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22 The Celtic World – a history
lengthier written record. The Celtic languages, Continental Celtic and Insular Celtic, belong to the Indo-European language family and descend from a parent language variously called Proto-Celtic or Common Celtic. This is a hypothetical prehistoric language not attested in writing but reconstructed by identifying linguistic features that distinguish it from other Indo-European dialects. The Continental Celtic language family includes Gaulish in parts of France and surrounding territories (including modern day Belgium, most of Switzerland and parts of Germany), Celtiberian in Spain, and Lepontic (sometimes grouped with Gaulish as Cisalpine Celtic) in northern Italy. Gaulish is first documented in the second century BC in inscriptions written in Greek script on pottery, metal and stone. Invariably relatively short, they often just mention the name of a dead person or the owner of an object. The famous Coligny calendar and the inscriptions to Celtic deities (named as Cernunnos, Tarvos Trigaranos and Esus) on the Pilier des Nautes (the Pillar of the Boatmen) in Paris (figs 2.1 and 2.2) are other examples of Gallo-Latin work with a religious dimension. 7 Celtiberian is attested mainly in north-central Spain where several hundred inscriptions are known. From around the second century BC the Continental Celts appear on the stage of history with a measure of greater clarity. The names Keltoi used by a number of Greek writers and Celtae by some Romans appear to have been native words used on the Continent by Celtic speakers. Julius Caesar, writing in the first century BC in his De Bello Gallico stated ‘all Gaul ( Gallia ) is divided into three parts, one of which is inhabited by the Belgae, another by the Aquitanians and the third by those who are called Celts ( Celtae ) in their own tongue and Gauls ( Galli ) in ours’. The element Kelt- occurs in a few Greek compound names such as Keltolígues in north-western Italy and south-western Gaul, Keltíbēres in Spain, and Keltoskythai on the Black Sea. The evidence suggests that Keltoi was a native term once in use as a general designation of themselves by numerous Continental peoples stretching from Iberia in the west to the Black Sea and Anatolia in the east. Place-names, especially in western Europe, and numerous other proper names are further confirmation of the geographical presence of these Celts. Historically attested migrations were also a part of this remarkable picture. Movements of people into northern Italy from around 400 BC if not before, an attack on Delphi in Greece in 279 BC , and immigration into Anatolia in the third century BC are well-known examples. Crucially the Celtic language family was probably relatively undifferentiated in the last four centuries BC facilitating communication and conducive to a shared sense of ethnic identity. 8 This linguistic evidence in all its forms is highly important. In recent decades a number of English writers have claimed that the ancient Celts were never a cultural entity but are a construct of modern times. They have given particular and understandable emphasis to the archaeological diversity that is such a striking feature of the world of the Celtic-speaking peoples of the first millennium BC . However, they
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