THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE DRUIDS.

Ronnie Carleton © 2009-10-03

In this research I am dealing with the archaeology of the Druids and

evidence of such across the UK and Ireland but also in other parts of
Europe, the Near East and Asia.
It would seem that many people link directly druids to Ireland, Scotland
and Wales and nowhere else. I suggest that you keep an open mind for
the moment of The Druids and Celtic History and then later form your
own opinion, from an archaeology point of view.

PART ONE.

‘IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS;’

Total confusion, myth, fiction and of course everyone who wanted to be

a pagan also thought they could be a Druid as well. This new outbreak
of Paganism and of course linked by many to being a Druid was in itself
no surprise as the new brand of witchcraft shows in the last 30 years
that anyone can ‘do it’.
Of course 98% of people involved had little or no idea what being a druid
was but in fairness they were good at inventing their own agenda which
still goes on today, like Alien abduction and the UFO’s brigade of the
past who have been more than discredited.
When it comes down to fact and evidence they know nothing but once
archaeology and history take a hard look at the Druids, such followers
seem to know even less and do not like in your face evidence of what
was and is, not what they would like it to be.
This research is archaeology and history research, of what Druids were,
what they did, and what evidence they left behind them.
If we want to understand the Druids and what and who they were, we
first need to look hard at The Celts of who they were and where they
came from, the settlements and archaeology evidence as well as Celtic
art.
We people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall think, wrongly, that
we are a Celtic People even today. We are not in fact of pure Celtic blood
or even with a good DNA link to the Celts of old. If the truth be known
today’s ‘Celts’ are a blend of many past tribes and like a well known
brand of baked beans it would be impossible to match DNA to a true
race. The Isle of Man has its own blending also but DNA traces could be
traced to Ireland Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, France, Spain as well as Old
Saxon.
The massive gold hoard found in the Midlands in September 2009 may
not in fact be Saxon and I am off the opinion that is will be Celtic gold
and buried there by one raiding party or other in the past.
(Carleton 2009)

If one looks very closely at the design on the gold it suggests very
strongly ‘Celtic’.

Even so it is a massive find but not archaeology find by field workers.

That came later once they were on site and in the rush to retrieve any
gold left; the main evidence may well have been lost.
What needs now to happen is the interpretation of the art work and the
hidden clues within because they will be there. Symbols and signs often
suggest clues such as the inter-woven arms above.

THE CELTS.

WHO WERE THE CELTIC PEOPLE?

There is I should point out still much debate on this. I being Irish born,
my parents being Irish borne.
All my old family traces also being Irish born.
My Irish names being Ronan O’Carroll yet does that make me a Celt?

“Celts were a mix of Alpine and Nordic, part Beaker, part Battle Ax
mingled with Urn people. W Europe Celts pressured by northern
Teutonic tribes and eastern Illyrians moved to central England with the
Urn people who adopted their finer tools.”

Such a bold statement by another Author on Celtic History shows the

research here was not complete and much information has been left out.
Celts were a pronto historic people of central and Western Europe and
linked mainly to the early and later Iron Age. In 400 BC they invaded Italy
and sacked Rome, invaded Greece and Antatolia.
Long before Rome ever went out and conquered the known world of that
time, the Celtic speakers of Europe shared many close bonds, mainly
language, culture, art and customs.
They were to be found in Spain, France, and Southern Germany, in the
Alpine Lands, Bohemia, Italy, and Balkans and in middle Turkey.
(Anatolia)
There is evidence that the Romans and Greeks recorded them as
‘Barbarians’ and from an archaeology point of view they have left good
physical trace evidence behind. It has been modern archaeology of
course that has added to the knowledge of the Celts today, something
that the old ‘Classical writers’ left out and were also biased. Today we
know a good deal about Celtic society of the past and still making new
discoveries of their economy and ritual religions practices as well as
their working with metals, as well as gold.
Caesar, Polybius and Strabo’s writings however did help in the
archaeology understanding along with new archaeology discoveries
that have been made. Celts then turned out to be very intelligent,
complex and accomplished societies who helped shape Europe.
Though some of this may be true the migration of Celtic tribes from
Europe took a long time. There may well have been slight interchanges
during this migration with other tribal peoples be it in a war or trade.
The Celts can be traced back by their roots at least to 2500 BC and a
literate civilization well north of the Alps.
As time progressed they became known as ‘KELTOI and GALATAE’ by
the Greeks and ‘CELTAE and GALLI’ by the Romans and recorded as
such in text. The word ‘Celt’ therefore had never been used before this
and none of the Classical writers mentioned the word ‘Celt.’
The term Celt was very strictly used and referred to the tribes of Europe,
and by that I mean continental Europe, 2000 BC and as for the British
Isles and Ireland, the word ‘Celtic’ only came into play in the 1750’s into
the early 1800’s. This discovery was all to do with very early linguistics.

The problem here at that time that Gaulish and spoken at one time by
the ancient Gauls of France was found, though slowly, to be related to
the old Irish, and Scots gaelic, Welsh, Cornwall, and even to the Manx
language. A new name then was chosen: ‘Celtic’ for all the tribes of
people who spoke the language in its many forms.
This shows that Classical writing and history runs side by side of
archaeology today and both at times may cross over when looking for
clues and evidence of any culture, though here it is the Celts.
In my opinion we who work in the field of archaeology can say that the
Celts were a homogeneous family of peoples who were conscious of an
ethnic identity nor had any form of Empire.
Carleton © 2009-10-05

“Celts were fusion of Mediterranean, Alpine, Nordic strains including

dark Iberian and light hair. Archaeological evidence says they had
contact with Iberian Peninsula.”
The above statement above is true in part but confusing in its context.
(Carleton © 2009-10-05)

“True Celts were either Goidels (Gaels) in Northern Ireland and high
Scotland or Brythons /Britons in Wales; close in kin, especially the
Belgi. The religious Druids dominated all.”

Again this is another broad statement because the evidence lacking and
should be Iron Age Celts, the Roman Period, all documentary, linguistic
and archaeology evidence and as the Celts left very little ‘written’
language of their past. We can however look for place names and some
words in the old Classical texts. Some of the ancient Celtic languages
are long extinct as I discovered in parts of Spain or Gaul dialects and
only six, if even that, still exist.
We must therefore divide the two families into Q-Celtic or Goidelic and
P-Celtic or Brithonic. There is in fact, and my opinion holds fast on this,
that there is no such thing as “True Celts” and I suggest that there are
many affiliations to the Celtic language. I have laid out in a diagram
below to show that the language known as ‘Celtic’ has major affiliations
to the Indo-European language family.
Indo
European
Anatolian Latin Slavonic Germanic Armenian Tocharian
Greek IIIyrian Baltic Celtic Indo-
Iranian
Hispano- Gallic Lepontic Q-Celtic P-Celtic
celtic

Irish, Scots Welsh,Cornish

Manx Breton

(Carleton © 2009-10-05)

THE ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCE.

As far as the Celtic culture is concerned there is some very good

archaeology evidence and discoveries and I am sure will be more to add
to our knowledge, providing it is interpreted rightly and that
archaeologists don’t become biased like the Classical writers, which
sadly, sometimes can happen. Does not help with truth, fact or
knowledge if discovered ‘evidence’ is twisted to suit the aims of
someone’s research.

Archaeology on its own however can only give us part of the picture on
the canvas but for the most when it comes to the Celts most of the
discovered evidence points to fact. Putting therefore known and well
researched archaeology with well researched history on the Celts
should give us some idea of past life in the Celtic world.
It should be noted that the Celts were linked at some time to the Hallstatt
culture in Europe and the Iron Age. (Hallstatt was from late Bronze Age
and early Iron Age 1200-600 BC) and found in continental Europe. There
was two phases of the Hallstatt culture and these are A and B but with
the Iron Age beginning with phase C. The site on the shores of Lake
Hallstatt was in the west which is in the Austrian Alps and it is here that
at vast cemetery with 2000 graves were discovered in the Alpine Valley.
There was recorded both cremations and inhumations here along with
grave goods some of shows evidence of having being imported and
some local. Swords with amber and ivory pommels are a good example
which suggests trade with Africa and to the Baltic and local salt mines
in the Alpine area that suggests that salt was a source of ‘currency’ at
one time.
Around the same time, 500 BC> in the zone from the east of France to
Bohemia the new Celtic culture was born and named after the La Te’ne
archaeology site. By 400BC the La Te’ne Celts had moved in force over
the Alps and settled in the Po Valley and sacking Rome around 390BC>
with much bloodshed, looting and rape.
Other Celtic groups also migrated through the Balkans and into Greece
where they may have sacked Delphi in 279 BC. They also had a fixed
kingdom in Turkey (Galatia) This Celtic La Te’ne culture spread across
France, Spain and the British isles around 400BC and there is evidence
of art on metal work discovered at sites. Ireland therefore escaped the
Roman invaders and therefore had much to find and also to find about
the Celts. Ireland therefore had a cultural golden age from 600-800AD
and the Celtic tribes grew here, invaded other parts of British Isles.

End of Part 1

Ronnie Carleton © 2009-10-05