Romanian History and Culture

 http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/Power2the1/69676.jpg

http://www.unc.edu/celtic/images/216662.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7S-0oWrx8aQ/R3-DQXBgEaI/AAAAAAAAAFs/CY5zJX0JH7E/s1600/ciumesti-wxl7o.jpg

Helmet

Chieftain's Tomb
Ciumesti, Romania
3rd century B. C.
Iron and Bronze
25cm h.
Bucharest, Muzeul National de Istorie

One of the most interesting pieces in Celtic art is this helmet that is mounted, like a perch by a bird of prey whose wings actually flap when met by wind.  The cap of the helmet is made of iron and was roughly caste, which gives it a very interesting appearance in the presence of light. There are several raised circular areas around the helmet in the middle and along the rim that are almost spiral.  A small rear flap adorns the back third of the helmet.  The body of the helmet comes together to a point that is attached to a small round perch that the bronze bird of prey clutches to.  The legs are smooth, and gradually widen into the belly.  The entire body of the bird is pressed into a design that resembles a turtle shell.  On each side are hinges that attach the wings, which are long smooth pieces of bronze with blue enameled tips.  The tail is also composed of similar bronze sheets.  The head is a small round shape and is characterized by walnut-shaped, red enamel eyes and a blue enameled beak that resembles a two piece crystal.  This helmet was found in what is believed to be the funerary tomb of a Celtic chieftain.  Though it was found in a funerary context, helmets such as this one were actually used in combat.

On their heads they wear bronze helmets which possess projecting figures lending the appearance of enormous stature to the wearer.  In some cases, horns form one piece with the helmet while in other cases it is the relief figures or the foreparts of birds or quadrupeds.

-Diodorus Siculus
   

• Bompiani, pp. 382, 383
• Green, pp. 101, 102
  http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/cultural-history-of-ireland/celtic-art-waldalgesheim-style.htm

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_T%C3%A8ne_culture}

The Celts were a member of an early Indo-European people who from the 2nd millennium BC to the 1st century BC spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia and were in part absorbed into the Roman Empire as Britons, Gauls, Boii, Galatians, and Celtiberians. In Asia Minor they founded the kingdom of Galatia. St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians in the New Testament is addressed to the descendants of these Celts. In Britain, Celtic warriors overran and conquered the islands. Linguistically they survive in the modern Celtic speakers of Ireland, Highland Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, and Brittany.

http://mattyusha.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/razboinic.jpg?w=514&h=325

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?122736-Preview-The-Getai&p=2053221708&viewfull=1

 Sinaia, plaque 61 at  dr@cones

 ^{Towards East, a movement of Celts population so powerful as those who invested North Italy, starts in Vth BC, for control of Amber Road. Decisive expedition takes place in IVth century, on the same principle of the sacred spring. Coming from Black Forest and following up Danube's banks, especially the left, they are stopped by an Illyrian tribe : Antariates. These wars last fifty years and Celts, having conquered them, towards - 310, settle on their place.}

^{Macedonian empire stands in their way and Celts go back up towards Transylvania. The Dacians developed fortresses with embankments and stone walls in the 3rd  B.C. as defense against the Celts.}

^{Dacian King Rubobostes, ended the Celtic domination in Transylvania.}

^{They serve as mercenaries for Denys of Syracuse or Philippe II of Macedonia and, towards - 335, they meet Alexander the Great who concludes a friendship's treaty with them.}

^{Celts melt the "principality" of Scordisques and Singidunum which will become Belgrade. At the beginning of 3rd century, Celts throw an offensive towards the Macedonia which knows difficulties then.}

^{A first try of penetration in Thrace is a failure in - 298. Big offensive against the Macedonia starts - there 280.}

 ^{Muzen der Kelten-  Dacian and Celtic Imitations of Republican Denarii
Dacia and Thrace}

^{Tribes in Thrace before the Roman period.}

^{This list includes tribes parts of which migrated to Dacia and Thrace.}

• ^{Serdi [2] [3]}
• ^{Scordisci [4]}
• ^{Gauls of Tylis [5]}
• ^{Bastarnae,[6] [7] Celtic or Germanic, and according to Livy "the bravest nation on earth"}
• ^{Teuriscii, Celts assimilated by Dacians[8]}
• ^{Anartoi, Celts assimilated by Dacians[8]}
• ^{Boii [9]}
• ^{Eravisci [9]}

 Strabo,Geography(7.5.2),"A part of this country was laid waste by the Dacians when they subdued the Boii and Taurisci, Celtic tribes under the rule of Critasirus"

Celts and the Classical World by David Rankin,ISBN 0-415-15090-6,1996,page 189: "... and destroyed it. According to Polybius, the last of the kings of Tylis, Cavarus, was a man of magnanimity and regal character (8.24). ..."

The Ancient Celts by Barry Cunliffe,ISBN 0-14-025422-6,2000,page 86: "... distinguished suggests that one of the returning groups, led by Bathanatos, finally settled in the Middle Danube region at the confluence ..."

The Celts - a History, by Daithi O HOgain,ISBN 1-905172-20-6,2006,page 60,"... those who, on their return from Greece under their leader Bathanatos, had settled at the confluence of the Danube and the ..."

 ^{http://miltiade.pagesperso-orange.fr/GB/celtic_civilization.html}

Paulina Poleska:Celtic Pottery Workshop in the Settlement of Kraków-Pleszów (Site 20)

 Elements of the Dacian pottery, i.e. some characteristic shapes and decoration appeared in the 1st century BC within almost the whole zone of the Carpathian Basin. The relevant literature claims that the Púchov culture was the indirect link enabling the import of such designs and decoration by the Tyniec group (Woźniak 1990, 56, 76; Madyda-Legutko 1996, 65). This process may have been initiated by Celtic centres (Celtic and Dacian) from the area of the central section of the River Danube, directly, and most likely through the Zemplin centre in eastern Slovakia, and this phenomenon occurred also when new ceramic production centres were set up (Točik 1959; Pieta 1982, 103n.; Woźniak 1990, 79). Another solid argument to support this thesis is the assemblage of Kraków-Pleszów 20, where beside a series of wheel-made painted pottery which is probably production waste from a local workshop, an unusually abundant collection of pottery of the Dacian type and pieces of an early terra sigillata vessel have been found. It is thus no coincidence that other finds of early pottery imported from the South come from Devin from the youngest layers of the oppidum in Bratislava and Budapest. 

This book chronicles the Celtic expansion throughout Europe beginning in the fourth century BCE; their creation of magnificent objects of bronze and gold; and what can be learned of them from the accounts by Roman historians and from archeological findings. Chapters: Birth of a Warrior Aristocracy, First Celtic Princes, All-Conquering Celts, Celts Against the Might of Rome, Realms of Religion, and Celtic Memories.

The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture (ca. 800-450 BC), named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria.^[2] By the later La Tène period (ca. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest), this Celtic culture had expanded over a wide range of regions, whether by diffusion or migration: to the British Isles (Insular Celts), the Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians, Celtici ), much of Central Europe, (Gauls) and following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC as far east as central Anatolia (Galatians).^[3]

Diachronic distribution of Celtic peoples:
     core Hallstatt territory, by the 6th century BC      maximal Celtic expansion, by 275 BC      Lusitanian area of Iberia where Celtic presence is uncertain      the "six Celtic nations" which retained significant numbers of Celtic speakers into the Early Modern period      areas where Celtic languages remain widely spoken today

The Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the La Tène culture of central Europe, and during the final stages of the Iron Age gradually transformed into the explicitly Celtic culture of early historical times. Celtic river-names are found in great numbers around the upper reaches of the Danube and Rhine, which led many Celtic scholars to place the ethnogenesis of the Celts in this area.

 Eastward expansion

Further south, Celts settled in Thrace (Bulgaria), which they ruled for over a century, and Anatolia, where they settled as the Galatians (see also: Gallic Invasion of Greece). Despite their geographical isolation from the rest of the Celtic world, the Galatians maintained their Celtic language for at least seven hundred years. St Jerome, who visited Ancyra (modern-day Ankara) in 373 AD, likened their language to that of the Treveri of northern Gaul.

The Boii tribe gave their name to Bohemia and Bologna, and Celtic artefacts and cemeteries have been discovered further east in what is now Poland and Slovakia. A celtic coin (Biatec) from Bratislava's mint is displayed on today's Slovak 5 crown coin.

As there is no archaeological evidence for large scale invasions in some of the other areas, one current school of thought holds that Celtic language and culture spread to those areas by contact rather than invasion^{[citation needed]}. However, the Celtic invasions of Italy and the expedition in Greece and western Anatolia, are well documented in Greek and Latin history.

There are records of Celtic mercenaries in Egypt serving the Ptolemies. Thousands were employed in 283-246 BC and they were also in service around 186 BC. They attempted to overthrow Ptolemy II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts

 At the beginning of the 2nd century BC, under the rule of Rubobostes, a Dacian king in present-day Transylvania, the Dacians' power in the Carpathian basin increased by defeating the Celts who previously held the power in the region.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia

  Gundestrup cauldron

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundestrup_cauldron

The Gundestrup cauldron is a richly-decorated silver vessel, thought to date to the 1st century BC, placing it into the late La Tène period.^[1] It was found in 1891 in a peat bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup, in the Aars parish in Himmerland, Denmark (56°49′N 9°33′E / 56.817°N 9.55°E / 56.817; 9.55). It is now housed at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.

The Gundestrup cauldron is the largest known example of European Iron Age silver work (diameter 69 cm, height 42 cm). The style and workmanship suggest Thracian origin, while the imagery seems Celtic. This has opened room for conflicting theories of Thracian vs. Gaulish origin of the cauldron. Taylor (1991) has suggested Thracian origin with influence by Indian iconography.

Origins

For many years scholars have interpreted the cauldron's images in terms of the Celtic pantheon. The antlered figure in plate A has been commonly identified as Cernunnos, and the figure holding the broken wheel in plate C is more tentatively thought to be Taranis. There is no consensus regarding other figures. The elephants depicted on plate B have been explained by some Celticists as a reference to Hannibal's crossing of the Alps.^[2]

The silverworking techniques used in the cauldron are unknown from the Celtic world, but are consistent with the renowned Thracian sheet-silver tradition; the scenes depicted are not distinctively Thracian, but certain elements of composition, decorative motifs and illustrated items (such as the shoelaces on the "Cernunnos" figure) identify it as Thracian work.^[3]

The silver in the cauldron cannot be tracked to an individual mine by lead isotope analysis, since the melted coins such artifacts are normally made of can originate in many mines. The variety of coin used has, however, been determined with some certainty, by careful analysis of weights: a total weight of 9445 grams was reconstructed for the entire cauldron, and 4255 grams for the bowl alone, and these were found to be nearly precise integer multiples of the weight of the Persian siglos, a coin weighing 5.67 grams. By this calculation 1,666 coins were used in total, 750 of them in the bowl. This supports an origin in Thrace, where Persian weights were in common use. The phalera base plate, added to the cauldron at a later date, also originated in Thrace.^[2]

Interpretation

The Gundestrup cauldron is the largest known example of European Iron Age silver work.

Despite the absence of any known tradition of sheet silver repoussé in Celtic Gaul or north-western Europe, the decorations on the walls of the cauldron have been widely identified with Celtic deities and rituals. The appearance of torques around the necks of some of the figures on the cauldron also suggest a connection with Celtic culture. Because of these, and because of the size of the vessel (diameter 69 cm, height 42 cm), it is said to have been used for initiatory or sacrificial^{[citation needed]} purposes in Celtic polytheism.

Bergquist and Taylor propose manufacture by a Thracian craftsman, possibly commissioned by the Celtic Scordisci and fallen into the hands of the Cimbri who invaded the Middle lower Danube in 120 BC. Olmsted interprets the iconography as a prototype of the Irish myth of the Táin Bó Cuailnge, associating the horned figure with Cú Chulainn rather than with Cernunnos.

Timothy Taylor theorises that Thracian silverworkers were an itinerant class (who he compares to present-day Rromani people) who were valued for magical and ritual services as well as for their metalworking (itself an important ritual occupation), and who, though living in southeastern Europe, would not have considered themselves Thracian. He suggests they may have been a feminised caste of men fulfilling functions of priesthood and seership, like the Enarees of Scythia and similar groups attested across Eurasia in the Iron Age. The figure on the cauldron typically identified with Cernunnos is unbearded, in contrast with all the other male figures, and the similar Mohenjo-Daro figure, though having male genitalia, is dressed in female clothes, his posture resembling a yogic posture for channeling sexual energy still used by a caste of Indian sorcerers.^[5] Taylor speculates that the "Cernunnos" figure, of ambiguous gender, may have been a deity of particular importance to the Thracian silverworking caste, part of a magical tradition common across Eurasia and still surviving in tantric yoga and Siberian shamanism.^[2]

La Dacie à l'époque celtique  by Pârvan, Vasil Read it at:

 http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/crai_0065-0536_1926_num_70_2_86873

http://prehistoire.e-monsite.com/rubrique,epoca-la-tene-i,1102173.html

The Dacian Stones Speak, By Paul Lachlan MacKendrick

 http://books.google.com/books?id=Lwt5Li_q2asC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=6

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/dragons/esp_sociopol_dragoncourt02_01.htm

The Society of the Living – the Community of the Dead
(from Neolithic to the Christian Era) 
 

An important raw material, amber was transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea, and Egypt thousands of years ago, and long after.

In Roman times, a main route ran south from the Baltic coast in Prussia through the land of the Boii (modern Czech Republic and Slovakia) to the head of the Adriatic Sea. The Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun had Baltic amber among his burial goods,^{[citation needed]} and amber was sent from the North Sea to the temple of Apollo at Delphi as an offering. From the Black Sea, trade could continue to Asia along the Silk Road, another ancient trade route.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts

Conflictele Geto-Dacilor cu Celţii

http://www.universulromanesc.com/ginta/showthread.php?t=13

Cea mai amplă invazie petrecută în spaţiul carpato-danubiano-pontic în secolele III-II î.e.n. a fost fără îndoială aceea a triburilor celtice. Din ţinuturile lor iniţiale de locuire - cursurile superioare ale Rinului şi Dunării - acestea s-au extins în toate direcţiile începând din secolul al VI-lea î.e.n. şi până la începutul secolului al III-lea î.e.n., când expansiunea lor a atins punctul culminant.

Triburile şi uniunile de triburi celtice au reuşit să invadeze un teritoriu imens, din insulele britanice până în Asia Mică.

Pătrunderea celţilor în spaţiul carpato-danubiano-pontic a avut loc pe mai multe direcţii, simultan sau consecutiv şi cu intensităţi diferite. Astfel, grupuri importante venite dinspre centrul Europei au invadat în cea de-a doua jumătate a secolului al IV-lea î.e.n. zonele de câmpie dintre Tisa şi Carpatii Apuseni, scurgându-se apoi prin văile Mureşului şi Someşului în spaţiul intracarpatic, unde au ocupat terenuri mai fertile.

Este posibil ca celtii pătrunşi aici să fi aparţinut puternicului grup tribal al anarţilor, aşa cum rezultă din unele texte antice mai târzii. Alte grupuri au înaintat dinspre sud, din Peninsula Balcanică.

În momentul invaziei lor pe teritoriile geto-dace amintite mai sus celţii se aflau la apogeul democraţiei militare. Buni agricultori, crescători de vite şi meşteşugari - cultura La Tene celtică a influenţat, în unele cazuri puternic, zone întinse pe continentul european -, ei erau, totodată, excelenţi luptători. Armamentul lor, făcut îndeobşte din fier, era foarte variat şi caracteristic acestei populaţii războinice. În prima fază invaziile celţilor aveau un caracter extrem de distrugător. Deşi adeseori erau inferiori din punct de vedere numeric populaţiilor băştinaşe, ei reuşeau să le înfrângă prin atacuri fulgerătoare, soldate cu masacre, jafuri şi devastări ce aveau şi un puternic impact psihologic asupra adversarilor potenţiali.

"Ei - scrie Trogus Pompeius referitor la celţi, pe care îi numeşte însă galii - sunt un neam de oameni aspri, îndrăzneţi şi războinici, care au trecut peste culmile nepătrunse ale Alpilor şi prin locuri inaccesibile din pricina frigului [... ] însuşi numele de galii inspira atâta groază încât chiar regii care nu erau atacaţi de ei le cumpărau pacea, din proprie iniţiativă, cu un preţ foarte mare" (Trogus Pompeius, XXIV, 4, 4-7).

Dar, într-o fază ulterioară, atunci când se fixau mai îndelung pe anumite teritorii, celţii începeau să dezvolte relaţii mai paşnice cu autohtonii, cărora le impuneau plata unui tribut şi, fireşte, alte obligaţii de ordin economic şi politic.

O desfăşurare asemănătoare au avut invaziile celţilor şi în teritoriile geto-dace. Violenţa pătrunderii lor este atestată arheologic, pe de o parte, de distrugerea aşezărilor în care populaţia locală li s-a opus, iar pe de altă parte, de mormintele de luptători celţi descoperite până acum, ceea ce demonstrează că relaţiile cu geto-dacii nu au avut în nici un caz un caracter paşnic. Mai frecvent în inventarul mormintelor apar vârfurile de lance, săbiile şi cuţitele de luptă, nu lipsesc, însă, nici coifurile, zalele, cnemidele, zăbalele, carele de luptă, pumnalele etc..

Din luptele purtate de geto-daci împotriva celţilor se cunosc câteva detalii despre una singură, pe care o aminteşte lapidar Trogus Pompeius: "Brennus, conducătorul galiilor, plecase în Grecia, iar cei pe care îi lăsase să apere hotarele neamului lor, ca să nu pară că numai ei stau degeaba, au înarmat cincisprezece mii de pedestraşi şi trei mii de călăreţi, au pus pe fugă trupele geţilor şi ale triballilor şi, ameninţând Macedonia, au trimis soli la rege [Antigonos Gonatas], ca să-i ofere pacea pe bani şi totodată să spioneze tabăra regelui" (Trogus Pompeius, XXV, 1, 2-3).

Rezistenţa geto-dacilor trebuie să fi avut însă un caracter general, desfăşurându-se în toate zonele de penetraţie celtică şi având ca principal rezultat limitarea ariei de întindere a dominaţiei acestora.

Astfel, în zona sud-vestică asupra căreia celţii au exercitat o dublă presiune, dinspre nord, de pe culoarul Mureşului, şi dinspre sud-vest, uniunile de triburi geto-dace s-au dovedit suficient de puternice pentru a-şi apăra vatra de locuire; o enclavă celtică de durată se constată arheologic doar la Aradul Nou şi în câtevapuncte izolate de pătrundere a scordiscilor.

Destul de slabă a fost prezenţa celţilor şi pe teritoriul de la vest de Olt, unde o parte din vestigiile acestei populaţii sunt datorate, cu certitudine, nu unei locuiri efective, ci schimburilor economice întreţinute ulterior.

Chiar în interiorul arcului carpatic, unde şocul invaziei s-a resimţit mai violent, dominaţia celţilor nu s-a putut institui efectiv decât în zone de podiş şi câmpie, precum şi într-o singură depresiune, cea bistriţeană. Restul teritonului intracarpatic, cuprinzând regiunile muntoase şi deluroase în întregime, părţi din podiş şi câmpie, depresiunile (cu excepţia amintită), a fost menţinut ferm de băştinaşi; triburile şi uniunile de triburi geto-dace şi-au păstrat aici fortificaţiile din perioada anterioară şi au construit noi şi puternice cetăţi către linia de contact cu zonele ocupate de celţi.

Mai târziu, când între geto-daci şi celţi s-au dezvoltat relaţii de schimb, conflictele pierzându-şi din intensitate, în anumite cazuri s-a ajuns chiar la înţelegeri militare temporare spre a face faţă unor adversari comuni mai puternici. Astfel s-au petrecut, la un moment dat, lucrurile spre zonele illyre, unde geto-dacii s-au angajat alături de scordisci în acţiuni militare împotriva romanilor.

Se cunoaşte în acest sens, din relatarea lui Frontinus, un eveniment interesant din ultimul deceniu al secolului al II-lea î.e.n., când scordiscii aliaţi cu dacii au înfruntat trupele comandate de consulul Minucius Rufus, în anul 109 î.e.n. : "Fiind strâmtorat de către scordisci şi daci, care erau mai mulţi la număr, generalul Minucius Rufus l-a trimis înainte pe fratele său, şi în acelaşi timp câţiva călăreţi cu trâmbiţaşi, şi i-a poruncit ca, în clipa când va vedea angajată lupta, să apară pe neaşteptate din direcţia opusă şi să ordone ca trâmbiţaşii să sune din trâmbiţe. Deoarece răsunau culmile munţilor, s-a răspândit între duşmani impresia că au de-a face cu o mulţime imensă: îngroziţi de aceasta, au luat-o la fugă" (Frontinus, Stratagemata, II, 4, 3).

Pe măsură ce au acumulat forţe, triburile şi uniunile de triburi geto-dace din zonele înconjurătoare spaţiului supus autorităţii celţilor au început să exercite asupra acestora presiuni tot mai puternice în scopul eliberării teritoriilor care le aparţinuseră. Spre sfârşitul secolului al II-lea î.e.n. se constată că enclavele celtice dispuse în teritoriul de locuire geto-dacă intracarpatic au dispărut - fie lichidate prin violenţă, fie asimilate de populaţia autohtonă, în schimb, dominaţia celtă s-a prelungit în zonele dace mai îndepărtate de la vest şi nord-vest, precum şi la sud de Dunăre, de unde triburile boiilor, tauriscilor, scordiscilor, etc., efectuau dese incursiuni şi în alte ţinuturi.

Lichidarea primejdiei pe care o reprezentau acestea a devenit posibilă în prima jumătate a secolului I î.e.n., când unificarea politică a geto-dacilor sub conducerea regelui Burebista a asigurat concentrarea unui potenţial militar superior celui deţinut de adversari.

Preluat din : http://www.dracones.ro

Prezenta militara Geto-Daca in Dobrogea

^{Browsing Ancient Coinage of Danube}

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/celtic/danube/t.html