Britain Celtic Coinage Manufacture Political Economic Social Daily Life Tribes

Unsold $96.99 Buy It Now, FREE Shipping, 30-Day Returns, eBay Money Back Guarantee
Seller: ancientgifts ✉️ (5,439) 100%, Location: Lummi Island, Washington, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 122921760781 Britain Celtic Coinage Manufacture Political Economic Social Daily Life Tribes.

  "Celtic Coinage in Britain (Shire Archaeology)" by Philip de Jersey.

  NOTE:   We have 75,000 books in our library, almost 10,000 different titles.  Odds are we have other copies of this same title in varying conditions, some less expensive, some better condition.  We might also have different editions as well (some paperback, some hardcover, oftentimes international editions).  If you don’t see what you want, please contact us and ask.  We’re happy to send you a summary of the differing conditions and prices we may have for the same title.

  DESCRIPTION:  Softcover.  Publisher: Shire Publications (2008).  Pages: 56.  Size:  8¼ x 6 inches; ½ pound.  Summary:   In the space of little more than a hundred years, from the Roman conquest of Gaul in the mid first century BC to the defeat of Boudicca in A.D. 61, Britain saw the final and arguably the most impressive phase in the development of Celtic coinage. The coins are not only beautiful and attractive in their own right, but also extraordinarily useful evidence in our attempts to understand Celtic society at this period. This book provides a general introduction to Celtic coinage in Britain. It analyses how and why the coins were made, describing the most significant types and many of the more obscure varieties, and explaining how the coins and the images they carry can reveal information on the political, economic and social life of the Celts. The book is fully illustrated with some of the best examples of Celtic coinage and provides details of museums where coins can be seen, as well as suggestions for more detailed reading.  

CONDITION:  NEW.  New oversized softcover. Shire Publications (2008) 56 pages. Unblemished except for faint edge and corner shelfwear to the covers. Pages are pristine; clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. Shelfwear is principally in the form of faint "crinkling" to the cover spine head and heel, as well as the cover "tips" (the four open corners of the covers, top and bottom, front and back). Condition is entirely consistent with new stock from a bookstore environment wherein new books might show faint signs of shelfwear, consequence of routine handling and simply being shelved and re- shelved. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 14 days! #8746a.

PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTIONS AND IMAGES BELOW FOR DETAILED REVIEWS AND FOR PAGES OF PICTURES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK.

PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW.

  PUBLISHER REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  Philip de Jersey is a Guernsey archaeologist and numismatist. He is known as an expert on Celtic coins of the Iron Age. De Jersey was born in Guernsey, and studied Geography at Hertford College, University of Oxford. After graduating he stayed on at Oxford University to study for a doctorate on the late Iron Age in north-west France. From 1992 to 2008 de Jersey was employed as keeper of the Oxford University Celtic Coin Index, and was responsible for the computerization of the index. During his time in charge of the Celtic Coin Index the number of coins included on the database increased from about 14,000 to about 40,000. De Jersey is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Heberden Coin Room at the Ashmolean Museum, and in 1999 was awarded the Council Prize of the British Numismatic Society. [Wikipedia].

REVIEW:  Philip de Jersey was born and brought up in Guernsey, where he spent as much time as possible working on archaeological excavations. He graduated in Geography at Hertford College, Oxford, and remained there to complete his Doctorate of Philosophy thesis on the late iron age period in north-west France. Since 1992 he has been employed at the Institute of Archaeology in Oxford to maintain and computerize the Celtic Coin Index, a detailed record of more than thirty thousand British Celtic coins.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

List of Illustrations.

Coinage in Celtic Society.

Techniques of Manufacture.

The Introduction of Coinage to Britain.

The First British Coinages.

Coinage South of the Thames.

Coinage North of the Thames.

The Western Periphery.

The Northern Periphery.

Further Reading.

Museums.

Index.

 

  PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  This introduction to Celtic coinage in Britain analyses how and why the coins were made, describes the most significant types, and provides details of museums where some of these coins can be seen. [Bowker Data Services].

    READER REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  Short, easy introduction to British Celtic coins. I am a beginner who was interested in British Celtic coin collecting. This book is just the right length and the right depth for me. It has pictures of the main variations, some history of coin making, a little about the techniques, a regional breakdown of the various Celtic tribes, and not too much more. I could read it in a couple of hours and feel informed enough to start looking for coins to buy. Highly recommended for beginners.

REVIEW:  Extremely interesting for the coin collector! This is a must have book for anyone interested in coins in general and Celtic coins in particular. The publisher has provided an extremely interesting synopsis to this book that gives you all the basic information you will need to know on the contents of this book and it needs no addition from me. With the influx of the metal detector, more and more old coins are coming on to the open market, you only need to look at eBay to see that, but Celtic coins are not in abundance. There are probably far more Roman coins found than Celtic. What this book does very well is show the reader how much history can be learned from a single coin and the image that has been stamped upon it. Celtic coins for me seem to have that much more of an aura about them. In fact holding any old coin has a magic all of its own, not least, the thought of who was the last person to own and hold the coin before it was found once again.

REVIEW:  Very informative little book, I learned a lot that I needed to know. Now if a few Celtic coins would just show up on various auction sites, I'll be ready to buy!

REVIEW:  It was exactly as it had been described. It is an easy book to understand and extremely helpful when trying to identify Celtic coins. Overall I am very happy with the book.

REVIEW:  Five Stars! Great summary of a very complicated subject! Very helpful and informative illustrations.

REVIEW:  Five stars!  Perfect. Delivered just what I needed without undue complication.

REVIEW:  Five stars! Great little book.

  ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: 

  REVIEW:  Celtic coinage was minted by the Celts from the late 4th century B.C. to the late 1st century B.C. Celtic coins were influenced by trade with and the supply of mercenaries to the Greeks, and initially copied Greek designs, especially Macedonian coins from the time of Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great. Thus Greek motifs and even letters can be found on various Celtic coins, especially those of southern France. Celtic coin designs progressively became more abstract as exemplified by the coins of the Parisii.

  Greek coinage occurred in three Greek cities of Massalia, Emporiae and Rhoda, and was copied throughout southern Gaul. Northern Gaulish coins were especially influenced by the coinage of Philip II of Macedon and his famous son Alexander the Great. Celtic coins often retained Greek subjects, such as the head of Apollo on the obverse and two-horse chariot on the reverse of the gold stater of Philip II, but developed their own style from that basis, allowing for the development of a Graeco-Celtic synthesis.

  After this first period in which Celtic coins rather faithfully reproduced Greek types, designs started to become more symbolic, as exemplified by the coinage of the Parisii in the Belgic region of northern France. The Armorican Celtic style in northwestern Gaul also developed from Celtic designs from the Rhine valley, themselves derived from earlier Greek prototypes such as the wine scroll and split palmette.

  The Boii gave their name to Bohemia and Bologna; a Celtic coin (Biatec) from Bratislava's mint is displayed on Slovak 5 koruna coin, which was in use until Slovakia joined the euro zone on January 1, 2009. The images found on Celtic coins include giants trailing severed heads on rope, horsemen charging into battle, gods and goddesses, skulls and chariot wheels, thunderbolts and lightning, the sun and the moon. They are miniature masterpieces of surreal art.

  A tribe of Celts called Eburones minted gold coins with triple spirals (a Celtic good luck symbol) on the front, and horses on the back. The coins were either 'struck' or 'cast'. Both methods required a substantial degree of knowledge. Striking a blank coin formed in a clay was one way. After forming the blank, it would have been flattened out before striking with a die made from iron or bronze. The tiny details engraved on dies were just a few millimeters in diameter.

  Casting a coin required a different technique. They were produced by pouring molten alloy into a set of molds which were broken apart when the metal had cooled. With the Roman invasion of Gaul, Greek-inspired Celtic coinage started to incorporate Roman influence instead, until it disappeared to be completely replaced by Roman coinage. Traditional historians have tended to overlook the role played by Celtic coinage in the early history of British money.

 

  Over 45,000 of the ancient British and Gaulish coins discovered in Britain have been recorded at the Oxford Celtic Coin Index. The Trinovantian tribal oppidum of Camulodunon (modern Colchester) was minting large numbers of coins in the first centuries B.C. and A.D., which have been found across Southern Britain. Common motifs on the Camulodunon coins included horses and wheat/barley sheafs, with the names of the rulers written mostly in Latin script, and more rarely in Greek. [Wikipedia].

REVIEW:  In 2012, a pair of veteran metal detectorists on Jersey in the British Channel Islands discovered a gargantuan coin hoard in a field they had been searching off and on for three decades. The hoard was the largest ever to have been found in Britain and appeared to have the potential to transform interpretations of Jersey’s history. But first it had to be moved. Just getting it out of the ground was fraught with tension. “With earth still attached, it weighed over a ton,” says Neil Mahrer, a museum conservator with Jersey Heritage. “We had no idea how strong it was, in that it was only held together by the corrosion between the coins.”

  Once the hoard was safely in the laboratory in the Jersey Museum in mid-2014, Mahrer and his team faced the next challenge: how to disassemble it. They also had a daunting deadline. Based on their funding, they needed to take it apart within three years. This would mean extricating almost 500 coins per week on average. Early on, their pace lagged as they learned to use a metrology arm that recorded the position of each coin to within one five-hundredth of an inch. A year into the project, though, with the help of a team of volunteers, they were removing up to 800 coins per week.

  Along the way, Mahrer sought advice from the small club of fellow conservators with experience taking apart large hoards. To remove the corrosion from the coins, which were generally made with an alloy of silver and copper, experts at the British Museum recommended using a dilute solution of formic acid. To clean the gold jewelry embedded along with the coins—including up to 17 partial and complete gold torques—conservators who worked on the Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon hoard advised using thorns from the evergreen barberry shrub.

  “It turns out that this one particular thorn is soft enough not to scratch the gold surface, but will remove the corrosion and dirt,” says Mahrer. “It’s strange to think that the best way to clean these was a technique that could have been used as far back into the past as one goes.” In late January 2017, months before the three-year deadline, the final pieces were detached. “We had to take this thing apart literally one coin at a time while having no idea what was inside,” says Mahrer. “Right up to the end, we were surprised all the time by finding new things.”

  The tally of coins now stands at around an astounding 69,000, though this includes an estimate of the number contained in a small cylindrical section set aside intact for future study. The great majority of the coins have been associated with the Coriosolites, a Celtic tribe known to have controlled a small area of mainland France close to Jersey. Originally, the hoard was thought to have been buried for safekeeping around 50 B.C., when the Romans were making their way through France, conquering Celtic tribes as they went. However, Olga Finch, head of archaeology at Jersey Heritage, notes that a smattering of the coins are thought to date to around 40 B.C., suggesting the hoard may have been buried after the conquest.

  Even given this later dating, it might still represent an attempt to hide wealth from the Romans. It’s also possible that the hoard—and a number of others that have been found on Jersey—was left with no intention of recovery. “Maybe it’s not about hiding your wealth,” says Finch. “Maybe it’s more about ritual and showing that you have so much wealth that you can afford to bury some of it as an offering to the gods.” To watch a time-lapse video of the team disassembling the hoard, click below. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  Archaeologists separating the contents of the largest known Celtic coin hoard have uncovered a number of gold items mixed in with the coins. The hoard, which was found on Jersey in the British Channel Islands, consists of 70,000 coins estimated to weigh a half ton in all. The researchers have so far removed a shoebox-sized portion of the hoard, revealing one complete gold torque and parts of six others. The hoard is thought to date to around 50 B.C., when the Romans, led by Julius Caesar, were advancing north through France conquering Celtic tribes as they went. “We think they were trying to get their wealth out of the way,” says Neil Mahrer, a museum conservator with Jersey Heritage, “presumably with the idea of coming back for it later.” [Archaeological Institute of America].

  REVIEW:  A large, solid gold torque, or neck ornament, has been partially excavated from a hoard of coins and other jewelry discovered on the island of Jersey. The torque has a massive decoration where it probably locked around the wearer’s neck. The conservation team from Jersey Heritage does not know yet if the ring is complete because it is still covered with coins. “We did see some gold jewelry on the surface of the hoard, but since we’ve started looking at this shoe-box sized area, we’ve uncovered a total of six torques, five of which are gold and one of which we believe to be gold-plated. This is the only one that we think is whole, though,” said Neil Mahrer of the Jersey Museum. [Archaeological Institute of America].

    REVIEW:  Coins were introduced as a method of payment around the 6th or 5th century B.C. The invention of coins is still shrouded in mystery: According to Herdotous (I, 94), coins were first minted by the Lydians, while Aristotle claims that the first coins were minted by Demodike of Kyrme, the wife of King Midas of Phrygia. Numismatists consider that the first coins were minted on the Greek island of Aegina, either by the local rulers or by king Pheidon of Argos.

  Aegina, Samos, and Miletus all minted coins for the Egyptians, through the Greek trading post of Naucratis in the Nile Delta. It is certain that when Lydia was conquered by the Persians in 546 B.C., coins were introduced to Persia. The Phoenicians did not mint any coins until the middle of the fifth century B.C., which quickly spread to the Carthaginians who minted coins in Sicily. The Romans only started minting coins from 326 B.C.

  Coins were brought to India through the Achaemenid Empire, as well as the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great. Especially the Indo-Greek kingdoms minted (often bilingual) coins in the 2nd century B.C. The most beautiful coins of the classical age are said to have been minted by Samudragupta (335-376 CE), who portrayed himself as both conqueror and musician.

  The first coins were made of electrum, an alloy of silver and gold. It appears that many early Lydian coins were minted by merchants as tokens to be used in trade transactions. The Lydian state also minted coins, most of the coins mentioning king Alyattes of Lydia. Some Lydian coins have a so-called legend, a sort of dedication. One famous example found in Caria reads "I am the badge of Phanes" - it is still unclear who Phanes was.

 

  In China, gold coins were first standardized during the Qin dynasty (221-207 B.C.). After the fall of the Qin dynasty, the Han emperors added two other legal tenders: silver coins and "deerskin notes", a predecessor of paper currency which was a Chinese invention. [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

  REVIEW:  It is hard not to be impressed by a website with photographs of 28,000 coins from Celtic Britain. Each entry in The Celtic Coin Index is cross-referenced by type of metal, method of manufacture, and the name of the tribe that minted it. Excellent photographic quality make the artistic designs easy to see, and give the viewer a unique window on ancient Celtic life. The faces of important people stare blankly from many of the coins, while others depict stylized horses or tree designs. The site is supported by Oxford University, which maintains a large collection of Celtic coins, and plans to expand the site to include Celtic coins from continental Europe, as soon as someone comes up with the funding. If you are a fan of comprehensive, well-organized numismatic data, you can't do any better than the Celtic Coin Index. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  The ancient Celts were various population groups living in several parts of Europe north of the Mediterranean region from the Late Bronze Age onwards. Given the name Celt by ancient writers, these tribes often migrated and so eventually occupied territories from Portugal to Turkey. Although diverse tribes the ancient Celts spoke the same language and maintained the same artistic tradition which is characterised by the use of idiosyncratic flowing lines and forms. Celtic languages are still spoken today in parts of the British Isles and northern France.

  Ancient writers gave the name Celts to various population groups living across central Europe inland from the Mediterranean coastal areas. Most scholars agree that the Celtic culture first appeared in the Late Bronze Age in the area of the upper Danube sometime around the 13th century B.C. These early Celts were known as the ‘Urnfield people’ and they probably spoke a proto-Celtic language. By the 8th century B.C., iron had replaced bronze-working and the cultural group is then referred to by scholars as the ‘Hallstatt culture’. Spain saw a similar development with tribes using iron weapons. The Hallstatt culture declined by the 5th century B.C., perhaps due to internal political tensions and economic difficulties. The next phase of Celtic development was carried out by a group known as the La Tène culture.

  The migration of various Celtic tribes in order to flee wars meant that eventually they occupied Territory from the Iberian peninsula to Turkey. The prosperity of the La Tène culture in ancient France, Spain and wider central Europe meant that they were able to challenge the contemporary Mediterranean cultures and so they appear for the first time in Classical history. From then on these peoples were widely referred to as Celts. In antiquity writers did not describe tribes in ancient Britain and Ireland as Celts, although they have acquired that label in modern times and some Celtic languages or their derivatives are still spoken there, as a form of Celtic still is in the Brittany region of northern France. The religion of the Celts, led by a priesthood known as the Druids, is described by ancient writers with some disdain as crude and violent.

  The migration of various Celtic tribes in order to flee wars – they were famously attacked in Gaul by Julius Caesar in the 1st century B.C. and by the Germanic tribes - and find new prospects meant that eventually the territory occupied by them ranged from Galicia (the Iberian peninsula) to Romania. Many Celtic tribes spread eastwards, for example, traversing Macedonia in 280 B.C. and crossing the Hellespont in 278 B.C. into Asia Minor. The Galatians, as they were now called, colonised areas of central Asia Minor which brought them into direct conflict with both the Hellenistic kingdoms and Rome.

  Celtic armies first came to the attention of historians when the Gauls, led by their king Bran (Brennus), sacked Rome in 390 B.C., and again in 279 B.C. when they looted Delphi as they passed through Greece on their way to Asia. The Celts attacked the Romans again in 225 B.C. and were frequent mercenary allies of Carthage during the Punic Wars. The Celts thus gained a reputation with Latin and Greek writers for being fierce warriors and skilled horsemen who also fielded chariots in battle. Julius Caesar faced them when he invaded Gaul. They were light, pulled by two horses, and had an open front and back with double hoops at the sides. Containing two men they were used to attack enemy cavalry first by throwing javelins and then one man dismounted to fight on foot while the rider drove the chariot to a safe distance to await a retreat if necessary. Caesar describes them as driven with great skill and so were a highly maneuvrable weapon of disruption and attack.

  Celtic warriors were known for their long hair and imposing physique. They are depicted in Greek art with their distinctive long shields (wooden panels covered in decorated hide) and long swords. Such was the respect for Celtic warriors that Hellenistic kings who defeated Galatian armies were given the title of soter, meaning ‘saviour’. Although Galatian armies were almost always defeated by their more disciplined and better-equipped enemies in single battles, once conquered, they did fight successfully as mercenaries in many Hellenistic and Roman armies.

  The Celtic language is a branch of the Indo-European language family. Scholars have divided Celtic languages into two groups: Insular Celtic and Continental Celtic. The latter group was no longer widely spoken after the Roman imperial period, and the only surviving examples of it are mentions in the works of Greek and Roman writers and some epigraphic remains such as pottery graffiti and votive and funerary stelae. The best documented of this group is Gaulish. 

  The Insular Celtic group of languages are two: British or Brittonic (Breton, Cornish, and Welsh) and Goidelic (Irish and its medieval derivatives, Scots Gaelic and Manx). Brittonic was spoken in all of Britain in the Roman period. From it evolved Cumbrian (extinct since medieval times), Cornish (no longer spoken after the 18th century A.D. but recently revived), Breton (likely introduced by 5th-century CE British settlers and not connected directly to Gaulish), and Welsh, which is still spoken today. The earliest evidence of Goidelic-Irish dates to the 5th century A.D., and it later evolved into Middle Irish (circa 950 – 1200 A.D.) and, thereafter, morphed again into Modern Irish, which is still spoken today. [Ancient History Encyclopedia].  

 

  REVIEW:  History’s first written account of the Celts comes from northern Italy around 400 B.C.  The nascent Roman Empire records an encounter between their neighbors, the Etruscans, and a previously unknown group of “barbarians”.  These peoples had come down from the Alps and displaced the Etruscans from the fertile Po valley.  The Romans sent envoys both to the besieged Etruscans as well as to (study and negotiate with) the Celts.  The people who made up these various tribes were called “Galli” (Gaullic) by the Romans and “Keltoi” (Celtic) by the Greeks.  The Romans eventually betrayed their diplomatic overtures, and the enraged Celts sacked Rome in 390 B.C. and ransomed the city for 1,000 pounds of gold – a humiliating defeat for the early Roman Empire.

  Traditional Western (Graeco-Roman) History emphasizes the evolution of Europe from classical Roman and Greek culture.  In reality, Europe throughout most of recorded history was dominated by the powerful and culturally diverse Celts.  Through the period of classical Greece to first few centuries A.D, most of Europe was under the shadow of the Celts whom still represented a fairly unified culture.  From this great culture arose the Germans and many of the cultural forms, ideas, and values of medieval Europe.  Not only did medieval Europe look back to the Celtic world as a golden age of Europe, they also lived with social structures and world views that ultimately owe their origin to the Celts as well as to the Romans and Greeks.  

  The period of Celtic dominance in Europe began to unravel in the first centuries A.D., with the expansion of Rome, the migrations of the Germans, and later the influx of an Asian immigrant population, the Huns. The Celts were crushed between these forces.  By the time Rome fell to Gothic invaders, the Celts had been pushed west and north, to England, Wales and Ireland and later to Scotland and the northern coast of France.  The earliest Celts who were major players in the classical world were the Gauls, who controlled an area extending from France to Switzerland. It was the Gauls who sacked Rome and later invaded Greece; it was also the Gauls who migrated to Asia Minor to found their own, independent culture there, that of the Galatians. Through invasion and migration, they spread into Spain and later crossed the Alps into Italy and permanently settled the area south of the Alps which the Romans then named, Cisalpine Gaul.  Two Celtic tribes, the Cimbri and the Teutones emigrated east and settled in territory in Germany.  The center of Celtic expansion, however, was Gaul, which lay north of the Alps in the region now within the borders of France and Belgium and part of Spain.

Aside from their art work, the Celts were also known for their method of warfare, as depicted in the epic opening scenes of the movie “Gladiator”.  The Celtic method of warfare was to stand in front of the opposing army and scream and beat their spears and swords against their shields. They would then run headlong into the opposing army and screamed the entire way.  This often had the effect of scaring the opposing soldiers who then broke into a run; and fighting a fleeing army has always been relatively easy work.  Throughout history Celtic treasures have been inadvertently discovered by farmers in their fields, uncovered by erosion, and the target of unsystematic searches by treasure seekers.  With the introduction of metal detectors and other modern technologies to Eastern Europe in the past three or four decades, an amazing number of new finds are seeing the light of day 2,000 years or more after they were originally hidden by their past owners.  And with the liberalization of post-Soviet Eastern Europe, new markets have opened eager to share in these treasures of the ancient world. [AncientGifts].

REVIEW:  The people of Iron Age Britain were physically very similar to many modern Europeans and there is no reason to suppose that all Iron Age Britons had the same hair colour, eye colour or skin complexion. Iron Age Britons spoke one or more Celtic language, which probably spread to Britain through trade and contacts between people rather than by the invasion of large numbers of Celtic peoples into Britain. Currently, there is no evidence for such an invasion at any time in the Iron Age.

  The Romans called the people of Iron Age Britain 'Britons' and the island of Britain 'Britannia', that is, 'land of the Britons'. The Britons had many ways of life in common with other peoples living in western Europe, who the Romans called Celts or Gauls. There was trade between peoples in Britain and western Europe, and also probably marriages. Nevertheless, the peoples who spoke Celtic languages in different parts of Europe at this time were diverse.

  From studies of the skeletons of Iron Age Britons we know that the average woman was 1.5 metres (5 foot 2 inches) in height, the smallest known was 1.4 metres (4 foot 9 inches) tall, and the tallest 1.7 metres (5 foot 7 inches). The average man was 1.69 metres (5 foot 6 inches) in height, the smallest known was 1.6 metres (5 foot 2 inches) tall and the tallest was 1.8 metres (5 foot 11 inches). There are few human skeletons from Iron Age Britain, but there is evidence for differences in height and health between people living in different parts of the country. People in East Yorkshire living about 400-100 BC were taller than people from Hampshire. [British Museum].

REVIEW:  Britain (or more accurately, Great Britain) is the name of the largest of the British Isles, which lie off the northwest coast of continental Europe. The name is probably Celtic and derives from a word meaning 'white'; this is usually assumed to be a reference to the famous white Cliffs of Dover, which any new arrival to the country by sea can hardly miss. The first mention of the island was by the Greek navigator Pytheas, who explored the island's coastline, circa 325 B.C.

  During the early Neolithic Age (circa 4400 B.C. – 3300 B.C.), many long barrows were constructed on the island, many of which can still be seen today. In the late Neolithic (circa 2900 B.C. – 2200 B.C.), large stone circles called henges appeared, the most famous of which is Stonehenge.  Before Roman occupation the island was inhabited by a diverse number of tribes that are generally believed to be of Celtic origin, collectively known as Britons. The Romans knew the island as Britannia.

  It enters recorded history in the military reports of Julius Caesar, who crossed to the island from Gaul (France) in both 55 and 54 B.C. The Romans invaded the island in 43 A.D., on the orders of emperor Claudius, who crossed over to oversee the entry of his general, Aulus Plautius, into Camulodunum (Colchester), the capital of the most warlike tribe, the Catuvellauni. Plautius invaded with four legions and auxiliary troops, an army amounting to some 40,000.

  Due to the survival of the Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law written by the historian Tacitus (105 A.D.), we know much about the first four decades of Roman occupation, but literary evidence is scarce thereafter; happily there is plentiful, if occasionally mystifying archaeological evidence. Subsequent Roman emperors made forays into Scotland, although northern Britain was never conquered; they left behind the great fortifications, Hadrian's Wall (circa 120 A.D.) and the Antonine Wall (142 -155 A.D.), much of which can still be visited today. Britain was always heavily fortified and was a base from which Roman governors occasionally made attempts to seize power in the Empire (Clodius Albinus in 196 A.D., Constantine in 306 A.D.).

  At the end of the 4th century A.D., the Roman presence in Britain was threatened by "barbarian" forces. The Picts (from present-day Scotland) and the Scoti (from Ireland) were raiding the coast, while the Saxons and the Angles from northern Germany were invading southern and eastern Britain. By 410 A.D. the Roman army had withdrawn. After struggles with the Britons, the Angles and the Saxons emerged as victors and established themselves as rulers in much of Britain during the Dark Ages (circa 450 -800 A.D.). [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

 

  REVIEW:  Most of us are unaware that Celts once dominated the breadth of Europe from the Black Sea to the Atlantic—and for a long time. An early form of Welsh was spoken in Britain 1,500 years before Old English took root. The Celtic languages still spoken in Europe hark back to the Late Bronze Age (1200-800 B.C.) and a civilization of aristocratic warrior tribes. The word "Celtic" comes from the Greek Keltoi, first appearing in the sixth century B.C. to describe "barbarians" living inland from the Mediterranean Sea. Little suggests these people united or called themselves Celts.   Yet there is no denying that these far-flung peoples spoke closely related languages and shared beliefs, styles of art and weaponry, and tribal societies. Trade, principally by water, connected them. Calling them Celts makes sense, if only to separate them from what they weren't: Roman or Greek. All this categorizing might easily have become an arid academic debate about a lost people. Beginning in the second century b.c. Roman legions vanquished Celtic armies across Europe. Only the peoples of northern Britain and Ireland remained unconquered.

  In the fifth century A.D. the Anglo-Saxons invaded Celtic lands, followed by the Vikings, storming the coasts in their long warships, the Normans, who attacked from France, and finally the colonizing armies of the English and French crowns. From these wars of resistance came many Celtic heroes and martyrs such as the legendary King Arthur, the Irish High King Brian Boru, and Scotland's William Wallace, known as Braveheart. By the end of the Middle Ages, Celtic culture was headed toward extinction, its remnants pushed to the very western edge of Europe. "No one else wanted to live where the Celts did," a Breton man said. "Those places were poor and remote, and no one spoke their languages."

  Being ostracized to no-man's-land did not spare the Celts from further depredations. The English and French banned or restricted their languages, their instruments and music, their names, their right to own property, and in the case of the kilt-wearing Scottish Highland clans, even their clothing. It's a bit miraculous Celtic civilization survived in any form. By clinging to the fringes, geographically and culturally, Celts refused to vanish. Now, in one of those delectable backward flips of history, Celts and all things Celtic suddenly seem omnipresent. "Europe's beautiful losers," as one British writer called them, are commanding attention as one of the new century's seductive identities: free-spirited, rebellious, poetic, nature-worshipping, magical, self-sufficient. [National Geographic].

REVIEW:  After about 650 BC a people called the Celts lived in England. The Celts had priests called Druids. The Druids were very important in Celtic society. As well as being priests they were scholars, judges and advisers to the kings. The Celts were polytheists (they worshiped many gods and goddesses). They did not build temples but instead worshiped at natural sites such as groves of trees, springs, rivers and lakes. Sometimes the Celts sacrificed valuable goods by throwing them into lakes and rivers. In Celtic times the old Bronze Age practice of building barrows to bury the dead in died out. Instead people were interned in individual graves. They were still buried with grave goods showing the Celts had a strong belief in an afterlife. They believed that when you died your spirit went to a place called the Other World.

  The Druids did not build Stonehenge. That is a historical myth. In fact that was built long before the Celtic Era. It is sometimes claimed that the Druids practices human sacrifice but is that true? Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) conquered the Celts who lived in Gaul (modern France) and he led two expeditions to England. He wrote that the Druids sacrificed human beings by placing them inside a giant wickerwork and thatch effigy of a man then burning it. Caesar claimed that the Druids normally sacrificed criminals but if they could not find enough of them they used innocent people. However Caesar may have written that in order to justify his wars against the Celts (look how barbaric the Celts are they need us Romans to civilize them). In other words it may be propaganda.

  Slightly later a Greek called Strabo (c.64 BC-24 AD) again claimed that Druids sacrificed human beings by placing them in giant effigies of men made of wickerwork and thatch and burning them. He also claimed they sacrificed people by impaling them or shooting arrows at them. However historians believe the Celts did not use the bow and arrow! So Strabo's writings are suspect.

  The Romans strongly opposed the Druids. They had great social and political influence and the Romans probably saw the Druids as a threat). Therefore anything Greek-Roman writers say about the Druids is likely to be very biased and should be treated with caution. There is actually very little evidence of human sacrifice in Celtic Times. In 1984 the body of a man was found preserved in peat in Northwest England. He had been hit on the head and strangled and his throat was cut. Apparently he was the victim of a ritualistic killing in the 1st century AD. However there is no proof that the Druids killed him. We are not sure who killed this man or why. In summary it is possible the Druids practiced human sacrifice but it seems clear that if they did it was rare.

  Another myth is that the modern Halloween custom of trick or treat is derived from a Druid custom. In reality Halloween customs evolved in the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no evidence that trick or treat has anything to do with the Druids! About 650 BC the Celts introduced iron into Britain and they made the first swords. Warfare was common during the iron age and many hill forts (fortified settlements) were built at that time. (Although there were also many open villages and farms). The Celts fought from horses or light wooden chariots. They threw spears and fought with swords. The Celts had wooden shields and some wore chain mail.

  Most of the Celts were farmers although were also many skilled craftsmen. Some Celts were blacksmiths (working with iron), bronze smiths, carpenters, leather workers and potters. (The potter’s wheel was introduced into Britain c.150 BC). Celtic craftsmen also made elaborate jewelry of gold and precious stones. Furthermore objects like swords and shields were often finely decorated. The Celts decorated metal goods with enamel. The Celts also knew how to make glass and they made glass beads.

  At the top of Celtic society was a class of nobles headed by a king or chieftain. Below them were the craftsmen (of whom metalworkers were the most important). Then came the farmers who provided the food supply and also fought for the chief. However the Celts were divided into tribes. There was no political unity among them and a great deal of fighting. The Celts grew crops in rectangular fields. They raised pigs, sheep and cattle. They stored grain in pits lined with stone or wicker and sealed with clay. The Celts also brewed beer from barley.

 

  Trade with Europe was common. Metals like copper, tin, iron and lead were exported from England. Wool, cloth, skins and grain were also exported. Luxury goods like fine pottery and expensive metal goods were imported from Europe. At first the Celts used iron bars as a form of currency but by about 50 BC they were using gold coins. The Celts lived in round houses. They were built around a central pole with horizontal poles radiating outwards from it. They rested on vertical poles. Walls were of wattle and daub and roofs were thatched. Around the walls inside the huts were benches, which also doubled up as beds. The Celts also used low tables.

  Celtic men wore tunics and trousers and women wore long dresses and mantles. They used bronze mirrors. Women wore belts around their dresses made of cloth, leather or bronze rings. Celtic men soaked their hair in lime water to make it stand up straight. They wore mustaches but not beards. Wealthy Celts wore gold ornaments around their necks called torcs or torques. The Celts made dyes from plants, woad, for blue, madder, for red and weld for yellow. For amusement Celts played board games. They were also very fond of music and played flutes and lyres. In good weather they held horse or chariot races. The Celts also enjoyed hunting wild boar on horseback.

  The main Celtic festivals were Imbolc at the beginning of February at the start of the lambing season, Beltane at the beginning of May, when cattle were sent out to graze in the fields after being kept indoors and fed on hay during the Winter, Lughasad in August when the crops were growing ripe and Samhain at the beginning of November. That was the time when animals were brought in from the fields for the Winter. The Celts could not grow enough hay to feed them all so those not needed for breeding were slaughtered. Although the Romans regarded the Celts as barbarians they created a sophisticated and advanced society. Women certainly had more freedom than in Roman society and Celtic craftsmen were superb. [LocalHistories.Org].

REVIEW:  The Druids were an educated class of the Celtic people. The Celtic were a people that originated from beyond the Caspian Sea. The Celtic nations included tribes that were spread across several European locales but not limited to Scotland, Britain, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, and Isle of Man. The ancient Celtic societies were an intellectual class of philosophers, judges, educators, historians, doctors, astronomers, and astrologers. The Druids studied verse, philosophy, mythology, and astronomy, among many other subjects. Some Druids spent as many as 20 years in training. The Celtic nations included tribes that were spread across several European locales but not limited to Scotland, Britain, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, and Isle of Man.

  There are many modern Druid organizations. It is believed that modern Druid orders began in the eighteenth century in England. The beliefs and practices of the ancient Druids continue to be researched by modern Druids since much information about the ancient Druids had been lost over time. There are several meanings of the word Druid, including "a servant of truth," "an oak," and "all-knowing or wise man." This name probably originated because the ancient Druids spent much of their time in Oak forests meditating and worshiping nature.

  The ancient Celtic people used a lunar calendar in which each month was represented by a moon. Each month started when the moon was full and it was further divided into fortnights, or two-week periods. A dark fortnight followed a bright fortnight. Each month had either 29 or 30 days depending on whether it was a bright or dark month. The calendar took into account the differing time periods taken by the moon and the sun to circle the earth and reconciled the differences by inserting an extra month on a regular cycle. This method meant that most years contained twelve months, and approximately every third year contained thirteen months.

  Another Celtic calendar, known as the Coligny Calendar, was discovered in eastern France. This calendar was a bronze plate measuring five feet by three and a half feet. The Coligny Calendar also recorded time by lunar months. It showed 62 lunar months, with two additional months added so that the Coligny Calendar would match the solar timekeeping system. Experts believe that the Celtics made this change to the calendar after learning about the solar timekeeping system used by the Roman people.

  The Druids recognized only two seasons: winter and summer. By paying close attention to the movement of the moon, sun and stars in the sky, they were able to mark the beginning of one season and the end of the other. The Druids created myths around these events and had elaborate celebrations. Samhain: The rising of the Pleiades constellation in the sky occurred at the end of summer. The Druids believed that this movement of the Pleiades marked the triumph of night over day. It was the beginning of the time of year that was ruled by the moon.

  The Druids celebrated this change in season with the Samhain (or Samhuinn) festival on October 31st and November 1st. Samhain means "time of the little sun" or "end of the warm season." According to the ancient Celtic philosophy, a year passed between darkness and light. They believed that earth was in darkness in the beginning and night comes before day just as winter comes before summer. November 1st marked the beginning of winter and the first day of the year. It was like our New Year's Day.

  This day was a solemn occasion for the Druids because it was a time when darkness overwhelmed the world. At this time of year, the days became short and the earth became cold and barren. The Druids explained the Samhain celebration through the telling of a myth about a god named Lugh who represented the sun. According to the myth, Lugh was the god of light. At summer's end, he was killed by Tanist, the lord of misrule. Tanist was the god of the moon. Samhain is the time when Lugh passes from the world of life to the world of death and Tanist becomes ruler of the Druids' world.

  The long nights of moonlight were explained by the belief that Tanist, the moon, was a cruel and cold ruler. Although he shone brightly in the sky, he did not provide warmth to the land. The Feast of the Dead took place on Samhain Eve. The Feast of the Dead united the past, present and future. It was believed that the spirits of the dead as well as the spirits of those yet unborn walked the earth among the living. This was considered a divine time because it was one of two times of the year when the "veil" between Earth and the Otherworld was at its thinnest.

 

  The ancient Druids also believed that a person's spirit lived in the head. They believed that if they displayed the head of an enemy killed at battle during Samhain, then the enemy could not cause them any harm on the days when the dead walked the earth with the living. In fact, the traditions of carving pumpkins at Halloween in the United States and carving turnips in Europe stem from this ancient Druid activity.

  Samhain was also a time when the Druids renewed their commitments to their community. Hilltops were lit with fires at Samhain. All home fires were extinguished and then lighted again from community bonfires. The Druids and cattle left the hills and glens to live in their winter quarters. This was a time to reunite with family and friends and strengthen bonds with those you cared about. Druids spent time during Samhain discussing religious philosophy and telling stories by the fires at home.

  Feast of Lugh: On August 1st, the Druids celebrated a feast in honor of the sun that had enabled their crops to grow. This festival was called the Feast of Lugh, for their sun god Lugh. The Feast of Lugh marked the end of growing time and the beginning of the harvest. Warriors returned to begin harvesting crops of corn, wheat, fruits and vegetables at this time. Many feasts and sports competitions were held in honor of Lugh.

  Lugh was their sun god who gave them light and warmth. During the Feast of Lugh it was common for the Druids to set a wheel on fire at the top of a hill and then roll it down to the bottom. This tradition symbolized the decline of the sun god and the descent of the sun. The Feast of Lugh was also a time to sacrifice bad habits and remove unwanted things from one's own life.

  Many marriages and divorces took place during this festival. A couple could have a trial marriage that lasted only one year until the next Feast of Lugh. At the following festival, the husband and wife would stand back to back in front of their community. If they wished to end the marriage, they walked away in opposite directions. Records tell us that these trial marriages continued well into the 16th century.

  According to one Celtic myth about the festival, the sun god Lugh is married to the land, known as Nass. Lugh's death is necessary for rebirth to take place in the land. The sun god sacrifices himself to the land when he is at his hottest but when his light is fading. At this time, days are getting shorter and shadows are getting longer. In a different version of this myth, Lugh requested this annual celebration in honor of his foster mother, Tailltiu. In this myth, Tailltiu is the Goddess of the Land who had died while preparing the fields for planting.

  If her memory was not honored, the Druids believed that Lugh would destroy the crops before they could be harvested. With no crops to harvest for food, the community would starve during the coming winter months. [University of Chicago].

REVIEW:  The Indo-European languages are a family of related languages that today are widely spoken in the Americas, Europe, and also Western and Southern Asia. Just as languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian are all descended from Latin, Indo-European languages are believed to derive from a hypothetical language known as Proto-Indo-European, which is no longer spoken. It is highly probable that the earliest speakers of this language originally lived around Ukraine and neighbouring regions in the Caucasus and Southern Russia, then spread to most of the rest of Europe and later down into India. The earliest possible end of Proto-Indo-European linguistic unity is believed to be around 3400 B.C.

  Since the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language did not develop a writing system, we have no physical evidence of it. The science of linguistics has been trying to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language using several methods and, although an accurate reconstruction of it seems impossible, we have today a general picture of what Proto-Indo-European speakers had in common, both linguistically and culturally. In addition to the use of comparative methods, there are studies based on the comparison of myths, laws, and social institutions.  The ancients came up with the explanation that the Latin language was a descendant of the Greek language.

  The Indo-European languages have a large number of branches: Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Armenian, Tocharian, Balto-Slavic and Albanian.

  Anatolian.

  This branch of languages was predominant in the Asian portion of Turkey and some areas in northern Syria. The most famous of these languages is Hittite. In 1906 CE, a large amount of Hittite finds were made on the site of Hattusas, the capital of the Hittite Kingdom, where about 10,000 cuneiform tablets and various other fragments were found in the remains of a royal archive. These texts date back to the mid to late second millennium B.C. Luvian, Palaic, Lycian, and Lydian are other examples of families belonging to this group.  All languages of this branch are currently extinct. This branch has the oldest surviving evidence of an Indo-European language, dated about 1800 B.C.

  Indo-Iranian.

  This branch includes two sub-branches: Indic and Iranian. Today these languages are predominant in India, Pakistan, Iran, and its vicinity and also in areas from the Black Sea to western China. Sanskrit, which belongs to the Indic sub-branch, is the best known among the early languages of this branch; its oldest variety, Vedic Sanskrit, is preserved in the Vedas, a collection of hymns and other religious texts of ancient India. Indic speakers entered into the Indian subcontinent, coming from central Asia around 1500 B.C.: In the Rig-Veda, the hymn 1.131 speaks about a legendary journey that may be considered a distant memory of this migration.

  Avestan is a language that forms part of the Iranian group. Old Avestan (sometimes called Gathic Avestan) is the oldest preserved language of the Iranian sub-branch, the “sister” of Sanskrit, which is the language used in the early Zoroastrian religious texts. Another important language of the Iranian sub-branch is Old Persian, which is the language found in the royal inscriptions of the Achaemenid dynasty, starting in the late 6th century B.C. The earliest datable evidence of this branch dates back to about 1300 B.C.

  Today, many Indic languages are spoken in India and Pakistan, such as Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, and Bengali. Iranian languages such as Farsi (modern Persian), Pashto, and Kurdish are spoken in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.

  Greek.

  Rather than a branch of languages, Greek is a group of dialects: During more than 3000 years of written history, Greek dialects never evolved into mutually incomprehensible languages. Greek was predominant in the southern end of the Balkans, the Peloponnese peninsula, and the Aegean Sea and its vicinity. The earliest surviving written evidence of a Greek language is Mycenaean, the dialect of the Mycenaean civilization, mainly found on clay tablets and ceramic vessels on the isle of Crete. Mycenaean did not have an alphabetic written system, rather it had a syllabic script known as the Linear B script.

  The first alphabetic inscriptions have been dated back to the early 8th century B.C., which is probably the time when the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, reached their present form. There were many Greek dialects in ancient times, but because of Athens cultural supremacy in the 5th century B.C., it was the Athens dialect, called Attic, the one that became the standard literary language during the Classical period (480-323 B.C.). Therefore, the most famous Greek poetry and prose written in Classical times were written in Attic: Aristophanes, Aristotle, Euripides, and Plato are just a few examples of authors who wrote in Attic.

  Italic.

  This branch was predominant in the Italian peninsula. The Italic people were not natives of Italy; they entered Italy crossing the Alps around 1000 B.C. and gradually moved southward. Latin, the most famous language in this group, was originally a relatively small local language spoken by pastoral tribes living in small agricultural settlements in the centre of the Italian peninsula. The first inscriptions in Latin appeared in the 7th century B.C. and by the 6th century B.C. it had spread significantly.

  Rome was responsible for the growth of Latin in ancient times. Classical Latin is the form of Latin used by the most famous works of Roman authors like Ovid, Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, and Marcus Aurelius. Other languages of this branch are: Faliscan, Sabellic, Umbrian, South Picene, and Oscan, all of them extinct. Today Romance languages are the only surviving descendants of the Italic branch.

  Celtic.

  This branch contains two sub-branches: Continental Celtic and Insular Celtic. By about 600 B.C., Celtic-speaking tribes had spread from what today are southern Germany, Austria, and Western Czech Republic in almost all directions, to France, Belgium, Spain, and the British Isles, then by 400 B.C., they also moved southward into northern Italy and southeast into the Balkans and even beyond. During the early 1st century B.C., Celtic-speaking tribes dominated a very significant portion of Europe. On 50 B.C., Julius Caesar conquered Gaul (ancient France) and Britain was also conquered about a century later by the emperor Claudius. As a result, this large Celtic-speaking area was absorbed by Rome, Latin became the dominant language, and the Continental Celtic languages eventually died out. The chief Continental language was Gaulish.

  Insular Celtic developed in the British Isles after Celtic-speaking tribes entered around the 6th century B.C. In Ireland, Insular Celtic flourished, aided by the geographical isolation which kept Ireland relatively safe from the Roman and Anglo-Saxon invasion. The only Celtic languages still spoken today (Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton) all come from Insular Celtic.

  Germanic.

  The Germanic branch is divided in three sub-branches: East Germanic, currently extinct; North Germanic, containing Old Norse, the ancestor of all modern Scandinavian languages; and West Germanic, containing Old English, Old Saxon, and Old High German. The earliest evidence of Germanic-speaking people dates back to first half of the 1st millennium B.C., and they lived in an area stretching from southern Scandinavia to the coast of the North Baltic Sea. During prehistoric times, the Germanic speaking tribes came into contact with Finnic speakers in the north and also with Balto-Slavic tribes in the east.

  As a result of this interaction, the Germanic language borrowed several terms from Finnish and Balto-Slavic. Several varieties of Old Norse were spoken by most Vikings. Native Nordic pre-Christian Germanic mythology and folklore has been also preserved in Old Norse, in a dialect named Old Icelandic. Dutch, English, Frisian, and Yiddish are some examples of modern survivors of the West Germanic sub-branch, while Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish are survivors of the North Germanic branch.

  Armenian.

  The origins of the Armenian-speaking people is a topic still unresolved. It is probable that the Armenians and the Phrygians belonged to the same migratory wave that entered Anatolia, coming from the Balkans around the late 2nd millennium B.C. The Armenians settled in an area around Lake Van, currently Turkey; this region belonged to the state of Urartu during the early 1st millennium B.C. In the 8th century B.C., Urartu came under Assyrian control and in the 7th century B.C., the Armenians took over the region. The Medes absorbed the region soon after and Armenia became a vassal state. During the time of the Achaemenid Empire, the region turned into a Persian satrap. The Persian domination had a strong linguistic impact on Armenian, which mislead many scholars in the past to believe that Armenian actually belonged to the Iranian group.

  Tocharian.

  The history of the Tocharian-speaking people is still surrounded by mystery. We know that they lived in the Taklamakan Desert, located in western China. Most of the Tocharian texts left are translations from well-known Buddhist works, and all of these texts have been dated between the 6th and the 8th centuries CE. None of these texts speak about the Tocharians themselves. Two different languages belong to this branch: Tocharian A and Tocharian B. Remains of the Tocharian A language have only been found in places where Tocharian B documents have also been found, which would suggest that Tocharian A was already extinct, kept alive only as a religious or poetic language, while Tocharian B was the living language used for administrative purposes.

  Many well-preserved mummies with Caucasoid features such as tall stature, red, blonde, and brown hair, have been discovered in the Taklamakan Desert, dating between 1800 B.C. to 200 CE. The weaving style and patterns of their clothes is similar to the Hallstatt culture in central Europe. Physical analysis and genetic evidence have revealed resemblances with the inhabitants of western Eurasia. This branch is completely extinct. Among all ancient Indo-European languages, Tocharian was spoken farthest to the east.

  Balto-Slavic.

  This branch contains two sub-branches: Baltic and Slavic. During the late Bronze Age, the Balts' territory may have stretched from around western Poland all the way across to the Ural Mountains. Afterwards, the Balts occupied a small region along the Baltic Sea. Those in the northern part of the territory occupied by the Balts were in close contact with Finnic tribes, whose language was not part of the Indo-European language family: Finnic speakers borrowed a considerable amount of Baltic words, which suggests that the Balts had an important cultural prestige in that area. Under the pressure of Gothic and Slavic migrations, the territory of the Balts was reduced towards the 5th century CE.

  Archaeological evidence shows that from 1500 B.C., either the Slavs or their ancestors occupied an area stretching from near the western Polish borders towards the Dnieper River in Belarus. During the 6th century CE, the Slav-speaking tribes expanded their territory, migrating into Greece and the Balkans: this is when they are mentioned for the first time, in Byzantine records referring to this large migration. Either some or all of the Slavs were once located further to the east, in or around Iranian territory, since many Iranian words were borrowed into pre-Slavic at an early stage. Later on, as they moved westward, they came into contact with German tribes and again borrowed several additional terms.

  Only two Baltic languages survive today: Latvian and Lithuanian. A large number of Slavic languages survive today, such as Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Russian, and many others.

  Albanian.

  Albanian is the last branch of Indo-European languages to appear in written form. There are two hypotheses on the origin of Albanian. The first one says that Albanian is a modern descendant of Illyrian, a language which was widely spoken in the region during classical times. Since we know very little about Illyrian, this assertion can be neither denied nor confirmed from a linguistic standpoint. From a historical and geographical perspective, however, this assertion makes sense. Another hypotheses says that Albanian is a descendant of Thracian, another lost language that was spoken farther east than Illyrian. Today Albanian is spoken in Albania as the official language, in several other areas in of the former Yugoslavia and also in small enclaves in southern Italy, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia.

  Unaffiliated Languages.

  All languages in this group are either extinct or they are a former stage of a modern language. Examples of this groups of languages are Phrygian, Thracian, Ancient Macedonian (not to be confused with Macedonian, a language currently spoken in the Republic of Macedonia, part of the Slavic branch), Illyrian, Venetic, Messapic, and Lusitanian.

  Indo-European Historical Linguistics.

  In ancient times it was noticed that some languages presented striking similarities: Greek and Latin are a well-known example. During classical antiquity it was noted, for example, that Greek héks “six” and heptá “seven” were similar to the Latin sex and septem. Furthermore, the regular correspondence of the initial h- in Greek to the initial s- in Latin was pointed out.

  The explanation that the ancients came up with was that the Latin language was a descendant of Greek language. Centuries later, during and after the Renaissance, the close similarities between more languages were also noted, and it was understood that certain groups of languages were related, such as Icelandic and English, and also the Romance languages.  Despite all of these observations, the science of linguistics did not develop much further until the 18th century CE.

  During the British colonial expansion into India, a British orientalist and jurist named Sir William Jones became familiar with the Sanskrit language. Jones was also knowledgeable in Greek and Latin and was surprised by the similarities between these three languages. During a lecture on February 2, 1786 CE, Sir William Jones expressed his new ideas:

  "The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquity of Persia."

  The idea that Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Persian were derived from a common source was revolutionary at that time. This was a turning point in the history of linguistics. Rather than the “daughter” of Greek, Latin was for the first time understood as the “sister” of Greek. By becoming familiar with Sanskrit, a language geographically far removed from Greek and Latin, and realizing that chance was an insufficient explanation for the similarities between these languages, Sir William Jones presented a new insight which triggered the development of modern linguistics. [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

REVIEW:  They are cheaper than Greek, rarer than Roman, more bizarre than Byzantine, sexier than Anglo-Saxon, more British than English hammered, and more fun than foreign banknotes.  That’s the magic of Celtic coins, the first coins made in Britain. If Celtic coins are so unusual and so exciting, why don’t more collectors collect them?  Good question.  The answer is that until recently, British Celtic coins were hard to find, expensive to buy, and difficult to understand.  In fact, until 400 years ago, nobody even knew of their existence; or if they did, they failed to mention it.

  John Leland, who became “king’s antiquary” in 1533, spent six years searching for records of antiquities in the cathedral’s colleges, abbeys and priories of England.  He says “he collected a whole world of things very memorable” but could not find a single ancient British coin.  He attributed this apparent absence of early native coinage to the fact – first state by St. Gildas (circa around 493-570 A.D.), the Romano-British monk and historian – that the Romans Prohibited any metal being struck in Britain, except with the image of Caesar.

  British Celtic coins were first published, with some woodcuts, in Britannia in 1586 by William Camden (1551-1623).  Other early contributors include cartographer John Speed (1542-1629), collector Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631), and antiquarian William Stukeley (1687-1765), known as the ‘Arch-Druid’. In 1849 John Akerman drew the first distribution map of British Celtic coins and in 1864 John Evans published The Coins of the Ancient Britons, a masterpiece of numismatic scholarship.  The work was enlarged in 1890 and is still worth studying over a century later.

  Derek Allen quietly dynamited ossified beliefs with his prolific papers and books published from the 1940s to the 1970s; the most explosive was The Origins of Coinage in Britain: a re-appraisal (1960).  Allen’s research and insights provided the foundation for Richard Mack’s The Coinage of Ancient Britain (1953, revised in 1964 and 1975), the first popular textbook of Celtic coins.

  But collecting “Ancient British” was still a rich man’s hobby in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.  It tended to be the peripheral pursuit of a few brave ex-servicemen, such as Commander Mack, Major Clem Lister and “Pathfinder” Henry Mossop, DFC, who was shot down over the Rhine on 21 June 1944 and imprisoned for a year in Stalag Luft III. Then three things happened over the next decade that encouraged the average collector to take a more active interest in Celtic coins. 

  Metal detecting mushroomed as a popular hobby, which dramatically boosted supplies of Celtic coins.  A dozen enlightened dealers – Spink to name but one – made these previously hidden supplies readily available at affordable prices.  And Robert Van Arsdell, and American marketing man and perennial digger at Danebury hillfort, produced Celtic Coinage of Britain in 1989, the most comprehensive and comprehensible book about British Celtic coins.

  These three factors – the growth of metal detecting, the increased availability of affordable coins and the publication of a well-written, well-illustrated textbook – meant that by 1990 Celtic coins were firmly placed on the numismatic map and on the collecting agenda.  The aim of this article is to provide a brief introduction to British Celtic coins, in the hope that you, too, might look more closely at them.

  Before coinage was introduced to late Iron Age Britain, people conducted transactions by bartering their products, possessions and services.  This process of payment and exchange may have been facilitated by gold “ring money” (most of which seems to date from the late Bronze Age); by neck torcs and arm bands of gold, silver and bronze; and by iron “currency bars” shaped like swords, spits, ploughshares and bay leaves, which appeared during the 2nd century B.C.

  Celtic coins starting coming into Britain around 150 B.C. and continued to be imported until after the Gallic War in 50 B.C.  These imports were mainly gold staters and quarter staters minted Gallia Belgica (northern France) and copied from copies of gold staters of Philip II of Macedon.  Some of the Gallo-Belgic coins came with immigrant settlers and others may have come with British mercenaries returning home after fighting the Romans in Gaul; but most of the imported coins were probably the result of cross-Channel trade, which included slave trading.

  The Greek geographer Strabo (circa about 60 B.C. to A.D. 20), whose name means “squint-eyed”, lists as the principal exports of Britain “grain, cattle, gold, silver and iron … also hides and slaves and dogs that are by nature suited to the purposes of the chase.” Around 80-60 B.C. a Kentish tribe, probably the Cantii, produced the first coins that were actually made in Britain.  These imitated coins of Massalia (Marseilles) and were cast, not struck, in a tin-rich bronze alloy called “potin”.  Collectors call them Thurrock potins, named after a hoard of about 2,000 potin coins found in a pit at West Thurrock, Essex, in 1987.

  The first gold coins made in Britain, circa around 70-60 B.C., also come from Kent and are known as Kentish A staters.  These may have been issued by the Cantii to pay British soldiers to fight Diviciacus, king of the Suessiones, a Gaulish tribe who inhabited the region around Noviodunum (Soissons, northern France).  Caesar says that Diviciacus was at one point the most powerful ruler in Gaul and that he held sway over part of Britain (almost certainly Kent).

  In 54 B.C. Caesar himself invaded Britain for the second time and reports that he was confronted by a coalition of British tribes commanded by Cassivellaunos, who was probably king of the Catuvellauni tribe.  In order to fund the campaign against Caesar, it is possible that Cassibvellaunos ordered an emergency issue of gold coins north and south of the Thames, which are today called Ingoldisthorpe and Westerham staters after the places where they first found.  These emergency war coins are often crudely engraved and clumsily struck, which suggests they were made in a hurry.

  Before Caesar sailed back to Belgica in 54 B.C. he imposed a heavy tax on the Celtic coalition tribes of Britain, to be paid each year by their commander in chief, Cassivellaunos.  The threat of a third invasion was a serious one, because it could rapidly have resulted in the Roman occupation of south-east England (as it did a century later).  It is therefore likely that Cassivellaunos honored his treaty with Caesar and paid the annual tribute at least until Caesar left Gaul in 51 B.C., when the risk of defaulting would have diminished.

  It is also likely that Cassivellaunos would have raised the money each year by taxing not only the people directly under his protection, but by bullying gold bullion out of neighboring tribes too, such as the Atrebates, Durotriges, Eceni and Coreiltauvi. John Sills attributes this yearly taxation to the huge amount of gold staters – Whaddon Chase, Atrebatic Abstract, Chute, Norfolk Wolf, North East Coast – which suddenly and simultaneously seem to have been struck episodically for some years shortly after Caesar’s second invasion.  The idea is pure speculation, of course, but plausible.

  For the first fifty years of British minting, most of which was highly sporadic and localized, almost all the coins were uninscribed and we can only guess who produced them, when, where and why.  Unlike the Greeks and Romans, the Celts wrote no books and little is known of Celtic rulers, their moneyers and their mint sites.  So any discussion about late Iron Age coin production, especially attribution and dating, is usually hypothetical, whoever scholarly it may seem.

  Between circa around 60 and 30 B.C. many uninscribed silver coins and a few bronze coins were struck.  The early gold coins were standardized in style – all variations on the Apollo-head-and-horse theme – and were probably used solely by tribal leaders and their elite classes for very specific purposes (e.g.: warrior wages, bribe price and tribute money).  Whereas the early silver and bronze coins were less tightly controlled, less conservative in design, carry a vast variety of different images, and were probably used for everyday commerce by farmers, merchants, craftsman, priests and other well-to-do members of the community.

  Around 45-30 B.C. King Commios of the Atrebates struck the first British coin to bear the ruler’s name.  Philip de Jersey writes: “Since at least the start of the 17th century this Commios has been taken to be the same Gaulish chieftain who ‘had rendered Caesar loyal and useful service in Britain’ (De Bello-Gallico VII, 76) where he was ‘greatly respected’ (op.cit. IV, 21).  Commios later turned against Caesar, however, and in 51 B.C. he was one of the leaders of the Gaulish force which attempted to relieve the siege at Alesia, the site of Caesar’s victory over Vercingetorix.

  A year or so after the failure of that invasion, following further skirmishes with Rome, Commios offered hostages to Antony ‘as a guarantee that he would live where he was bidden and do as he was told’ (op. cit. VIII, 48).  Antony is said to have accepted his petition, but rather than living ‘where he was bidden’ Commios is thought to have fled back to Britain in about 50 B.C.” The Commios who issued Britain’s first branded coins may be the Commios of Caesar’s De Bello-Gallico or it may be his son of the same name; opinion is divided on this matter.

  What is undisputed is that the self-publicity of Commios I or Commios II quickly brought other rulers into the advertising business, in much the same way that John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign of 1960 prompted other tribal chieftains around the world to turn politics into a personality cult. Robert Van Arsdell writes: “Commios had started the practice by placing his name on the Atrebatic/Regnan staters about 45 B.C.  Addedomaros promptly responded to this display of vanity by emblazoning his entire name across the Trinovantian/Catuvelliaunian ones.

  This one-upmanship game spread quickly to the other tribes and by the end of the millennium all but the Durotriges and Eceni were striking inscribed types.”  The Durotriges had been commercially marginalized by the Atrebates; and the Eceni, surrounded by sea-water and marsh-water, had apparently become an independent “island state”. Britain’s coinage of the first four decades of the new millennium was largely dominated, whether directly or indirectly, by the growth of – and by the inter-tribal battles between – the two most powerful Celtic dynasties: the house of Commios south of the Thames and the house of Tasciovanus north of the Thames, with Essex, Kent and north Hapshire being the most hotly disputed war zones.

  Both royal dynasties adopted Roman-style designs adopted Roman-style designs on their coins (a few of their dies may even have been cut by Roman engravers).  Both displayed the king’s name boldly.  Both boasted of their military prowess, with gold coins depicting armored cavalrymen charging into battle wearing helmet and chain mail, and brandishing a sword or war trumpet.  And both sometimes featured overtly competitive images on their coins.

  For example, at about the same time that King Cunobelin of the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes had a big ear of barley on his gold staters, alluding perhaps to his grain exports or beer brewing, King Verica of the Atrebates and Regni – not to be out-shouted by his rival north of the Thames – placed a large vine-leaf on his gold staters, referring maybe to all of the fine Roman wine that he was importing from Gaul and distributing to his courtiers at Celtic festivals and regal feasts.  Such public displays of largesse were a significant factor in boosting – often with prolonged boozing – the prestige and popularity of Iron Age warrior kings.

  However, despite their love of Roman wine and finery, these Celtic kings were, by our standards, still brutal warlords whose power-base and expansion plans were firmly founded on clan feuding, land grabbing, cattle raiding and slave trading.  It was the sons and grandsons of King Tasciovanus who proved most successful in their aggressive aggrandizement and, by the eve of the Claudian invasion of A.D. 43, they controlled all the land and all the people in south-east England.  The distribution of the coins of King Cunobelin, his brother Epaticcus and his sons Caratacus and Amminus testify to the dominant strength of the north-Thames royal dynasty.

  Within a couple of years of the Roman invasion it is likely that the minting of Celtic coins in Britain was completely suppressed.  The cast bronze coins of the Durotriges, minted at Hengistbury Head, Dorset, were probably the last Celtic coins made in Britain, possibly as late as A.D. 45.  There is also a possibility that some extremely rare silver coins inscribed SVBRHPRASTO ESICO FECIT may have been struck shortly after the Roman conquest by the Ecenian client-king Prasutagus, husband of the rebellious Boudicca.

  If he did, then one wonders how he managed to secure this preference to other more deserving, more obviously pro-Roman allies such as Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, who actively facilitated the Claudian invasion of Britain by providing a safe landing place.  It has been estimated that about 70,000 Celtic coins have been found in Britain, mostly by metal detectorists during the last twenty years.  Over 23,000 of these have been recorded by the Celtic Coin Index at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford.  Yet, strangely, despite this mass of material, much of which has been meticulously studied by numismatists, we still do not know what Celtic people called their coins or what values they placed on them.

  Commenting on Continental Celtic coins, Derek Allen writes: “Although for convenience coins are usually described by the Greek or Roman names of the denominations that were imitated, we do not in fact know the true names for the coins.  There is a single exception, a heavy bronze coinage of post-conquest date of the Lexovii (Lisieux), which has an inscription giving the denomination as sentissos publicos; this is a Celtic version of the Latin Semis, half an as in the Roman system.  The occasional presence of an S on the other bronze coins, all of much light weight, may warrant the assumption that the semis (marked with S on Republican Roman coins) was the normal name of the small bronze used in Gaul”.  And maybe a bronze coin was called a semis in Britain too.

  In Britain there were five main Celtic denominations which collectors classify as: gold staters, gold quarter staters, silver units, silver minims, and bronze (or potin) units. Gold staters were the principle denomination of pre-Roman Britain.  The first to cross the Channel in considerable quantities, known as Gallo-Belgic Goddess or Large-Flan Ambiani, is a gorgeous golden gold, has a diameter of up to 27 mm, and weighs 7.8 grams – a magnificent coin by any standards.  The first gold stater made in Britain, the Kentish A, circa around 70-60 B.C., is 19 mm, weighs 6.7 grams and also has a golden color.

  After the Gallic War, supplies of gold bullion became scarcer and British staters became small, lighter, and less golden, ending up with an average weight of 5.4 grams and with an orangey or pinkish tinge to them, depending on how much copper the moneyer poured into his smelting pot. To compensate for the shortage of gold, or perhaps to swindle, staters were often made with a bronze core, and then plated with gold – and plated so well that you wouldn’t have known they were “forgeries”.  Durotrigan moneyers seemed to have run out of gold altogether because, by circa around 50 B.C., they were making only silver staters weighing barely 3.0 grams.

  Gold quarter staters are 8 mm. to 14 mm. in diameter, weigh 1.0 gm to 2.0 grams on average, and are comparatively scarce as a denomination (fewer were minted).  They offer good value to the collector, because most people prefer to collect staters, which means quarters are still relatively under-priced. Silver units are 11mm. to 15mm., weigh about 1.0 gm on average and offer a dazzling diversity of designs, many of them copied from contemporary Roman denarii.  Many new types of silver units have turned up since 1975 as a result of metal detecting and the eagle-eyed collector always has a chance of picking up unpublished varieties.

  Silver minims are about 8 mm, weigh 0.3 grams and were issued mostly by the Atrebates, circa around 25 B.C.-A.D. 43, though earlier types exist.  They are miniature masterpieces of the Celtic die cutter’s craft and, since the Wandborough hoard was unearthed in 1984 (damaging a Romano-Celtic temple site), thousands have come onto the market, some of them previously unknown. Bronze and potin units, both struck and cast, vary widely in size and weight and are often corroded after 2,000 years in the soil. Very Fine specimens with an even green patina consequently command high prices.  But, if you aren’t too fussy about condition, you can quickly assemble an interesting and varied collection of Celtic bronze and potin coins, especially north Thames types.

  Eleven tribal groups issued coins in late Iron Age Britain.  The word ‘tribe’ must be used cautiously in this context and chiefly as an approximate indication of geographic and socio-economic areas.  Barry Cunliffe writes: “In the late Iron Age Britain can be divided into three broad zones: a core comprising the south-east which shared many cultural characteristics with the Continent; a periphery comprising an arc of coin-issuing tribes stretching from Dorset to Lincolnshire; and a beyond, that is the rest of Britain west and north of the periphery here coinage had not been introduced into the economy.”  (Iron Age Communities in Britain, Routledge 1991, p.130).

  From about 25 B.C. the cultural aspirations and coinage of the core tribes in the south-east became increasingly Roman in style and may be termed Romano-Celtic, while the coinage of the peripheral tribes remained markedly un-Roman in appearance and may be called ethno-Celtic.  We shall consider the core tribes first, which lay south and north of the Thames, beginning with the Cantii who made the first British coins. The Cantii (or “Cantiaci” as the Ravenna cleric of circa around A.D. 700 refers to them) occupied territory today known as Kent and the late Iron Age boundaries seem to match the modern county boundaries, just as the county name closely resembles the Celtic name.

  Julius Caesar mentions four kings of the Cantii – Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximagulus and Segovax – but does not say where or when they ruled in Kent, nor whether simultaneously or successively, Kentish coin finds suggest that there could have been four individual socio-economic groups in the region, based on the rivers Stour, Medway, Darent and on the Weald.  The separate nature of the three coastal groups is further supported by distribution patterns of different Iron Age pottery fabrics.  It is therefore possible that Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximagulus and Segovax ruled these four Cantian groups at the same time and were responsible for issuing the uninscribed Celtic  coins around the period of the Gallic War or shortly afterwards.

  The name Cantii may mean “people of the corner land”.  Cantian tribal centers and mint sites were probably at Canterbury (Durovernum “alder fort”) and Rochester (Durobrivae “bridge fort”) where clay moulds for coin flans have been found.  The importance of fishing to the Celtic communities of Kent is reflected in a rectangular fishing net which is seen on several of their early coins.  After the Gallic War the importance of the Cantii appears to have declined and the tribes of Kent were peripheral to the economic expansion enjoyed by those north of the Thames.

  As Cunliffe says, it may be that they were deliberately excluded from trading contacts with the Roman province of Gaul because of their violent opposition to Caesar in 55 and 54 B.C. The main core tribes south of the Thames were the Atrebates and Regni who, for numismatic purposes, are most conveniently regarded as a single tribal entity during the late Iron Age period, dominated by the Atrebates.  The Regni go almost unrecorded in history until the Roman period.

  Atrebatic/Regnan territory embraced Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire and parts of Hampshire and Wiltshire.  The Atrebates came first into historical perspective when King Commios arrived in Britain to re-unite with his kinsfolk who had already settled here, after fleeing from Caesar.  Commios was a king of the Gallo-Belgic Atrebates and it was probably from this time onwards that his British followers were known by the tribal name and that other Gallo-Belgic settlers of south and east Hampshire, known as the Belgae, were overshadowed by the Atrebates.

  The name Atrebates may mean “the settlers” or “the inhabitants” and Regni or Regini may mean “the stiff ones”.  Atrebatic/Regnan coins were almost certainly minted at the tribal centers of Silchester (Calleva “town in the woods”) and Chichester (Noviomagus “new market”) and maybe also at Boxgrove.  Early uninscribed coins of the Atrebates and Regni frequently feature a triple-tailed horse.  Later issues show a strong Roman influence.  The core tribes north of the Thames were the Catuvellaauni and Trinovantes.  Both Cunliffe and Van Arsdell say, “it is impossible at present to distinguish the coinages of the two tribes.”  Recent interpretations of the coin evidence suggest, however, that a distinction should be made, at least until the time of Cunobelin.  I shall therefore discuss the two tribes separately.

  Commander R.P. Mack writes: “The area occupied by the Catuvellauni covers roughly the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Cambridge, with parts of Buck, Essex, Northants, Oxfordshire and Suffolk, but its boundaries were continually changing, and it is hard to lay don any limits.  The Catuvellauni are first mentioned in history under their King Cassivellaunos putting up a stiff resistance to Caesar in 54 B.C., and the probability is that they were the most powerful tribe in Britain at that time … The first king of the Catuvellauni to place his name upon his coins was Tasciovanus, a king completely unknown to history.”

  The name Catuvellauni may mean “men good in battle” – they were certainly a bellicose tribe – and coins were probably minted at their capital, Verulamion (modern St. Albans) and at Braughing.  Many uninscribed coins of  the Catuvellauni show a winged symbol, which may have been a tribal emblem. By the reign of King Cunobelin the most powerful core tribe north of the Thames was the Trinovantes who occupied the whole of Essex and southern parts of Suffolk.  Caesar says that the Trinovantes were enemies of the Catuvellauni and it was the Trinovantes who supplied him with provisions when he landed for the second time in 54 B.C.

  Prior to Cunobelin, the only known rulers of the Trinovantes were Mandubracius, a prince whose father was killed by Cassivellaunos, and Addedomaros and Dubnovellaunos who both struck inscribed coins.  Dubnovellaunos also held land in Kent. The name Trinovantes may mean “the very lively ones” and the principle mint site was probably at their tribal center at Colchester (Camulodunon “fort of Camulos”).  Many early coins of the Trinovantes carry to opposed crescent moons – one waxing, the other waning – as do early coins of the Catuvellauni and the Eceni.

  In the eastern part of England, with its comparatively flat land and correspondingly broad sky, the moon was perhaps of greater significance to these Celtic communities, because of its prominence in the night sky and its importance in the farming cycle. The so-called peripheral or ethno-Celtic tribes that produced coins are the Belgae, Durotriges, Dobunni and East Wiltshire people to the south and west of the Thames, and the Eceni and Corieltauvi to the north and east of the Thames.

  The character of their coins remained resolutely un-Roman, whereas the coins of the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, Catuvellauni and Trinocantes grew steadily pro-Roman in style from about 25 B.C.  When America became the leading political power by the end of the Second World War, its cultural trappings, such as Coca-Cola and Frank Sinatra, became increasingly popular in Britain.  Similarly, when Rome made itself the key player in Europe by the end of the Gallic War, Roman culture in the form of wine-filled amphora became increasingly popular with the British tribes who could afford to import it.

  Then, as now, culture follows power.  Consigned to obscurity by Evans, Allen, Mack, Van Arsdell and most other numismatists, the Belgae of south-coast Britain are now making a come-back after 2,000 years of near oblivion.  Originally based on immigrant settlers around the Solent, Itchen and Test, the Belgae occupied most of modern Hampshire, probably including the Isle of Wright (Latin Vectis, British Vecta, “in the fork” or “watershed”).  The name Belgae may mean ‘the proud ones’ and Belgic coins were probably made initially at a coastal mint site and later at Winshester (Venta Belgarum “market of Belgae”).

  Cunliffe comments: “Caesar, writing in the middle of the first century B.C., referred in passing to an invasion of Belgae into Britain at some unspecified time in the past.  While it has usually been argued that the invaders settled in Kent and the Thames valley region and that the Gallo-Belgic coins were associated with the incoming, this now seems less likely.  A case can be made out for a limited (but archaeologically invisible) incursion into the east Solent region penetrating Hampshire.  The strongest evidence for this is that under the early Roman reorganization of the province this area of Hampshire, with Winchester as its center, was known as the canton of the Belgae’ (Iron Age Britain p.63-64).

  At least half a dozen distinctive coin types, such as Cheriton, Chute Transitional, Thin Silver, Chichester Cock and various Danebury and Hayling Island types – traditionally attributed to the Durotriges or Atrebates – should probably be assigned to the British Belgae.  The Durotriges were a close-knit confederacy of smaller units centerd upon present-day Dorset.  They were a sea-faring Roman-loathing tribe whose territory corresponded closely to that of Anglo-Saxon Wessex.  To the north the Wylyle defined their boundary with the Atrebates.  To the east the Avon marked their boundary with the Belgae.  To the west Durotrigan coins and pottery extend along the valley of the Yeo and Parrett, giving the tribe limited access to the Bristol Channel.

  Cunliffe says: “The history of the Durotriges can be divided into two broad phases, an early phase, roughly 100-60 B.C. and a late phase from 60 B.C. until the Roman conquest.  The early phase was a time of rapid development brought about by overseas trade, while the late phase was a time of retraction, isolation and economic impoverishment.”  The economic decline of the Durotriges is dramatically portrayed by the progressive debasement of their coinage, particularly when you compare the magnificent white-gold Craborne Chase staters of circa around 50-40 B.C. with the crude cast bronze Hengistbury coins of circa around A.D. 10-43.

  The name Durotriges may mean “dwellers by the water” or “the water-rat kings” (strangely enough, a rat can be seen on a Durotrigan silver quarter stater).  Their prime tribal center was probably Maiden Castle and coins were minted at Hengistbury Head and other sites, possibly Badbury Rings. The Dobunni were a Cotswold tribe focused on Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Avon, extending to the river Brue on Somerset, north and west Wiltshire and west of the Cherwell in Oxfordshire.  Dobunnic coin distribution forms two clusters of concentration, approximately divided by the Bristol Avon, and may therefore represent two power bases within the single tribal territory.

  A similar two-fold split can be detected in Dobunnic pottery and its distribution in the 1st century B.C. The northern center of the Dobunni was at Bagendon, Gloucestershire – evidence of minting was excavated here – and the southern center may have been at Bath or at Camerton in Somerset. The meaning of the name Dobunni is uncertain, but the meaning of the tribe’s Roman capital – Corinium – may be “medlar-tree”, which may provide the identity of the Dobunni’s tree-like emblem, which is prominently displayed on their gold staters, except those issued by Boduoc.

  The medlar is a small Eurasian tree (mespilus germanica) of the rose family; it bears a fruit resembling a crab apple, known in Welsh as ceri.  The name Corin may have been newly given to the Roman fort at Cirencester or, more likely, was transferred from the Dobunnic oppidum at Bagendon, which lies just three miles to the north. To the east of the Dobunni there may have been a separate tribal group whose name is unknown and who for convenience is labeled “East Wiltshire.”  Allen and Van Arsdell both refer to the coinage of this area as “Dobunnic irregular” and in 1989 Van Arsdell claimed that “recent finds have occurred in other parts of Dubunnic territory, however, today it is difficult to prove a ‘sub-Dobunnic’ coinage actually existed”.

  During the last decade, however, further new East Wiltshire types have come to light, such as Wiltshire Wheels and Vale of Pewsey gold quarters and Snake Head, Upavon Moon Head, Potterne Moon Head and Wiltshire Wings silver units. It seems more sensible to attribute these new types, together with the Savernake Forest staters and Savernake Wheel quarter, to a distinct tribal group that was centerd on the Vale of Pewsey, the northern part of Salisbury Plain to the Marlborough Downs, and the Upper Thames, Bristol Avon and Kennet forming its natural boundaries.

  Like the Dobunni, these East Wiltshire people developed their own coinage later than other tribes, possibly around 30 B.C., and it may have ceased altogether by A.D. 30, when Vale of Pewsey probably fell under the sway of Cunovelin.  The Eceni or Iceni (depending on whether you follow the spelling on their coins or the spelling in Tacitus’ Annals and the Antonine Itenerary)  were an independent East Anglian tribe occupying all of Norfolk, north Suffolk and parts of the Cambridgeshire fenland, stretching to the Nene valley.

  The Eceni do not slip as easily into Culiffe’s core and periphery classification as do the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes, who probably overshadowed them prior to the Roman invasion.  Throughout the late Iron Age period the Eceni appear to be a wealthy and politically independent tribe and, as Cunliffe says, ‘The material nature of the territory differs little from that of the south-east … No other tribal area has yet yielded such vivid evidence of opulent aristocratic display.’  On the basis of their on-going opulence one might regard the Eceni as part of the south-eastern core.

  However, the character of Ecenian coinage indicates that these Norfolk-centerd folk were decidedly more ethno-Celtic than Romano-Celtic.  Apart from a few silver coins of King Prasutagus, which may or may not have been issued after A.D. 43 (I’d say not), the coins of the Eceni remain unmistakably Celtic in style, even their later inscribed types. The name Eceni may mean “the tribe” or “horse people”, the latter being more likely, and the “c” is hard, as in Ickworth, Icklingham and Icknield Way, the Neolithic trackway, “the road leading to their land”. Tony Gregory stated: “It is interesting that the only survival of the name of the tribe, apart from place names, is the adjective ickeny which was used in the dialect of Norfolk and Lincolnshire for things awkward and difficult to manage, and particularly for difficult horses.

  Could this have been a memory of the Eceni as horse dealers and breeders?” (Celtic Fire & Roman Rule, p.17). A.L.F. Rivet and Colin Smith say: “The equation of Caesar’s Cenimagni with the Eceni has contextual and linguistic support.  Caesar mentions them among the five tribes which submitted to him, perhaps because of their importance, but possibly also because it was against them that the friendly Trinovantes were being defended…An association of the British tribe by blood etymology with the Gaulish Cenomanni seems unlikely”.  (The Place-names of Roman Britain, p.374).

  There seem to have been at least three tribal centers in the region of the Eceni – Caistor St. Edmund (later Venta Icenorum “market of the Eceni”), Thetford and Saham Toney.  Each had associated defensive earthworks, which might suggest that the Eceni were originally an amalgam of clans, rather than a single tribal entity.  Ecenian coins may have been struck at Thetford, Saham Toney and Needham (clay flan moulds have been found at all three places) and maybe also at Lackford.  Here the Celtic name, Camboritum “the ford at the bend”, may be recorded on silver coins inscribed Cans Duro (the workd duro was often added to names of wet settlements).

  As recently as forty years ago it was generally thought that the Brigantes were “the northern-most tribe of non-Belgic Britain to strike coins” and that “very few coins have been found in the area of the Coritani and it is not at all certain that they had a regular coinage of their own”.  (R.P. Mack, The Coinage of Ancient Britain, 1st edition, 1953, p127-128).  Today nobody believes that the Brigantes made any coins.  Today only a few old codgers croak nostalgically about the Coritani.

  The Corieltauvi have arrived and it looks like they are here to stay.  Previously known as the Coritani, until the correct names was found on a tile in 1965 (R.S.O. Tomlin, Antiquaries Journal, 1983).  The Corieltauvi were and East Midlands tribe centerd on the uplands of parts of Lindsey and eventually occupying Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, parts of the Humberside and perhaps parts of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.

  Van Arsdell says: “The Corieltauvi for many years were thought to be a backward tribe, untouched by the changes transforming southern Britain.  This view has been proved false by archaeological studies made after 1960.  They are now known to have been a most advanced tribe – early to adopt the potter’s wheel, for example…The coinage was one of the earliest struck in Britain…The Corieltauvi used complex privy marks for die control, weight specification and perhaps even identification of metallurgical content.  The sophistication of the coinage is only now being appreciated and the next few years should produce some astounding findings”.

  Corieltauvian tribal centers were probably located at Dragonby, Old Sleaford, Lincoln (Lindo “lake river”) and Leicester (Ratae “ramparts”) with other major settlements at South Ferriby, Kirmington, Owmby, Ludford, Horncastle, Ulceby Cross and Ancaster.  Coins were probably struck at Old Sleaford where over 4,000 fragments have been found (by far the largest deposit of such debris in all Europe) and also at other unidentified mint sites. Ask a metal detectorist how many Celtic coins he or she has found and you will discover they are much scarcer than Roman coins – at least a thousand times scarcer on average.

  This is because far fewer Celtic coins were minted than Roman coins, in smaller runs, and over a much shorter time span.  Though some may have been made in Britain as early as 80 B.C., the majority of British Celtic coins were minted between 54 B.C. and A.D. 43.- barely a century of production, and most of that seems to have been sporadic.  However, the greater rarity of Celtic coins doesn’t mean they are more costly than other ancient coins.  In fact, they are often cheaper, because there are fewer Celtic collectors and because demand determines price.  For example, a very fine Celtic gold stater typically costs half the price of a Greek gold stater or an English gold noble of comparable quality and rarity.

  Quoting averages can be misleading, but the average UK retail prices for very Celtic coins are approximately as follows” silver minims £50-£100, silver units £50-£150, cast potins £40-£80, struck bronzed £75-£175, gold quarter £150-£250, gold staters £250-£500.  Fine specimens cost less than half these prices and extremely fine examples (exceptional in the Celtic series) are usually more than twice the VF price.  The prices quoted in the photo captions of this article are of high caliber or high rarity coins I’ve sold recently and are therefore high than average.

   If you are considering buying some Celtic coins – and I can’t think of a more exciting series to collect – there are two things you should do first:  read and see.  Read Celtic Coinage in Britain  by Philip de Jersey (Shire Archaeology, 1996, £5.50 including postage).  It’s the best little book ever written on Celtic coins, with over 100 twice-size photos. Then see some real Celtic coins at one of the following museums, all of which hold major collections.  But phone first to check what is on display and what may be viewed by appointment. [The Journal of Ancient Numismatics].

  I always ship books Media Mail in a padded mailer.  This book is shipped FOR FREE via USPS INSURED media mail (“book rate”).  All domestic shipments and most international shipments will include free USPS Delivery Confirmation (you might be able to update the status of your shipment on-line at the USPS Web Site) and free insurance coverage.  A small percentage of international shipments may require an additional fee for tracking and/or delivery confirmation.  If you are concerned about a little wear and tear to the book in transit, I would suggest a boxed shipment - it is an extra $1.00.  Whether via padded mailer or box, we will give discounts for multiple purchases. International orders are welcome, but shipping costs are substantially higher. 

    Most international orders cost an additional $12.99 to $33.99 for an insured shipment in a heavily padded mailer, and typically includes some form of rudimentary tracking and/or delivery confirmation (though for some countries, this is only available at additional cost). There is also a discount program which can cut postage costs by 50% to 75% if you’re buying about half-a-dozen books or more (5 kilos+).  Rates and available services vary a bit from country to country.  You can email or message me for a shipping cost quote, but I assure you they are as reasonable as USPS rates allow, and if it turns out the rate is too high for your pocketbook, we will cancel the sale at your request.  ADDITIONAL PURCHASES do receive a VERY LARGE discount, typically about $5 per book (for each additional book after the first) so as to reward you for the economies of combined shipping/insurance costs.  Your purchase will ordinarily be shipped within 48 hours of payment.  We package as well as anyone in the business, with lots of protective padding and containers.

    All of our shipments are sent via insured mail so as to comply with PayPal requirements.  We do NOT recommend uninsured shipments, and expressly disclaim any responsibility for the loss of an uninsured shipment.  Unfortunately the contents of parcels are easily “lost” or misdelivered by postal employees – even in the USA.  That’s why all of our domestic shipments (and most international) shipments include a USPS delivery confirmation tag; or are trackable or traceable, and all shipments (international and domestic) are insured.  We do offer U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, Registered Mail, and Express Mail for both international and domestic shipments, as well United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (Fed-Ex).  Please ask for a rate quotation.  We will accept whatever payment method you are most comfortable with.  If upon receipt of the item you are disappointed for any reason whatever, I offer a no questions asked return policy.  Send it back, I will give you a complete refund of the purchase price (less our original shipping costs).

    Most of the items I offer come from the collection of a family friend who was active in the field of Archaeology for over forty years.  However many of the items also come from purchases I make in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) from various institutions and dealers.  Though I have always had an interest in archaeology, my own academic background was in sociology and cultural anthropology.  After my retirement however, I found myself drawn to archaeology as well.  Aside from my own personal collection, I have made extensive and frequent additions of my own via purchases on Ebay (of course), as well as many purchases from both dealers and institutions throughout the world - but especially in the Near East and in Eastern Europe.  I spend over half of my year out of the United States, and have spent much of my life either in India or Eastern Europe.  In fact much of what we generate on Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay goes to support The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as some other worthy institutions in Europe connected with Anthropology and Archaeology.

    I acquire some small but interesting collections overseas from time-to-time, and have as well some duplicate items within my own collection which I occasionally decide to part with.  Though I have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, my primary interest is in ancient jewelry.  My wife also is an active participant in the "business" of antique and ancient jewelry, and is from Russia.  I would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from me.  There is a $2 fee for mailing under separate cover.  Whenever I am overseas I have made arrangements for purchases to be shipped out via domestic mail.  If I am in the field, you may have to wait for a week or two for a COA to arrive via international air mail.  But you can be sure your purchase will arrive properly packaged and promptly - even if I am absent.  And when I am in a remote field location with merely a notebook computer, at times I am not able to access my email for a day or two, so be patient, I will always respond to every email.  Please see our "ADDITIONAL TERMS OF SALE."

 

  • Condition: NEW. See detailed condition description below.
  • Material: Paper

PicClick Insights - Britain Celtic Coinage Manufacture Political Economic Social Daily Life Tribes PicClick Exclusive

  •  Popularity - 1 watcher, 0.0 new watchers per day, 1,165 days for sale on eBay. Normal amount watching. 0 sold, 1 available.
  •  Best Price -
  •  Seller - 5,439+ items sold. 0% negative feedback. Great seller with very good positive feedback and over 50 ratings.

People Also Loved PicClick Exclusive


PicClick® • Search eBay Faster

Copyright © 2008-2024 PicClick Inc. All Rights Reserved.
You are the salt of the earth...You are the light of the world...