsh and warlike tribe. From Roman authors, the nickname of this little-known people (who lived northwest of the Greeks) passed to the Greeks and began to be pronounced by them in their own way, according to the phonetic features of the language - Celtoi (according to Strabo - Celtai).

When the Greek language became scientific, classical, this word went down in history. So there was a replacement of the Latin "Celta" by the Greek "Celts". According to the concepts of ancient authors, the Selts are descendants of the Kimry or Cimmerians (some called them Kimbri), but these are features of the phonetics of different languages.

Before the appearance of the Romans as the conquerors of Europe, it was believed that the Celts were the numerous people of Europe, which they inhabited throughout, from the north of Germany to the "Pillars of Hercules" or Gibraltar. When Rome took possession of all of Europe, capturing lands as far as the Rhine, this territory was divided into three main regions: Celtica, Gaul and Belgica, each of which was subdivided into provinces, districts and other small formations.

Since the war of Julius Caesar with the Celts-Gauls-Belgas, a lot of different peoples and tribes have appeared in history, ending in "chi": Lemovichi, Lyakhovichi, Norichi, Illyrichi, etc., and then on "i", "s": Belovaki , Wends, Ruthenians, Belgae. Then the Lemovichi turned into Poles, the Norichs into Noriki, and so on. At first they were all considered Selts. When the division into regions began, they began to be considered either Selts or Gauls, and those who managed to flee across the Rhine to Germany were considered Germans. So it is known that the Lyakhovichi at one time lived southwest of the Sekvani (Seine) River, the Lyutichi east of them along the same river (their main city is Lutetia, now Paris).

Under the onslaught of the Roman legions, the Poles went to the sources of the Danube River and settled along its tributary, the Lyakh, which was so named by them and their neighbors by their nominal nickname. The sources of the Danube River were in Germany. The Lyakhoviches became Poles and, moreover, Germans.

The Lyutichi went to the lower reaches of the Danube, later we find them next to the Tivertsy near the Black Sea.

Until the third or second centuries BC. Ruthenians, Lemovichi, Kadurians, Gebals lived north of the Pyrenees along the Harumna River and its tributaries. They still live there. These are Ruthenians, Lemkos (Lemko Rus), Khabals and Kadurs, being on the way of the Huns, were captured by them and, apparently, disappeared into them. In today's Hungary, two villages of Khabala and Kakadura have been preserved. IN Leningrad region in the Kingisepp (Yamsky) district there is Khabalovskoye Lake and the Khabalovka River. This is all that remains of these tribes.

Boii lived along the Liger River (now Laura), and to the south, to the east of Garumna (now the Garona River) lived "tectosaga wolves". It was in the III - II centuries. BC. These peoples also lived in other places. So the Boii became Bohemians, and the “wolves of the Tektosagas” became Moravians who settled along the Morava River. All these peoples, called Celts or Selts, living in the south of present-day France (according to ancient - Celtia), turned out to be close to us in language. Their languages ​​entered the Slavic language group. We should not forget the evidence of ancient authors that the Selts were European descendants of the Kimry or Cimmerians, whose lands are now occupied by the Russian People. They entered into its composition as the most ancient and basic ethnic element. We must also remember the indication of the author of the Book of Veles that the Kimry are our fathers. F. M. Appendini pointed out that the Celts and Getae spoke the Slavic language.

That the Celts are Slavs is confirmed by the indications of some chronicles, where it is said that the Scythian swears by the highest gods and the sword, in particular Zamolk, the god of the wind. The nickname of the Celts by the Celtic existed in the German chronicles in the 7th century. and referred to the Sorbs or Sorabs of Lusatia and the Sorbs in the city of Sorava.

The ending "chi" exists only in Slavic dialects (Rusichi, Bodrichi, Lyutichi, etc.).

The Romans called the Celts the Celtic-Scythians, and the Scythians were the ancestors of the Slavs. Even the German chronicles speak of this. Therefore, this once again confirms that the Celts were Slavs. “Silence” is a Slavic word denoting the good attitude of the deity when the fierce blowing ceased.

Most of the Celtic cities and tracts near Nitar wear Slavic names. For example: Chepyana, Ore, Tula, Lake Plesso, Mount Shar, Bryansk, Brislavl.

The closest connection between the Slavs, Venets, Celts, traced at all times - from the III millennium BC. e. to the Middle Ages, the absence of a clear ethnic and geographical border between them is reflected in the works of A. G. Kuzmin and A. L. Nikitin.

The famous discovery by archaeologist V.V. Khvoyko of the Tripoli culture, 20 versts from Kyiv on the right bank of the Dnieper, fully confirms the kinship of the Selts to the Cimmerians, for these Selts were actually Cimmerians who migrated to the west. These new places for them were called the Greek word Germany - "foreign land". This is the most important discovery of V.V. Khvoyko, changing the entire initial history of Europe and proving that the Russian people had a different initial history, different from the one we were told. The discovery was, of course, rejected by the Normanists and is not recognized to this day.

The Slavs spread in various Eurasian directions. Recent discoveries bear witness to this. So the famous British historian Howard Reed proved that the character of chivalric legends, King Arthur, the owner of the famous round table, was a Slavic-Russian prince. He is in the 2nd century. AD together with his retinue, he was part of the army of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, crossed from the continent to the British Isles. Prior to that, he was the leader of one of the South Russian Slavic tribes, famous for his tall and blond horsemen, who terrified the steppes.

Arthur's cavalrymen, as the 8000th "barbarian" auxiliary detachment, were taken to the imperial service, participated in many battles, and after the conquest of Britain remained on its territory. The main evidence of Horvard Read are: previously unpublished fragments of Geoffrey of Monmouth's poem about King Arthur, as well as comparative analysis symbols from ancient burials on the territory of Russia and in the drawings of the banners under which the warriors of the legendary Arthur, the Russian prince, fought.

Archaeologists have traced the path of these Cimmerian settlers or Selts, through open ancient settlements or villages, which goes straight to the west, towards Germany. All this is synchronized chronologically by things, the remains of the residential layer of these settlements. Foreign scientists claim that the Cimmerians left the Trypillia culture, and our Normanists say that this culture cannot belong to the Russian People.

Later, new monuments of this culture were discovered in the village of Usatovo, in the village of Vladimirovka and many other places. The study of the remains of the residential layer indicated that there was a continuous connection between this and later cultures up to the time of the glades. This progressively progressive culture, with the addition a large number new phases of development.

Now we know that the Scythians came from the Balkan Peninsula to the Ister River, and then further. Their movement went on for centuries and was noted in the residential layers and their stratigraphy, which is documented. Over time, the Scythians merged with the Cimmerians, and the descendants of the Suromats joined them. Passing by Krivichi, northerners and other peoples also left their traces. All this is our beginning, our initial history. This is the initial history of the Russian south.

On the Old Valdai Upland, from where most of the rivers of European Russia originate, there was a new, but equally ancient Fatyanovo culture. It starts south of the Sukhona River, goes along the Sheksna River to the Mologa River, covers the region of the cities of Yaroslavl, Kostroma, descends to Tver and Suzdal, covers Moscow, extends to the Ugra River and is lost in Transnistria. Both cultures developed around the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. And how many cultures are not discovered yet?

According to the testimony of a linguist, a specialist in ancient languages ​​​​(Sumerian, Assyrian, Celtic, Cuman (Pechenegs), Gypsy and ancient dialects of the German language), Columbia University professor John D. Prince, the Celts or Celts in language belong to a Slavic group that is close in religion and customs .

To confirm the interethnic ties and contacts of the Neolithic and Bronze Age tribes, the finds on our lands of the centers of the Aryan and Ural culture, called Andronovskaya (II millennium BC), are especially indicative. They are found in vast areas up to the Right Bank of the Dnieper, where they were located surrounded by Slavic settlements.

In addition to the similarity of the language and religious cults of the Aryans and Slavs, a common sign system of symbols and magical inscriptions was developed for centuries before the written period, which were included in the ornament of utensils and other types of arts and crafts and fine arts.

At the turn of II-I millennium BC. in the middle Dnieper region there was the Chernolesskaya culture, certainly defined as Proto-Slavic, around the core, which formed a strong union of Slavic tribes on the lands from the Dnieper to the Bug. The tribes of this union are known in history under the name of Skoloty, already used by Herodotus, who reports on the deep rivers of this land, along which large ships sail, and on large settlements-cities.

On the Valdai Upland, along the rivers that originate here, there were tribes of Belarusians, geloni, nerves, Roxolans, Yatsigs, Ludotsi, etc. The Romans called them Sarmatians, and the Greeks Scythians, Suromats - all these are Russian tribes.

The Lutic tribe came to the Baltic coast at the very beginning of our era from the Sequana River (the Seine River in present-day France) from the area where modern Paris is located, and from its banks. Here they had the city of Lutetia. In ancient times, this tribe was part of the 12 tribal federation of the state of Rasena, or, as the Romans called them, Etruria, with its center in the city of Lutsa (Luka) on the Auzer (Ozer) River. From here they were driven out by the Latins and captured the city of Rasen. The Etrurians left for the Gallic Transpadida, settled for a short time near the city of Milin, and then left with the Cymrogalls to the Sequane River. They apparently came to Russian territory in the 7th or early 8th centuries. AD from the Baltic Sea, where several of their tribes lived. Some of them remained in place, while the other went east, to the Russian lands. On Russian territory, they lived in a corner of the northwestern coast of the Black Sea and were known as streets. From here, during the time of the great princes Igor and Svyatoslav, they moved to the region of the Carpathian Mountains. Another part of them settled in central and northern Rus'.

About 400g. BC. the Celts moved east from the Rhine and Upper Danube regions. They moved down in several waves along the Danube and its tributaries.

About 380-350 AD. BC. the Celts settled in the area of ​​Lake Balaton. They built the settlements of Vindoboka (modern Vienna), Singidunum (Belgrade), and others. At the beginning of the 3rd century. BC. one of the streams of the Celts headed for the Balkan Peninsula.

In 279 BC. under the leadership of Brennus, they passed through the lands of Illyria, devastated Macedonia, invaded Thrace and Greece and reached Delphi, where they were defeated by the Greeks.

Another group of Celts (Gauls) around 270 BC. BC. settled in Anatolia, in the region of modern Ankara, where she formed the state of Galatia. From Greece, the warriors of Brenna retreated to the north and settled in the Danube region, between the Sava and Morava rivers. Here arose the state of the Celtic tribe of Scordis with the main city of Singidun.

In the first half of the III century. BC. part of the Celts settled in Transylvania, Olteni and Bukovina, and the other on the lower Danube. The Celts easily mixed with the local population and spread La Tène culture everywhere.

In the II century. BC. another group of Celts crossed the Carpathians and settled in Silesia and the upper reaches of the Vistula, coming into contact with the Slavs.

The name of the La Tène culture comes from the settlement of La Tène near Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

In the V-I centuries. BC. The Celts made a great contribution to the development of metallurgy and metalworking. Celtic metallurgy became the basis for the development of all subsequent Central European metallurgy. The Celts developed blacksmithing. They created an iron plow, scythes, saws, pincers, a file, drills with spiral cuts, scissors, improved axes. Invented door locks and keys. They also developed glass-making. The Celts invented lathe, fertilizer and liming of soils were used in agriculture.

The strongest influence of the Celts on the development of the tribes of the Podkleshevo culture falls on the 2nd century BC. BC. As a result, a new culture was created - Przeworsk. It is named after the remains found near the city of Przeworsk in southeastern Poland. The culture spread and covered the regions of the middle reaches of the Oder and the upper reaches of the Vistula. Przeworsk culture existed until the first half of the 5th century. AD Under the influence of the Celts, new types of weapons became widespread in the Przeworsk environment: two-bladed swords, spearheads with a wavy edge, hemispherical shield umbras.

Studies of recent decades have shown that the Slavic blacksmith craft of the 1st millennium AD. in terms of its features and technological culture, it is closest to the metalworking production of the Celts and the provinces of the Roman Empire.

The range of the Przeworsk culture from the right bank of the Oder in the west to the upper reaches of the Bug in the east. Western neighbors are Germans. The settlements are not fortified. Buildings are cumulus, unsystematic, which were common in the Slavic world and in subsequent times in Rus'. Sometimes they were built in rows, along the banks of the rivers. The buildings were ground, pole or semi-dugout. This culture had a two-field farming system. The Slavs sowed rye. The Germans took over the cultivation of rye from them.

Przeworsk culture in the Polish scientific literature began to be called "Venedian".

Wends are the largest tribe of European Sarmatia. According to Ptolemy (second half of the 2nd century AD), it is located in the Vistula region. From the south, Sarmatia was limited by the Carpathians and the northern coast of Pontus (Black Sea). From the north - the Venedsky Gulf of the Sarmatian Ocean (Baltic Sea).

In the last third of the 3rd c. BC. the Celts developed the Zarubinets culture 2.3–1.7 thousand years ago (in the village of Zarubinets in the bend of the Dnieper). It covers the Pripyat Polissya, the middle Dnieper region and the adjacent lands of the upper Dnieper region.

PN Tretyakov draws attention to the presence of local Scythian and Milograd components in the Zarubinets antiquities. He considers the formation of the Zarubinets culture as a synthesis of local Dnieper and alien Western elements. This culture is characterized by semi-dugout structures that sink into the ground up to 1 meter. In the middle of the Dnieper region, above-ground dwellings were built with a floor lowered into the ground up to 30–50 centimeters. The walls were frame-wattle and plastered with clay. All dwellings were square or rectangular in shape. Heating was carried out open foci. Most of the settlements consisted of 7-12 dwellings, large ones are also known - up to 80 residential buildings. Burial grounds were barrowless, there was cremation. Pottery, iron knives, sickles, scythes, chisels, chisels, drills, needles with an eye, darts and arrowheads were found. The main occupation of the inhabitants was agriculture, cattle breeding was also developed. In the southern regions of the middle Dnieper region, blacksmiths knew how to make steel; this skill came to them from the Scythians.

Zarubintsy culture in the Upper Dnieper region ended at the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd centuries. AD Part of the population near the middle Dnieper at the beginning of the III century. became part of the Kievan culture. Most researchers consider the Zarubinets culture as early Slavic. This was first expressed by V.V. Khvoyko at the beginning of the 20th century.

At the end of the II century. in the Middle Black Sea basin, excavations of burial grounds discovered the Chernyakhiv culture of the Slavs 1.8–1.5 thousand years ago (in the village of Chernyakhovo in the Kiev region). In the III-IV centuries. it spread from the lower Danube in the west to the northern Donets in the east. The tribes of this culture developed metalworking, pottery and other crafts. The villages were located in 1, 2 or 3 rows along the coastline. Dwellings were built in the form of semi-dugouts with an area of ​​10–25 sq.m. Large dwellings of 40–50 sq.m. are known. Above-ground Chernyakhov dwellings were large - 30–40 sq.m. The walls were frame-pillar. In the southern part of the habitat, stone dwellings were built with walls from 3.5 to 50 cm thick. The dwellings were surrounded by a rampart and a moat. The basis of the economy is agriculture and animal husbandry. They sowed wheat, barley, millet, peas, flax, and hemp. Bread was harvested with sickles. Blacksmiths mastered the technology of processing iron and steel. Plows with iron tips were also made. A calendar was found with marked Vedic holidays associated with agricultural rituals. The year was divided into 12 months of 30 days each.

The history of the Sarmatians begins from the 1st-8th centuries. BC. The Sarmatians were allies of Mithridates, who fought with Rome. They destroyed Olbia. No chronological gap between the Sarmatian and Chernyakhov cultures was found. The main part of the Sarmatian population belongs to the Chernyakhov culture.

In Volyn since the end of the II century. AD tribes of the Velbar culture lived. Its population included Slavs, Western Balts, Goths and Goth-Gepids.

Ants, known from historical writings of the 6th–7th centuries, was a group of Slavs that formed under the conditions of the Slavic-Iranian symbiosis, mainly in the Podolsk-Dnieper region of the Chernyakhiv culture.

The early medieval Penkovo ​​culture (5th–7th centuries), which developed on the basis of the remains of the Chernyakhov culture, is identified with the Antes and spreads, according to Procopius of Caesarea, from the northern bank of the Danube to Sea of ​​Azov. It is known that in the IV century. the Antes repulsed the attack of the Goths, but after a while the Gothic king Venitarius defeated the Antes and executed their prince God with 70 foremen.

The Chernyakhov culture ceased to exist after the invasion of the Huns.

All of these cultures were created by our ancestors, the superethnos from which all the peoples of Europe and a significant part of the peoples of Asia originated.