The Celts

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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. 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'! This is a very good introduction to the history of the Celts and I learned a lot through reading it. It explains how definitions of the Celts have been created and changed over time and explains how those interpretations have been influenced by various factors. I enjoyed reading about the evolution of the study of the Celts almost as much as I enjoyed finding out more about the Celts themselves. There are a few problems here, some of which is caused by the simple fact that Celts pretty much had their history described hundreds of years later, yup, by those victor enemies who insert a little promotion and propaganda (history is often written by the victors), and the Celt ruling class of Druids had a word of mouth communication for all their important 'laws'. So right from the off we're involved in conjecture. Roberts repeats, in fact she belabours the warnings that we cant assume this that or the other, but then does herself no favours by repeatedly referring to just a few contemporary sources for current theory. Yet at the end of the book we're provided a pretty good 'more reading' list? Why didn't she dip into it more? 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'.

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.Some chapters and facts get a little repetitive and the editors could have done a better job here, the cautiousness could still have been better combined with a more punchy delivery and that would have been a better read - but, that was never going to happen, remember we're with Alice and friends down at the snug bar discussing Celts. We end up being wiser for it and not lecture-room battered, so that's ok, thanks Alice.

However, there were several things that I found challenging about reading this book. The first thing I came up against was the expectations on the part of the author that the reader would already have a good grounding in ancient geography. I do not! And so I often found myself feeling a little lost as she referenced various towns, cities and regions of which I knew nothing. I think if I'd had a basic knowledge of the layout of the ancient world it would have been a more enjoyable read for me. Professor Roberts is scrupulous in being cautious but does succeed in letting us know who and what the Celts probably, not definitely, were without getting caught up in stereotypes (I think the on-trend Vikings probably suffer the same modern interpretations). 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.It loses a star for its clear bias for a theory that remains controversial. And it loses a star for the depth of the reporting. Instead of in-depth discussion we get paragraphs of questions and dismissals without argument ("I'm not convinced."). The worst comes at the end. The epilogue [SPOILER ALERT] includes a quote that Celtic is still spoken but Latin is not, which (her friend) declares "a triumph of sorts". This is an absurd statement given French, Italian, Spanish, Romania, and Portuguese are all descended from Latin in the same way Welsh, Irish, and Gaelic are descended from 4th Century Celtic languages. It should not have been included at all. 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''. A decent summary of the current views and controversies surrounding the study of Bronze-age and Iron-age Celts, their origins, and how they spread across Europe.