The Celts by Alice Roberts

by Alice Roberts

Alice Roberts goes in search of the Celts and their treasures in a narrative history to accompanying a new BBC series. We know a lot about the Roman Empire. The Romans left monuments to their glories and written histories charting the exploits of their heroes. But there was another ancient people in Europe - feared warriors with chariots, iron swords, exquisite jewellery, swirling tattoos and strange rituals and beliefs. For hundreds of years Europe was theirs, not Rome's. They were our ancestors, and yet the scale of their achievements has largely been forgotten. They were the Celts. Unlike the Romans they did not write their history, so the stories of many heroic Celtic men and women have been lost. And yet we can discover their deeds. . . you just have to know where to look. From Denmark to Italy; Portugal to Turkey Alice Roberts takes us on a journey across Europe, revealing the remarkable story of the their real origins, how they lived and thrived, and their enduring modern legacy Using ground-breaking linguistic research, in addition to the latest archaeology and genetics, Alice Roberts will explore how this remarkable and advanced culture grew from the fringes of the continent and humiliated the might of Rome. The Celts accompanies a substantial BBC series presented by Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver, and showing in October 2015.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Ancient History, Historical, Scotland, Ireland

Paperback

First published October 5, 2015

About the author

Alice May Roberts is an English anatomist, osteoarchaeologist, physical anthropologist, palaeopathologist, television presenter and author.

Roberts studied medicine and anatomy at Cardiff University, qualifying in 1997 as a physician with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB BCh) degree, having gained an intercalated Bachelor of Science degree in anatomy. She earned a PhD in paleopathology in 2008 from the University of Bristol.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[NAT.orious reads ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ★★★★★

This book is for you if… you consider yourself a Celtic Mythology/Civilizations enthusiast. You will be confronted with realistic interpretations of research and a critical look at the field of Celtic Studies and its work up to now.

⇝Overall.
This is an absolutely incredible book that accomplishes exactly what the author aims it at: to give the reader a good idea about the concept of Celticity. It is very critical towards the research that has been published so far and manages to keep a balance between fascinating facts and interpretations and a realistic and down-to-earth approach towards findings. Alice clearly builds up to the fact that the Celts are not an exclusive, frozen-in-time people with a clearly distinguishable language, specific cultural traditions and the like. She author thoroughly explains all the caveats the scholars concerned with this topic have to deal with and illustrates why the view, ever so prominent in especially Germany, that the Celts spread in a eurocentric manner is totally unjustified. Even though structured in a very scientific way with a very good conclusion, it was so much fun discovering individual cases together with Alice. The book is the perfect balance between evidence-based facts and fun.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone. Intuitively, I would say this book is suitable for beginners just as for those of you who've already had some experience with the topic of the book. (I must mention at this point that I am not a scholar of Archeology or the Celts themselves even. I guess I would describe myself as an enthusiast who has had the pleasure to sit with a group of Irish students for a semester at UCD, Dublin where I acquired some decent knowledge prior to reading this book.)

The book is structured as follows.
Celtic Timeline
Foreword

INTRODUCTION
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
IRON, SALT AND WINE
WARRIORS, SWORDS AND TORCS
CLASHING WITH EMPIRE
MYTHS FROM THE MISTS OF TIME
IDENTITY AND LEGACY

Epilogue
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Maps
Plate Sections 1 & 2

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having thoroughly enjoyed the BBC programme of the same name, I was keen to get stuck into the book for some real nitty-gritty depth on the topic of the Celts. I was not disappointed. This is a well-researched, concise work that challenges many of the things we think we 'know' about the amorphous peoples that were The Celts. It was illuminating just to consider what we assume 'Celtic' to be, Alice puts it:
''There are linguistic Celts, archaeological Celts, artistic Celts, ancient historical Celts, ethnic and biological Celts. But the problem is they don't coincide. There is not a single, coherent Celtic package.''
In the end though, it seems that the one connecting thread must be language (though the origins might surprise some readers), as Alice points out, despite the Romans dumping their civilization all over the Celts, ''isn't it a triumph that no-one speaks Latin any more? But the Celts are still out there, to be heard''.
The book covers aspects of war, geopolitics and religion; my favourite chapter probably being 'Myths from the Mists of Time', as well as looking at some of the more famous archaeological finds of the graves of the Celtic elite and a couple of the famous 'bog bodies', which never fail to fascinate. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Celtic history.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Celts and a mysterious people. You either think of a woad daubed, near naked warrior, screaming at the top of his voice, or see them as a hugely artistic people who produced the most exquisite gold jewellery. These images have been elicited from Roman literature and from burial sites and finds in fields. Unlike the Romans and Normans who left vast swathes of solid architectural evidence and literature for us to understand them, the Celts touched the earth lightly leaving traces only of their existence. The artefacts that we do find though are quite beautiful; the tales that history whispers are strange; so who are these people?

But the evidence is there; provided you know where to look. In this companion book to the BBC series, Roberts takes us from Northern Europe and right down to the Mediterranean to speak to those who are investigating these people, to see the latest evidence and touch the few possessions that have survived across the ages. It is an interesting journey as the people are so elusive, partly as they left precious little traces of their homes and lifestyle. There are some interesting theories as to the roots of Celts, how they influenced European language and culture and how the echoes of their legacy still reverberate even today. Good stuff, now to watch the TV series.

[Juan Nalerio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tuve una doble intención con este ejemplar.

Practicar un poco de lectura en inglés, lo cual logré.
Pero el segundo propósito, profundizar en el mundo Celta, no lo conseguí.
La autora ahonda en varias puntas; lo arqueológico, lo mítico, lo histórico que se sabe a través de los romanos y lo genético. Se forma una especie de collage que no sale airoso para mi gusto.

Si bien aprendí un par de cosas no me colmó en absoluto.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written to accompany a BBC series that I haven’t seen, but that doesn’t seem to detract from it any. I seem to be seeing a lot of people lately considering the issues of Celtic identity: how do we pin it down? Is it based on language, material culture, genetics? Is it really a thing? I’ve been to the temporary Celtic exhibit in the British Museum, as well as read this and — for contrast — Graham Robb’s The Ancient Paths, which views Celtic identity as very contiguous across Europe. (It is reassuring that most of the facts here chimed with Robb’s claims, if you’d like to believe in his theories!)

This book surveys evidence from all over Europe, eventually coming to the conclusion that Celticness might have originated in the West and spread east, rather than the other way round. It also pours cold water on the idea of human sacrifices (though it doesn’t mention some of the archaeological evidence about Boudicca’s revolt and the claims of human sacrifice and barbaric practices around that), with what I think seems like justified scepticism. Roberts points out that we’ve got a fundamental problem where the literature is interpreted in ways which prop up the interpretation of archaeological finds, at the same time as those archaeological finds are held up as truth in interpreting the literature.

Overall, Roberts is relatively unconclusive, if conclusions are what you’re looking for. Celtic identity is a bit of a morass, and its modern importance to Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Cornish people may well be a very recent construct. That makes it no less powerful, and there’s something understandable and powerful in modern people looking back to our ancestors and trying to understand them, claiming to be a part of them. After all, we must be.

Originally posted here.

[Judyta Szacillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have slightly mixed feelings about this book. It certainly presents the material in an engaging and accessible way (perhaps even too much so for my personal taste), and it explains in no uncertain terms the doubts and questions about the so-called Celtic identity and culture. It will leave the reader with no doubt that there isn't and never was such a uniform identity or culture, and that what we call ‘Celtic’ is just a label, a little outdated perhaps, but still needed for the purposes of organising our knowledge in the same way as we use labels like ‘the Yamnaya culture’ or ‘the Middle Ages’.

However, Roberts still expresses very strong cultural sentiment towards our ‘Celtic’ ancestors and that results in her focus on just one of a number of existing valid interpretations of how Celtic languages came to be.

An enjoyable read nevertheless, and definitely recommended to those who haven’t studied the subject matter before. More advanced students may be discouraged by the dearth of references and too few caveats when discussing some theories. To them I would instead recommend Blood of the Celts by Jean Manco.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I raced through this in one sitting over three pleasant hours this evening. I like Roberts' caution, given the New Age balderdash too frequently peddled online the past generation as "Celtic wisdom"... Rather, she emphasizes Barry Cunliffe's "Celts from the West," i.e., the Atlantic fringe, as a more plausible explanation for the heartland not in the 19c discovered La Tene or Hallstadt Central European archeological finds, but as John Koch proposes, the Tetrassian inscriptions in today's Portugal, for an Ibernian-centered catalyst which itself emerged as the original Proto-Indo-European language arrived in Anatolia around 6000 BC and then spread along a Celto-Italic corridor into the coastal regions of the ocean, into Ireland, Britain, and Northwest Europe. That's a lot to construct upon a few lines incised, but given the evidence very recently drawn upon by Koch, it's an intriguing counter-theory. Roberts rightly defends her preference as more sensibly grounded in the sole remaining incontrovertible proof we still witness...The endurance of the Celtic tongues of Breton, Irish, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, and not to forget the revived Cornish (and Manx, which she leaves out entirely) testifies to the embedding of culture within its heartland, and that not mass migrations but the steady diffusion of what for lack of a better term I label "influencers" who generate change among a curious crowd, or maybe a cowed one.

I'd have benefited from more care taken to trace the progress purported for the Mediterranean drift of Celto-Italic westward, as this key assertion isn't sufficiently supported. But one can refer to her key informants Cunliffe and Koch, being world experts in this field. To her credit, in her afterward, she notes the skepticism towards both the central and western models expressed by John Collis, another worthy investigator into this fascinating topic. This overview carefully sifts what classical (by Roman propagandists and Greek geographers, and medieval (mythic) sources) writers have left us, and Roberts dutifully attends to the historical record, or at least its suppositions, to challenge received assumptions. This provides a valuable corrective, and although it's more a transcription of her BBC television series ca. 2015, nevertheless it merits a place on a short shelf of contemporary treatments of the so-called Celts, for whom we, after all, lack a better-suited term, centuries on.

[Matthew Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Disclaimer: I have a PhD in (Greek) Archaeology and thus, while I am generally unfamiliar with many of the specifics, I approach this book with a background in the subject matter. While I cannot detach this background from my review I can speculate on what I want to see in popular history/archaeology (and, spoiler alert, The Celts is largely it); ultimately, however, I have to admit that this book is not really for me, although I did enjoy reading it. Also, I read a paperback edition that does not appear to be on Goodreads, not the hardback edition to which this review is attached.

In The Celts: Search for a Civilization Alice Roberts sets out to explore the archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence for "the Celts" and to understand what it is that we mean by that designation of an ancient (and modern) people. She is very clear about the difficulties of building historical narratives from archaeological evidence and the historical writings of completely different civilizations, difficulties that are well-known among archaeologists and historians but that don't seem to get as much respect as they deserve in popular historical discussions. She never quite says "this is not the case", but rather "while this could be the case, it is a bit of a leap (based on the evidence) to say so". While this might sound like Roberts never come to any conclusions, she is actually very willing to nail her colours to the mast regarding which hypotheses about Celtic origins she believes. I am not certain that I agree with her, but she certainly presents the evidence in such a way that it is both possible to see where she is coming from and possible to disagree. As the evidence for 'Celiticity' presented in this book shows, it would be dubious to discuss the Celts in any other way. They are something of an enigma, and Roberts does not shy away from saying so.

It is really only the style of the writing that I find off-putting. At times, it is what I can only describe as bombastic, as if aiming to give a sense of drama somewhat undermined by Roberts' professional approach to the evidence. It feels like it was inadequately adapted from the television series, where one might back such statements with swelling music and stunning visuals, to the book, where one does not. Similarly, Roberts describes certain meetings with archaeologists and discussions about their research in a way which might have narrated the video of her doing so in the show. Personally, I found this style a little off-putting to read, and would have preferred it to be more adapted to non-fiction book (i.e. not presented in dialogue). But I recognize that this preference is a personal one, and it might be much more welcoming to others than pages of text with references.

From an academic perspective, I have a few problems with Roberts' methodology, in that she never quite establishes how one identifies ethnicity archaeologically, particularly when it comes to ethnicity as a personal identity. That is to say that, while the book discusses at length markers that we might use, problematizes the evidence available, and ultimately settles on language as the central aspect of Celtic identity, Roberts does not delve very deeply into the question of how to understand 'Celticity' as a feature one attributes to oneself, as an identity that brings Gauls, Britons, and Galatians together (indeed, she even suggests that it does not), as opposed to something ascribed by others (whether contemporary or modern historians) or described by others (e.g. Caesar writes that the Gauls called themselves Celts, but does not establish how far the Gauls use this identity to link themselves to other groups). It is also, I would argue, a little dismissive of Tacitus to describe his work as 'propaganda' for the Roman elite, as fair a description as that may be of Caesar's works. Roberts' approach to the Mediterranean 'empires' is perhaps the weakest part of the evidence in the book, as she persistently refers to the 'Greek empire', which is not an historical entity. The 'Greeks' - almost as contentious a term as 'the Celts', if we are honest - were politically disparate for much of the period under discussion, and their regional and civic identities might actually provide a good parallel for the disparate, changing location and identity of the Celts.

But it is not the Greeks but the Celts who are under discussion, and Roberts goes into great detail about major evidence spanning centuries and a whole continent. Given that the book is quite short, she does so admirably and interestingly. I will certainly be delving into the further reading at some point. Furthermore, Roberts' openness about certain aspects of her methodology - and archaeological methodology in general - is exactly what popular archaeology (and history) requires. She admits where she moves from solid to speculative evidence, is unconvinced by certain evidence, and allows for others to disagree with her. She anticipates many (fair) criticisms of her work, aptly displaying how archaeology and history should work: debate, discussion, disagreement - but amicably. It is largely only those who hold too strongly to their ideas and will not be challenged that are the problem in historical studies.

In The Celts Roberts offers an interesting perspective on Celtic identity through antiquity to today. While I may not completely agree with her findings, I understand and respect her position on the evidence. I am also impressed that, in her "further reading", she anticipates the areas in which i disagree with her and provides a reference for an alternative viewpoint. It is good-natured scholarship that is very much what I would like the public to read about our discipline.

[Lian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not often that I devour nonfiction as fast as I do fiction: I thoroughly enjoyed the writing and the exploration of archeological evidence. But I do feel conflicted, as Alice Roberts remains cautious and careful about all theories and conclusions (rightly so), till the end, when she falls for the 'Celtic from the West' theory.
This new hypothesis about the origins of the Celts sounds exciting - but is highly controversial and is based on just as many flawed arguments as the original Celtic-homeland-in-central-Europe theory. Her statement at the end, that the Celts have the last word because Celtic is still spoken and Latin isn't, was almost painful because that's just not how language works. For example, French is just as much a further-developed version of Latin as much as Irish Gaelic is a futher-developed version of Proto-Celtic. So.. the statement just plain wrong.
For a book that focuses on archaeology in the first 90%, it's a shame that it ends on the acceptance of a theory that is based on linguistic arguments (and in my opinion and a lot of Celticists' opinions - weak arguments).

[Cíara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was written to go with a documentary. Leaves a lot to be desired. Focuses on one specific theory and not much else. Good book just not a good theory.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epic. I loved all the maps. I need to look up where the Pontes are.
I enjoyed finding out about the people's of the ancient world. They are mysterious. Roberts writing about Greeks and Romans who wrote about the Celts, was intriguing, with a few new names.
The Chapter about Celtic Myths held Cu Culainne but also a prince who had not come into all of the tales I've read, and a lot of Welsh myths. Flame Tree Studios has King Arthur myths.
I will be able to reread this book, attempting to pronounce all of the names in italics.
I loved learning about Beaker people, Hallstatt, Urnfield culture and Gallic. I also learnt about La Tene and three periods of Celtic, the Marneian was detailed.
This is my first ancient culture history book 😀❤️

[Olivia Ransom · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a great book, specifically for those who are very interested in archeology and anthropology, not my thing, but the writer/ researcher has my full admiration for all work and investigations done.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesring look at the evidence, but these 'celts' and the 'druids' didn't exist. The only accounts we have of them are by outsiders who didn't understand them. They are not terms used in modem archaeology, it is better to study these people without labels and prejudice.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have Western European ancestry, odds are strong that you have some Celtic ancestry in there. Who are the Celts? What can we know about them?

Alice Roberts wrote The Celts: Search for a Civilization as a companion book to her BBC2 television three-part series The Celts: Blood, Iron, and Sacrifice (https://youtu.be/zA-itb5NwDU?si=gTOPn... ; not the greatest quality, caveat emptor). I read the book and then watched the series, and feel as if both prove helpful and beneficial, and in that order.

The reason why the television series proves important involves the Celts and the nature of the evidence: they did not leave us with a collection of texts. We have some stories and myths from the British and Irish Isles which were written down far later but seem to preserve some of the Celtic stories, and that which was written about the Celts, primarily by the Greeks and Romans who encountered them. Most of what we know from the Celts themselves comes as a result of archaeological explorations: sites and burials. Thus, the visual medium proves very helpful in getting a good mental picture of what we can know about the Celts.

The television series, understandably according to the nature of the medium, is more straightforward in its presentation. Each episode is framed by one of the three great battles between Rome and Celtic people: Brennus and the Celtic defeat and destruction of Rome in 387 BCE; Julius Caesar defeating Vercingetorix at Alesia in modern-day France in 52 BCE; Boudica’s revolt and its violent suppression in Britain in 60 or 61 CE. All of the various sites and discoveries which are profiled in the book are presented, although in different orders: the Hallstatt salt mines, the fort at Heuneburg, the Hochdorf Prince, torcs of the Snettisham Hoard, evidence of La Tène and the La Tène culture, the Tartessian inscriptions of the 8th century BCE, the Celtic dispersion into Galatia and the evidence at Gordion, the “Dying Gaul” and the Vachères Warrior, the Gunderstrup Cauldron, the Glauberg Warrior, the Bettebühl Princess, bog people and possible sacrifice of kings by the Druids, and the like.

The show presents all of this data and these discoveries and suggests almost a seamless whole: the Celts as people sharing a language family spread across Portugal, Spain, France, Great Britain, Ireland, the Alpine regions of Switzerland, Italy, and Austria, and parts of southern Germany at least, from at least 800 BCE and the end of the European Bronze Age and enduring, at least in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany, until modern times.

What seems confidently set forth in the television series is presented with a lot more apprehension and many more questions in the book. The same evidence is there: Greek and Roman narratives; archaeological discoveries; linguistic data; myths and stories which likely reflect at least some authentic Celtic memory.

The basic claim seems pretty audacious: since archaeological and DNA data do not suggest anything like the major disruptions in Western Europe as took place with the Yamnaya and the Corded Ware Culture of the early 3rd millennium BCE, and the Germanic and various steppe people migrations of the 1st millennium CE, most of what we understand as Western Europe was therefore populated by various tribes of people known to the Greeks and Romans as the Celts. Evidence of a Celtic language can be perceived in Tartessian inscriptions ca. 800 BCE in Portugal; Celtic languages persist in Brittany and the British and Irish Isles; and Celtic aspects of names can still be discerned in place names in Western Europe. To this end, whatever material culture remains are discovered in Western Europe from the Bronze and Iron Ages are thus associated with the Celts and as Celtic.

The Tartessian inscription evidence is fascinating and begs the question: if some people of Celtic heritage around 2700 years ago perceived some benefit in the idea of writing, and even worked to modify Phoenician to add vowels and suit their purposes, what happened? People deemed Celtic by the Greeks and Romans manifestly had interactions with Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans; the fort at Heuneburg featured a Phoenician style not otherwise in evidence in Western Europe. Thus they associated, to some degree, with people who wrote and had writing, and some of them even tinkered with writing. So why did they not develop their own writing system and write things down?

The question is live and active because these questions which arise about who the Celts are and how they would understand themselves will be nearly impossible to answer because we have so little evidence of anything in their own voice. We can note points of cultural and linguistic connections between the Iberian Peninsula and the British and Irish Isles; we can see the archaeological evidence from France and the Alpine regions of central Europe which come from places which will have people deemed Celtic. They all probably did speak an Indo-European language, and their languages might all have been in what we deem the Celtic family. We do know they lived in various tribes, and so ostensibly would have some points of cultural continuity but also discontinuity.

The book and the television series do well at presenting what evidence we have for the people who inhabited what we know as Western Europe from around 1000 BCE until the Roman conquest, and in many respects beyond. We know they were called the Celts, a term which seems to refer to “warriors,” and had tribal names and associations. They likely spoke languages in the same language family and perhaps remained mostly mutually intelligible. We know there were religious figures known as Druids but can only speculate about much of what “Celtic religion” would have been. We see significant material remains demanding significant cultural complexity, presenting undeniable evidence of civilization. But our understanding remains limited, and questions will remain live and open.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Possessing Celtic DNA originating from SW France I was attracted to read 'The Celts'. Unfortunately the heritage is shrouded through the mists and we are left largely with myth and legend. Alice Roberts, with yet another BBC series, has attempted to add some flesh to the ancient bones, however this seems to have been a leap too far into what is termed our prehistory to reveal much that is tangible. Although I enjoyed the journey through the Iron Age back into the Bronze, the narrative is inevitably filled with perhaps, possibly, if, impossible to know and suchlike.
However Roberts' text does frequently refer to Barry Cunliffe's 'The Ancient Celts' & 'Britain Begins' which could be further reading to look out for.

[Per Granath · Rating 4 out of 5]

They are such a slippery bunch of have-beens those Celts, which make it so hard so hard to get anywhere with a book like this. Roberts obvious love of what she is doing helps a lot, when we are as always fed with the old Greek and Roman stories and dig through some old grave mounds. Nothing really amazing in the way of news, so far, but finally towards the end the new theories are allowed in. Celtic origin in the west. Interesting. And with modern science to back it up, it does look like the real story.

[Snicketts · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent overview of current Celtic theory that accompanies but outshines the BBC series. Roberts's style is readable and intelligent without being over-simplified. She is politely sceptic in some areas and slightly over-enthusiastic in others but her conclusions on the concept of what 'Celtic' really is are well thought out and persuasive.

[Steve's Book Stuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL/DR: Roberts writes well and draws us into the stories of ancient Europe, and the stories themselves are pretty fascinating. But the fragments of pre-history aren’t conclusive enough to piece together into a fuller understanding of “the Celts”, and in the end there’s a bit of a letdown realizing how much is really unknown. The framing of the book seems to me to be aimed at a UK and Irish audience who may be invested in the notion of their Celtic heritage. For other readers the book provides a fascinating tour of the highlights of what is known about prehistoric Europe.

************

In the early 1700’s Welch linguist Edward Lhuyd identified similarities between the native languages of Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany (northwestern France). He called this grouping of languages “Celtic”, drawing a connection to the Celts identified in ancient Greek and Roman stories. Lhuyd speculated that the variations in the local languages may represent waves of invasion from eastward in Europe and into the British Isles and Ireland. His work helped spark a modern interest in Celtic history, Celtic ancestry and also Celtic pride within the UK and Ireland.

In the mid-1800s archeologists in Austria began to study bodies being uncovered in and around the ancient salt mines near Hallstatt. Some amazing finds were made indicating that a relatively advanced culture had occupied the area in the early Iron Age, bringing wealth to the area through the mining and trading of salt. This culture was identified by archeologists as “Celtic”. Soon archeologists were affirming the theory of “waves of invasion” of peoples from the “Halstatt culture” westward across Europe.

Much of what is known about Europe before the Romans is fragmentary. The peoples who lived in Europe prior to Roman expansion left little in the way of written records. The Greeks and the Romans who encountered native European populations found their cultures strange, and in the Roman telling “barbaric”. The Romans themselves recorded an invasion in 390 BC of Rome itself by an army of Celts, before these barbarians were driven off again.

These are some of the fragments that Alice Roberts draws on in her journey across Europe in search of answers to the enigma of who exactly these ancient people were. Her book, published ten years ago, was a companion to a BBC series called “The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice”.

What you get from this book is a look at many of these fragments, which in and off themselves are really interesting, but which are very difficult to put into context or into anything we could think of as a history of the Celts.

The Celts as a tribe of people were identified by the Greeks as far back as the sixth century BC, but the extent of their lands is somewhat of a puzzle. The Greeks seem to believe they occupied a “wide expanse” across Europe. Celtic place names are found in many places across Europe, which may lend credence to that interpretation of the Greek accounts.

But whether a single people who called themselves Celts occupied a wide range of Europe, or whether a language spread among different peoples of different cultures as trade and technology spread across Europe is something we cannot know for sure.

Recent theories from linguistics suggest that Celtic as a language actually first arose among seafaring people along the western, Atlantic, coast of Europe, spreading from Portugal through Ireland and Great Britain, and later westward across Europe. This all seems to have happened as early as the Bronze Age. And yet, Celtic is considered an Indo-European language, related to Greek and Sanskrit, so how does an Indo-European language start so far west and then move back east?

Art tells another story. There are disconnects between the crafts and artwork found among early people identified by archeologists as “Celts”. Do these indicate different cultures speaking a common language? Or a common culture with regional differences? Do these people think of themselves as “Celts”?

The next to the last chapter of the book look at the myths we now think of as “Celtic” and relate to stories written down in the early medieval times (1000 years ago or more) documenting previously oral traditional stories of the Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Cornish. Among those are the stories of The Mabinogion, the earliest known Welch stories - a modern translation of which I reviewed here. I found this chapter a bit out of place - it didn’t seem to relate to the other parts of the book that focused on linguistics and archeology.

In the end, we don’t really have definitive answers to the enigma of the Celts. Different views of the limited evidence seem to point in different directions. Meanwhile, “Celtic” as an ancestry has become a source of pride among many modern Irish and UK residents, so that any new interpretation of that evidence about early Europe has ramifications not only for archeology and linguistics but for politics too.

[Georgia Swadling · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this !! i haven’t read anything so completely historical in ages i feel like and this hit all the right notes of feeling like a kid obsessed with tutankhamen or the romans or the ancient greeks all over again, complete with shiny gold objects, preserved burial sites and a piecing together of what life was like for humans that lived far into our history. plus there’s the added attraction that its history that feels significantly closer to home; especially as i read this curled up on my sofa in wales, where celtic language holds strong.
alice roberts did a fantastic job of sketching out all of the details she had at hand while being careful not to get caught up in fantasy. she allows us to join her in imagining these peoples lives, but reminds us it is, and likely will remain, imagination.
i was floored by her explanations about how uncertain the term ‘celt’ even is, she does a fantastic job of detailing why it’s so incorrect to think there was a single group of people that self defined as ‘celts’ with a clear culture and that what we think of as ‘celtic’ is actually huge range of cultures, peoples and places across a long range of time.
such a fun and interesting read, 10/10.

[John Newcomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting revealuation of the 19th Century view that the Celts came from Central Europe and invaded westward. It appears that a Celtic language was being spoken on the Algarve long before it reached Italy and Germany. Looking at the archaelogical records suggest we are unlikely to answer all of the questions about our Bronze and Iron Age Ancestors, but perhaps we shouldn't rely on Greek and Roman commentators who thought them barbarians, even if there may have been a bit of human sacrifice and occasional cannibalism!

[Cathryn Pattinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An understandable and interesting read of the ancient people we call the Celts. The accurate analysis on their migration and influence over time throughout Europe - Bronze Age into Iron Age. How Celtic ideas, Atlantic Sea trading & settlements were the beginning of these people and their spread from the western edges of Europe. How their language & ideas had the biggest impact with the resulting languages today, from Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. The misconception that they were a warrior invading race. Twenty first century archeology proves this was not the case.

[Kacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting discussion of some of the many archaeological approaches to the concept of the 'Celts'.

[Veronique Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

They are not who you think they are, they don't come from where you think they did, they are not a tribe or a homogenous group, they travelled a greater amount of space over 100s of years than you believe. THEY are fascinating. I consider myself of their gene pool. Alice Roberts is a good and honest guide through the search for the Celts through history and geography. Love this book and it makes me want to read and learn more about them.

[G. Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, well written, informative, great pace and style. Highly recommended.

[Ryan Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good, opens up some interesting contemporary debates on the origin of the Celts.

[Budge Burgess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. The book of a TV series I haven't seen, it comes across too often as an "I'm a celebrity, I visited this archaeological site, I interviewed this museum curator, I talked to this archaeologist": I know what I expect from a TV series - visuals, a dynamic exposition of evidence, fairly concise analysis of salient points and controversial issues, the stimulus to look beyond or to go see.
What I expect from a book is in-depth analysis of evidence, clarity in the presentation of salient points and controversial issues, a presentation of argument and counter-argument stimulating enquiry, providing me with the material for further questioning and further research.
Roberts addresses questions of Celtic identity - are we looking at cultural, linguistic or ethnographic factors, are we attempting to make myths tangible ... we have virtually no written evidence left by the Iron Age peoples of Europe (except the Greeks and Romans), certainly none from the vast majority who constituted the lower classes of any Celtic society ... we have virtually no evidence of the political structure of Europe until long after the Romans withdraw from Britannia. There were no nation states, there were scores and scores of tribes and tribal groups, most of them illiterate and leaving no written record - we don't know who they were, when they were, where they came from or where they went, how they lived, what they thought, what languages they used.
Celtic identity remains an issue, a living political one, in what are now Scotland, Ireland, Wales ... and to a lesser extent in Cornwall, Britanny, northern Spain. Roberts barely touches on this - she does discuss the continued presence of Gaelic languages, but, throughout the book she refers to 'Britain' and 'British' without actually questioning these terms or recognising that they are every bit as problematic as the terms 'Celt' or 'Celtic'.
The Romans diod not 'conquer' Britain (though there are hundreds of books and articles which include the words "Roman conquest of Britain"). The Roman occupation only briefly extended into what is now Scotland, it held equally problematic sway over what are now Wales and Cornwall, was subject to raids all round the coast and, despite a relatively huge garrison, the Romans couldn't hold their province.
There was no such thing as 'Britain' when they arrived. They gave their province the name Britannia - an accurate English language collective description of the many diverse tribal peoples within their province might be 'Britannians'.
When they left, their former province seems to have reverted to its pre-invasion patchwork of autonomous tribes who would have had their own identities and who would clearly not have recognised themselves as 'British' (though that's the term almost universally used by historians - including Roberts). There would have been squabbles as local princes or bigwigs fought for control ... creating opportunities for others to exploit ... but we have no records of who they were or what they called themselves.
Come the subsequent wave of Anglo-Saxon invasions (or settlement), near contemporary historical records do refer to the Angles and Saxons having to fight indigenous (let's be controversial and call them Celtic) tribes ... but described by these historians when translated into modern English as 'Britons'!
So we have to distinguish between the Britannians - those people who lived under Roman rule; the 'British' - a global term used by contemporary historians to describe anyone living in what is now the UK, but probably not the Irish; and 'Britons' - predominently Welsh, but certainly indigenous people resisting the Anglo-Saxon invaders. 'Celtic' is not the only problematic term, Roberts, however, has no problem using 'British', etc.
In fact, it's only in the last few pages of the book that she even mentions the DNA evidence which suggest three waves of settlement in these 'Celtic Isles' - one up through Spain, West of France, across Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and into Scotland (to use modern geography), one from France across the Celtic Channel into Southern England, one from the Low Countries into the Eastern counties. It would seem to indicate a degree of ethnic, linguistic and cultural division ... but then, border peoples the world over often speak several languages, either fluently or at least well enough to communicate and trade with neighbours.
Sorry - time I scuttled off to write my own book, but my conclusion remains that this one is disappointing.

[Veronika]

Interesting, engaging look at bronze to iron age celts. I felt It was not bias, and open to new ideas. I enjoyed the book, and found the author to be skilled narrator.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about Alice Robert's search for the Celts - who they were, their history, their culture, their art and technology. The author also takes a look at how much the current understanding of the Celtic World has changed in the past decade. For us to understand why our views of the Celts have changed so drastically, Roberts explores the archaeological discoveries, the ancient histories and new linguistic evidence.

Roberts traces the movement of Celtic tribes in central Europe, Asia Minor, and the western Atlantic fringe of Europe, Britain, Ireland, France and Iberia. The author starts her search for the Celts in central Europe with the discovery of the "Hochdorf Prince' in south-west Germany. The grave goods of this discovery are examined in light of the local and Mediterranean trade networks and an examination of the relevant ancient texts. The author then moves on to the archaeological discoveries of the Halstatt salt mines near Saltzbug, Austria and then onto the Celtic city of Heuneburg and the discovery of the "Bettelbuhl Princess" in southern Germany. (Who knew the Celts had large cities!!) These finds suggests that large, complex societies with a need for international resources were flourishing in central Europe during the Bronze and Iron Age. This is in contradiction to the usual assessment of impoverished barbarians eecking out a living beyond the Roman borders. The evidence of large population movements of people (or lack thereof) and ideas in Iron Age Europe is assessed. The book includes a brief history of the clashes that occur between the Celts and the Romans. The Urnfield, Halstatt and La Tene cultures are examined in light of new archaeological and linguistic evidence that has been discovered on the Iberian Peninsula. A relatively new hypothesis suggests that the Celtic language might have developed from a branch of Indo-European in the western Mediterranean, flowed north into the Atlantic zone (western sea board and the British Isles) and later spreading back east into central Europe (via traders, metal-smiths and other craftspeople). While this hypothesis is still disputed, it does make for interesting reading and an update to the previous books I've read on the subject.

Alice Roberts takes a brief look at the myths and religious practices of the Celts as illustrated by archaeological findings (e.g. bog bodies, possible human sacrifices, druids), but this is not covered in any depth. The author made much of the fancy jewelry found in archaeological sites, but I was rather disappointed that the author didn't mention anything about Celtic technology, except a few comments about metal-smithing. There was no mention of such things as:
their farming methods, especially their harvesting machine (http://www.gnrtr.com/Generator.html?p... or
their road building (http://www.ancestraljourneys.org/earl... or
the Celtic Coligny calendar (http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifa...).

The author provides books and articles for further reading, but there is no extensive reference list/bibliography which is unusual and rather annoying in a non-fiction book. This lack of proper referencing and tying the text to a reference seems to be a bad habit that has appeared in the latest batch of popular non-fiction. I sincerely hope this erratic referencing fad has a short life.

The book is a well written, current and interesting examination of who the Celts were, how they lived, and their interaction with the rest of the world. The book includes maps were relevant and two sections of colour photographs. Alice Roberts differentiates between fact and speculation, and also keeps all personal anecdotes to a minimum. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the Celts. This book would also work very well as an introductory text to the subject, as it is neither complicated or boring, and has something of the flavour of a detective novel.

[Per Granath · Rating 4 out of 5]

They are such a slippery bunch of have-beens those Celts, which make it so hard so hard to get anywhere with a book like this. Roberts obvious love of what she is doing helps a lot, when we are as always fed with the old Greek and Roman stories and dig through some old grave mounds. Nothing really amazing in the way of news, so far, but finally towards the end the new theories are allowed in. Celtic origin in the west. Interesting. And with modern science to back it up, it does look like the real story.

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting and well written introduction to the Celts. Thought the author puts forward some of her own ideas this is not original research and more about pulling together all the current thinking and archaeological discoveries connected with the Celts. In my ignorance I had thought the Celts were confined to Britain but as I soon realised from reading this book they actually came from Europe and possibly from Portugal and Spain originally.

The author describes what we know about the way the Celts lived and how they fought in times of war. She describes their jewellery and their chariots. The fine workmanship on gold jewellery which has been discovered both in Britain and Europe shows that they had a high level of craftsmanship and were not the barbarians that Roman writers generally depict.

The problem with trying to establish an accurate picture of the Celts and the way they lived is that much of the information about them comes from Roman writers and they had a vested interest in portraying them as savages living in mud huts and painting themselves with woad. Good fighters but not much more. But there was more to the Celts than this and it seems that they may have been around for a lot longer than was originally thought.

This book brought the Celts to life for me. It contains some suggestions for further reading if your interest has been awakened and you want to know more about these fascinating people.